Riparian buffers made of mature oil palms have inconsistent impacts on oil palm ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Expansion of oil palm has caused widespread declines in biodiversity and changes in ecosystem functioning across the tropics. A major driver of these changes is loss of habitat heterogeneity as forests are converted into oil palm plantations. Therefore, one strategy to help support biodiversity and functioning in oil palm is to increase habitat heterogeneity, for instance, by retaining forested buffers around rivers when new plantations are established, or maintaining buffers made of mature oil palms ("mature palm buffers") when old plantations are replanted. While forested buffers are known to benefit oil palm systems, the impacts of mature palm buffers are less certain. In this study, we assessed the benefits of mature palm buffers, which were being passively restored (in this case, mean

SUBMITTER: Pashkevich MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9286838 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature