Palm oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil on Earth and expanding oil palm (Elaies guineensis) plantations are a major contributor to the global biodiversity crisis. As the fastest growing crop, oil palm occupied ~28 Mha worldwide in 2023, and 82% of this agricultural land was in Southeast Asia.
When tropical forests are converted into oil palm plantations, the removal of aboveground vegetation reduces structural complexity and ecosystem function. As plantations mature their canopies close and they become more suitable for ecological interventions to restore some biodiversity and ecosystem health. This project provides an exciting opportunity to investigate strategies to increase biodiversity in plantations in Borneo and participate in the development of government policies and management practices with Sabah Forestry Department and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification. We will build on existing research to investigate whether the bird鈥檚 nest fern (Asplenium nidus) can be used as a conservation tool for improving biodiversity and nutrient cycling within oil palm plantations.
Project Partners
Project background
As the world鈥檚 largest epiphytes, bird鈥檚 nest ferns are keystone species, reaching 200kg in the forest canopies of Borneo. These ferns capture fallen leaf litter, developing large quantities of 'suspended soils', creating an entire microcosm of fungi, microbes and invertebrates. It is estimated that the suspended soils associated with the ferns support enough invertebrates to double the estimate of the invertebrate biomass of an entire rainforest canopy. If we could link the fern鈥檚 internal and external biogeochemical processes, we could use them as a silver bullet to restore ecosystem function throughout millions of hectares of degraded oil palm landscapes.
Through this project, we hope to determine whether the inclusion of bird鈥檚 nest ferns within oil palm plantations benefits oil palm health, providing a win-win for conservation by sustainably increasing oil palm productivity whilst at the same time providing refuges for biodiversity. We want to investigate whether fern leachate creates a hotspot of biodiversity and nutrient cycling within and beneath the fern. This will help confirm whether the ferns restore soil biodiversity and ecosystem function in addition to improving palm health.
