SFB 990:  Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (Sumatra, Indonesia)

• Subject Area: Biology ; Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine ; Humanities ; Geosciences ; Medicine ; Social and Behavioural Sciences
• Term: from 2012 to 2023
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 192626868

In many tropical areas, rainforests are cleared in order to exploit timber and other forest products and plant crops for food, feed, fibre and fuel use. Commonly it is assumed that, when natural forests are cleared, all forest functions and services are lost. However, complete conservation is not realistic in many settings and might not be required from an ecological perspective. Surprisingly, the determinants of different patterns of deforestation and the roles of converted systems of tropical rainforests for conserving biodiversity as well as for ecological and socioeconomic functions so far have received little attention in scientific research. The Collaborative Research Centre 990 (CRC 990 / EFForTS) aims at providing science-based knowledge on how to protect and enhance the ecological functions of tropical forests and agricultural land-use systems at a landscape scale, while improving human welfare. The CRC aims at providing information on how to integrate agricultural land use and conservation. It is implemented in one of the largest regions of tropical lowland rainforest in Southeast Asia, Jambi Province in Sumatra, Indonesia. The most important agricultural land-use systems in Jambi include rubber and oil palm plantations. Within Jambi, two landscapes and 24 core plots were selected for detailed analyses in Phases 1 and 2 of the CRC, covering agricultural land-use systems and forest reference sites. For Phase 3, 100 additional plots were selected on which ecosystem characteristics are measured by rapid assessment tools for scaling-up the results to the landscape level. Further, in two experiments the effects of enrichment planting into oil palm plantations as well as different intensities of fertilizer and pesticide use are investigated. The parameters considered include above and below ground biodiversity, soil fertility, water, nutrient and greenhouse gas fluxes, as well as economic, social, cultural and political aspects related to rainforest conversion and follow-up land-use changes. A particular focus is on identifying synergies and trade-offs among and between the various ecological and socioeconomic functions, knowledge of which is an important precondition for designing and implementing more sustainable land-use systems. The CRC is organized in close cooperation between the University of Göttingen and partner institutions in Indonesia. It is a unique research undertaking on issues of lowland rainforest conversion with a broad interdisciplinary focus and landscape perspective.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Completed projects

• A01 - Long-term vegetation dynamics, plant phenology and plant-pollinator interactions in rainforest and rainforest transformations in central Sumatra (Project Head Behling, Hermann )
• A02 - Tree and palm water use characteristics in rainforest transformation systems (Project Head Hölscher, Dirk )
• A03 - Understanding land-atmosphere exchange processes in land-use transformation systems (Project Heads Knohl, Alexander ;  Panferov, Oleg )
• A04 - Stock, turnover and functions of carbon in heavily weathered soils under lowland rainforest transformation systems (Project Head Kuzyakov, Yakov )
• A05 - Optimizing nutrient management in oil palm plantations and upscaling greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes from plot to a rainforest-transformation landscape (Project Heads Corre, Marife D. ;  Veldkamp, Edzo )
• A07 - Spatio-temporal scaling of the impacts of land-use and climate change in land transformation systems in Indonesia (Project Heads Knohl, Alexander ;  Veldkamp, Edzo )
• B01 - Structure, stability and functioning of macro-invertebrate communities in rainforest transformation systems in Sumatra (Indonesia) (Project Head Brose, Ulrich )
• B02 - Impact of rainforest transformation on phylogenetic and functional diversity of soil prokaryotic communities in Sumatra (Indonesia) (Project Head Daniel, Rolf )
• B03 - Plant genetic diversity in tropical lowland rainforest transformation systems (Project Head Finkeldey, Reiner )
• B04 - Plant productivity and belowground resource partitioning in gradients of tropical land-use intensity and tree species diversity (Project Heads Hertel, Dietrich ;  Kotowska, Martyna ;  Leuschner, Christoph )
• B05 - Land use patterns in Jambi - quantification of structure, heterogeneity and changes of vegetation and land use as a basis for the explanation of ecological and socioeconomic functions (Project Head Kleinn, Christoph )
• B06 - Taxonomic, functional, phylogenetic, and biogeographical diversity of vascular plants in rainforest transformation systems on Sumatra (Indonesia) (Project Head Kreft, Holger )
• B07 - Functional diversity of mycorrhizal fungi along a tropical land-use gradient (Project Head Polle, Andrea )
• B08 - Structure and functioning of the decomposer system in lowland rainforest transformation systems (Project Heads Maraun, Mark ;  Scheu, Stefan )
• B09 - Aboveground biodiversity patterns and processes across rainforest transformation landscapes (Project Heads Clough, Yann ;  Grass, Ingo ;  Tscharntke, Teja ;  Westphal, Catrin )
• B10 - Landscape-level assessment of ecological and socioeconomic functions of rainforest transformation systems in Sumatra (Indonesia) (Project Heads Lay, Jann ;  Meyer, Katrin ;  Wiegand, Kerstin )
• B11 - Biodiversity enrichment in oil palm plantations: plant succession and integration (Project Heads Brose, Ulrich ;  Clough, Yann ;  Hölscher, Dirk ;  Kreft, Holger ;  Wollni, Meike )
• B12 - Reproductive strategies of weedy flowering plants in tropical rainforest transformation systems (Project Head Hörandl, Elvira )
• B13 - Impact of management intensity and tree enrichment of oil palm plantations on below- and aboveground invertebrates in Sumatra (Indonesia) (Project Head Maraun, Mark )
• B14 - The use of DNA barcoding to assess landscape effects on phylogenetic and functional diversity (Project Head Gailing, Oliver )
• C01 - Smallholder productivity, market access, and international linkages in rubber and palm oil production in Jambi Province (Project Head Brümmer, Bernhard )
• C02 - Social transformation processes and sustainable resource use in rural Jambi (Project Heads Dittrich, Christoph ;  Faust, Heiko )
• C03 - Culture-Specific Human Interaction with Tropical Lowland Rainforests in Transformation in Jambi, Sumatra (Project Head Hauser-Schäublin, Brigitta )
• C04 - Mitigating trade-offs between economic and ecological functions and services through certification (Project Heads Klasen, Ph.D., Stephan ;  Lay, Jann )
• C06 - Understanding the certification and replanting behaviour of Indonesian smallholder farmers (Project Head Mußhoff, Oliver )
• C07 - Determinants of land-use change and welfare impacts among rural farm and non-farm households (Project Heads Qaim, Matin ;  Schwarze, Stefan )
• C08 - Designing effective policy instruments to induce sustainable land use (Project Heads Ibañez-Diaz, Ph.D., Marcela ;  Wollni, Meike )
• C10 - Localized environmental and land use policies, palm oil conversion and deforestation (Project Head Kis-Katos, Krisztina )
• C11 - Integrated analyses of policies for sustainable rural economies (Project Heads Corre, Marife D. ;  Grass, Ingo ;  Lay, Jann ;  Wiegand, Kerstin )
• C12 - Collaborative farm-modelling for reconciling socio-economic and ecological functions (Project Head Paul, Carola )
• INF - Research Data Management and Integrative Statistical Analysis (Project Heads Horstmann, Wolfram ;  Kneib, Thomas ;  Kurth, Winfried ;  Neuroth, Heike ;  Saborowski, Joachim ;  Yahyapour, Ramin )
• Z01 - Central Tasks of the Collaborative Research Centre (Project Head Scheu, Stefan )
• Z02 - Central Scientific Service Project (Project Heads Erasmi, Stefan ;  Finkeldey, Reiner ;  Knohl, Alexander ;  Krutovsky, Ph.D., Konstantin ;  Qaim, Matin ;  Scheu, Stefan ;  Wiegand, Kerstin )
• Ö - Teacher education for society: Making EFForTS knowledge available for Indonesia (Project Head Bögeholz, Susanne )

• Applicant Institution: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
• Participating Institution: Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH Göttingen; German Institute for Global and Area Studies; Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Stefan Scheu