Research on Oil Palm Agroforestry – Focus: EFForTS Biodiversity Enrichtment Experiment

Plot Design of EFForTS BEE

Next, watch the EFForTS BEE – “Station 2 – Plots” of the virtual tour

Random Partitions Design

The experimental approach of EFForTS BEE is the so-called random partitions design^[6]. The approach aims to design multiple plots (experimental areas). For those plots, a composition of tree species is developed. The plantings comprise six native multi-purpose tree species which are randomly combined in plots with different richness levels and plot sizes. This means that there will be plots with only one species, as well as plots with two, three or more species (depending on the number of species pool). It is important to note that each species is only chosen once per richness level and cannot be replaced, once the plots have been established.

The repetition of the process with many plots strengthens the statistical power of the experiment^[7]. This way it becomes more likely to detect possible biodiversity effects on the plot level.

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Figure 7: Complete random partitions design with a species pool of S=4. The richness levels are R=1,2,4 and there are two iterations of the process (P1, P2). The species (1-4).- were randomly assigned to the plots without replacement^[6]