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Shades of green

Natural History, Oct, 2005 by Stephan Reebs

Coffee is grown in one of two ways: in open fields, an intensive enterprise that relies on fertilizers and pesticides, or in small, shaded plantations, where coffee plants often replace the bushes of a tropical-forest understory. Such shaded coffee plantations are widely regarded as ecologically friendly, because they tend to preserve the diversity and number of bats, birds, and insects that live in tree canopies.

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But don't mistake a shaded coffee plantation for an intact forest, warns Roger Guevara of the Institute of Ecology in Xalapa, Mexico. Below the canopy, differences abound. Obviously, the native bushes are gone, and understory-dwellers such as certain ants, birds, and frogs are already known to be adversely affected. Now Guevara's research shows that below-ground organisms may also take a hit. Working in the central part of the Mexican state of Veracruz, Guevara looked at fungi shaped like long, thin cords, which play an important role in decomposing woody debris and in preventing minerals from leaching away. He discovered that the fungi are smaller and about ten times less abundant in the plantations than they are in untouched forests. The cause seems to be the dry soils that result from the relatively open canopy. (Biological Conservation 125: 261-68, 2005)

Shades of green

Natural History, Oct, 2005 by Stephan Reebs

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