Arthropod Communities in Coffee: A Habitat Mimicking Tropical Forests
Traditional coffee plantations contain a high biodiversity of plants and animals including arthropods. The biodiversity is significantly reduced when the system is modernised. Generally, populations of harmful species such as phytophagous pests on coffee
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N.E. Thyagaraj, G.V. Manjunatha Reddy, S. Onkara Naik, and B. Doddabasappa
Abstract
Traditional coffee plantations contain a high biodiversity of plants and animals including arthropods. The biodiversity is significantly reduced when the system is modernised. Generally, populations of harmful species such as phytophagous pests on coffee are well regulated by the natural enemy complex consisting of parasites, parasitoids and predators which include arthropods, frogs, birds and small mammals. Long-term studies in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, South India and Latin American countries have revealed that abundance of arthropod and species richness is higher in shaded coffee ecosystems than non-shaded. It is observed that several dominant predator groups such as spiders; tiger beetles; coccinellids and pollinators such as honeybees, megachilids and Xylocopa; beetles and butterflies dwell in coffee plantations. Arthropods in association with microorganisms responsible for nutrient cycling, conditioning and aeration of soil also inhabit coffee-cultivated systems. Many millipedes and spiders are endemic to coffee plantations and contribute significantly to soil nutrients. Habitat loss, deterioration and fragmentation and chemical pollution are the leading factors causing significant biodiversity decline in coffee plantations. It can be generalised
N.E. Thyagaraj (*) Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Madenur, Hassan, Karnataka, India e-mail: [email protected] G.V.M. Reddy Department of Entomology, Central Coffee Research Institute, Coffee Research Station, Chikmagalur 577177, Karnataka, India S.O. Naik Division of Entomology and Nematology, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Hessaraghatta Lake Post, Bengaluru 560089, Karnataka, India B. Doddabasappa Department of Entomology, College of Horticulture, Kolar, Karnataka, India © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 A.K. Chakravarthy, S. Sridhara (eds.), Economic and Ecological Significance of Arthropods in Diversified Ecosystems, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1524-3_17
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that conservation efforts to preserve biological diversity in coffee-cultivated ecosystems should include traditional coffee plantations as conservation units. Keywords
Arthropod communities • Biodiversity • Conservation efforts • Traditional Coffee
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Introduction
Coffee has a history of over 400 years. In India, coffee was first introduced in Chikmagalur district by saint Baba Budan during 1600 A.D. However, it was not until late 1820s that commercial plantations came into existence in South India with British enterprise. Currently, coffee is chiefly grown in South India. In India the commercially chief species, viz. Arabica and Robusta, are cultivated in almost the same proportions. Coffee is cultivated under a carefully trained canopy of shade trees, which greatly influences the microclimate in the coffee ecosystem. Cultivated coffee farms work much like forests, providing habitat for beneficial insects, birds and nitrogen-fixing
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