Home garden coffee as a repository of epiphyte biodiversity in Ethiopia

To mitigate extinction of tropical forest biota, it is becoming increasingly important to focus on the role of agriculture‐dominated landscapes in preserving biodiversity. Previous studies have focused on the importance of native trees for improving forest species conservation in the agroecologica...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in ecology and the environment 2008-12, Vol.6 (10), p.524-528
Main Authors: Hylander, Kristoffer, Nemomissa, Sileshi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agroecology
agroecosystems
biodiversity
Biodiversity conservation
Bryopsida
Coffea arabica
epiphytes
extinction
Forest ecology
Home gardens
indigenous species
landscapes
Montane forests
Plants
Rain forests
Research Communications
Shade trees
Shrubs
Species
tropical forests
vascular plants
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Summary:To mitigate extinction of tropical forest biota, it is becoming increasingly important to focus on the role of agriculture‐dominated landscapes in preserving biodiversity. Previous studies have focused on the importance of native trees for improving forest species conservation in the agroecological matrix, but we show that a cultivated crop (coffee) may also be important. In Ethiopia, coffee's place of origin, home garden coffee shrubs functioned as a substrate for a large number of epiphytic rainforest bryophytes and vascular plants and were of the same or higher importance in terms of harboring forest biota than shade trees in the same system. Our results highlight the potential for shade‐coffee agroecosystems to serve as a conservation and restoration tool for both tree and shrub‐layer biodiversity in densely populated and heavily deforested regions.
ISSN:1540-9295
1540-9309
DOI:10.1890/080001