Ecosystem services trajectories in coffee agroforestry in Colombia over 40 years

Abstract

Agroforestry interventions may act as catalysts for ecosystem service development and changes in supply and therefore may rehabilitate degraded land. This study investigates the trajectories of ecosystem services in coffee systems with a different time since transition to agroforestry in Colombia, the interactions among ecosystem services, and the biotic and abiotic factors that explain them. Therefore, we study a chronosequence of agroforestry coffee farms, with 1–40 years since planting of shade trees. We found that aboveground carbon stock, habitat provisioning, timber volume and coffee bean quality followed positive asymptotic trajectories. Erosion control and pest control did not change over time. Coffee yield tended to decrease as the shade trees matured, but this was not significant. We found consistent positive relationships between carbon stock, erosion control and epiphyte richness. A trade-off between aboveground carbon stock and coffee yield was found for the first 10 years, while a positive relation between coffee yield and erosion control was found for the long term (10–20 years). Canopy cover best explained ecosystem service supply, but also farm agrochemical input management, altitude and slope influenced the supply. This study demonstrated that agroforestry can be used to rehabilitate ecosystem service supply.