Cross-boundary subsidy cascades from oil palm degrade distant tropical forests

Matthew Scott Luskin (), Justin S. Brashares, Kalan Ickes, I-Fang Sun, Christine Fletcher, S. Joseph Wright and Matthew D. Potts
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Matthew Scott Luskin: Policy, and Management, University of California
Justin S. Brashares: Policy, and Management, University of California
Kalan Ickes: 132 Long Hall, Clemson University
I-Fang Sun: National Dong Hwa University
Christine Fletcher: Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM)
S. Joseph Wright: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Matthew D. Potts: Policy, and Management, University of California

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Native species that forage in farmland may increase their local abundances thereby affecting adjacent ecosystems within their landscape. We used two decades of ecological data from a protected primary rainforest in Malaysia to illutrate how subsidies from neighboring oil palm plantations triggered powerful secondary ‘cascading’ effects on natural habitats located >1.3 km away. We found (i) oil palm fruit drove 100-fold increases in crop-raiding native wild boar (Sus scrofa), (ii) wild boar used thousands of understory plants to construct birthing nests in the pristine forest interior, and (iii) nest building caused a 62% decline in forest tree sapling density over the 24-year study period. The long-term, landscape-scale indirect effects from agriculture suggest its full ecological footprint may be larger in extent than is currently recognized. Cross-boundary subsidy cascades may be widespread in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems and present significant conservation challenges.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01920-7

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