caa a22 4500 605527652 CHVBK 20210128100809.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150801xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10531-015-0927-3 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10531-015-0927-3 Does agroforestry conserve trees? A comparison of tree species diversity between farmland and forest in mid-hills of central Himalaya [Elektronische Daten] [Lila Sharma, Ole Vetaas] The expansion and intensification of agriculture is a major driver of forest shrinkage and biodiversity loss, and the threat to biodiversity is projected to increase with increased population growth and food demand; therefore, food production with a minimal ecological footprint is an important development goal. Agroforestry, as practiced in the hilly populated agricultural landscape of the central Himalaya, reflects a scenario of land sharing with a balance in the trade-offs between forest management and tree protection/retention in private farmlands. We aim to assess whether agroforestry has contributed to conserving tree species diversity. We compare different measures of tree species diversity and trends in richness with elevation between farmland and forest using empirical data gathered from 1000 to 1800masl in the mid-hills of central Nepal. We find that farmlands are consistently richer in tree species than forest. Our analysis further reveals that in spite of many shared species between forest and farmland they are different in composition, due to differences in the relative abundance of shared species and the presence of unique species in each land use types. We shed light on the ecological and management-related drivers that enhance tree species richness in the populated farmlands. We highlight that an agricultural landscape can complement, but not necessarily substitute, the biodiversity conservation goal of protected areas by providing alternative habitats, refugia and landscape connectivity for floral and faunal species. We underscore that biodiversity conservation strategies and landscape planning should acknowledge the role of agroforestry in maintaining trees and associated biodiversity, and provisioning ecosystem services. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2015 Tree diversity nationallicence Farmland nationallicence Forest nationallicence Mid-hills nationallicence Conservation nationallicence Land sharing nationallicence Sharma Lila Department of Geography, University of Bergen, PO Box 7802, 5020, Bergen, Norway aut Vetaas Ole Department of Geography, University of Bergen, PO Box 7802, 5020, Bergen, Norway aut Biodiversity and Conservation Springer Netherlands 24/8(2015-08-01), 2047-2061 0960-3115 24:8<2047 2015 24 10531 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-015-0927-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-015-0927-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Sharma Lila Department of Geography, University of Bergen, PO Box 7802, 5020, Bergen, Norway aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Vetaas Ole Department of Geography, University of Bergen, PO Box 7802, 5020, Bergen, Norway aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Biodiversity and Conservation Springer Netherlands 24/8(2015-08-01), 2047-2061 0960-3115 24:8<2047 2015 24 10531