摘要 : Agricultural intensification can decrease biodiversity and ecosystem services they deliver to agroecosystems. Diverse trees-shaded coffee is structurally and functionally complex and has biodiversity adequate for sustainable produ... 展开 Agricultural intensification can decrease biodiversity and ecosystem services they deliver to agroecosystems. Diverse trees-shaded coffee is structurally and functionally complex and has biodiversity adequate for sustainable production of coffee and mitigation of biodiversity loss due to deforestation. However, shade tree simplification is intense in coffee agroforests worldwide, threatening their economic and environmental targets. In south India, native trees have been replaced by silver oak (Grevillea robusta) trees. Native trees-shaded coffee is floristically complex and diverse than oak-shaded coffee. We hypothesize that the natural prey removal fares better in native trees-shaded coffee than in oak-shaded coffee. Artificial caterpillar models of three colors were installed rotationally on leaves, stems, and branches of coffee plants in native trees-shaded- and oak-shaded coffee, and assessed the predation rates for fruiting and leaf-flushing periods of coffee to test this. Forty-four percent of the caterpillars were predated. Arthropods, and in particular the ants, were the predominant predators. Lizards followed by birds, and mammals were second, third, and fourth important predators of coffee agroforests. Overall, predation rates did not differ with the shade diversity, but lizard predation rates were higher in diverse trees-shaded coffee than in oak-shaded coffee. The predation rates were slightly higher in the fruiting season of coffee. Predation rates of any predator taxa were higher for the caterpillars placed on stems and branches than on leaves. The study does not support the hypothesis that the natural predation rates might be higher in floristically complex coffee agroforests, but highlights the biocontrol potential of lizards in diverse-shaded coffee. 收起