TY  - JOUR
AB  - Persistent uncertainty about the economic implications of agroforestry presents a significant barrier to adoption. Despite this, most research to date ignores the impact of uncertainty on land allocation decisions, with studies commonly relying on simplistic scenarios involving a dichotomous choice between switching entirely to agroforestry or retaining the status quo system. For a more realistic decision problem, we explored partial adoption choices by analysing how the performance of landscape portfolios under combined ecological and economic uncertainty changes when managers can incorporate two agroforestry alternatives (silvopasture and alley cropping) alongside existing land-use options. Drawing on published data from smallholders in Panama, we used robust optimisation of multiple objectives to allocate fractions of land area across six agroforestry and non-agroforestry land uses under a range of possible futures. We visualised trade-offs between uncertain ecological and economic benefits using robust Pareto frontiers. We found that neglecting uncertainty reduces the attractiveness of agroforestry. Instead, agroforestry became increasingly competitive as uncertainty grew, and incorporating it into landscape portfolios could mitigate trade-offs between ecological and economic objectives when the future is uncertain. At the same time, we argue that agroforestry-uncertainty relationships are multi-layered. Early-life information is largely missing, and discontinuous cash flows, deficiencies in modelling, and a lack of financial incentives contribute to the uncertainty of agroforestry land uses and their barriers to broader adoption under global change.
AU  - Knoke, T.*
AU  - Paul, C.*
AU  - Gosling, E.*
AU  - Reith, E.*
AU  - Annighöfer, P.*
AU  - Asseng, S.*
AU  - Bingham, L.*
AU  - Chmeliková, L.*
AU  - Frick, F.*
AU  - Hafner, B.D.*
AU  - Leonhardt, S.D.*
AU  - Menapace, L.*
AU  - Menzel, A.*
AU  - Sauer, J.*
AU  - Schloter, M.
AU  - Yu, K.*
AU  - Zarebanadkouki, M.*
AU  - Kollmann, J.*
AU  - von Lützow, M.*
C1  - 74916
C2  - 57656
TI  - When considering uncertainty, agroforestry can reduce trade-offs between economic and ecological benefits.
JO  - Agrofor. Syst.
VL  - 99
IS  - 5
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0167-4366
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Organic farming and agroforestry are considered as sustainable alternative agricultural practices for intensive agriculture. In a long-term field trial in Scheyern Germany, we evaluated the effects of 21-year organic farming and 4-year agroforestry (robinia and poplar) on microbial community and microbial residues. Microbial biomass and microbial community were determined by fumigation-extraction method and the analysis of phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA), respectively. Microbial residues were evaluated by the measurement of amino sugars. The results showed that organic farming had significantly positive effect on soil organic carbon (SOC) but that it tended to decrease microbial biomass C (MBC), PLFA functional guilds, muramic acid (MurN), and glucosamine (GlcN). Robinia system, however, significantly increased SOC and had the potential to enhance MBC, PLFA functional guilds especially Gram (+), but it tended to decrease MurN and GlcN, in comparison with poplar system. The hedgerow tree did not show significantly positive effect on SOC and microbial properties except the abundance of fungi and Gram (+) bacterial, after 4-year establishment period. The principal component analysis of the PLFA profile showed that in comparison with other investigated treatments, robinia system under organic farming had significantly a different microbial community structure. It also indicated tree species-specific effect on microbial community in the organic farming was stronger than that in the integrated farming. In summary, the short-term introduction of trees into an existing agricultural system will not substantially change the microbial biomass, but it has certain influence on the abundance of specific microbial groups in the hedgerow. Although organic farming did not show positive effect on overall microbial indices, we still see positive effect on SOC after 21-year organic farming and its additive effect with robinia on SOC in current study. We expect that alley-cropping agroforestry system that combines organic farming and robinia hedgerow has a great potential for sequestering SOC and developing sustainable agroecosystems with time.
AU  - Sun, H.
AU  - Koal, P.
AU  - Gerl, G.
AU  - Schroll, R.
AU  - Gattinger, A.*
AU  - Joergensen, R.G.*
AU  - Munch, J.-C.*
C1  - 49357
C2  - 41799
CY  - Dordrecht
SP  - 35-46
TI  - Microbial communities and residues in robinia- and poplar-based alley-cropping systems under organic and integrated management.
JO  - Agrofor. Syst.
VL  - 92
IS  - 1
PB  - Springer
PY  - 2018
SN  - 0167-4366
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Increases in the deposition of nitrogen affect biodiversity and the composition of natural vegetation. A significant amount of this nitrogen may originate not only from intensive agricultural and livestock farming, but also from wild ungulates whose abundance and area of distribution are currently increasing in the Iberian Peninsula. In this study we have estimated the abundance of two species of wild ungulates (red deer and wild boar) and the amount of nitrogen contained in their droppings and in the grass. We have also recorded the herbaceous community. The results show that the density of these ungulates is positively correlated to an increase in the grass nitrogen, which adversely affects the percentage of leguminosae in pastures. These results suggest that high densities of ungulates may be affecting plant communities by increasing the amount of nitrogen as a result the deposition of droppings. The current system of big game management should therefore be reviewed to make it compatible with the conservation of plant communities and small herbivore species that may be negatively affected by changes in pasture quality and quantity.
AU  - Carpio, A.J.*
AU  - Oteros, J.
AU  - Lora, A.*
AU  - Tortosa, F.S.*
C1  - 46531
C2  - 37738
CY  - Dordrecht
SP  - 637-644
TI  - Effects of the overabundance of wild ungulates on natural grassland in Southern Spain.
JO  - Agrofor. Syst.
VL  - 89
IS  - 4
PB  - Springer
PY  - 2015
SN  - 0167-4366
ER  -