More information: Gustavo B. Paterno et al, Diverse and larger tree islands promote native tree diversity in oil palm landscapes, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.ado1629 ...

Having “islands” of trees peppered across oil palm plantations can boost the biodiversity of the landscape while maintaining crop yields, a new study shows.

Researchers cleared 40% of the existing oil palm trees for each of their 52 experimental plots. They then planted between zero and six native tree species on each of their tree islands.

Zemp et al. 3 examined the effect on crop yield and biodiversity when an oil-palm plantation is interspersed with areas of native trees termed tree islands. Credit: Nora Carol Photography/Getty ...