Food webs can deliver win-win strategies for tropical agroforestry and biodiversity conservation

Abstract

Balancing biodiversity conservation and agricultural productivity is commonly regarded as a trade-off, but such analyses overlook ecosystem services that functional biodiverse communities provide in agroecosystems, and the possibility that win-win strategies may exist. We developed a dynamic mechanistic community model of the bird-insect food web associated with African cocoa agroforestry, structurally informed by metabarcoding data on bird diets, and fitted to trapping data on species abundances. We used the model to predict equilibrium community composition under varying intensities of shade management and pesticide use. Our results indicate that low-intensity farming favours forest bird species, and potential pollinator abundance, with no increase in pest biomass. Furthermore, using simulations of pesticide application, we found that pesticides do not effectively reduce pest biomass, and result in forest bird extinction. Our mechanistic framework combines the influence of management and the direct and indirect effects of species interactions, and demonstrates that low intensity agriculture may provide a win-win for biodiversity and ecosystem services.