Abstract The diverse contributions of nature to human well-being are evident among the Indigenous peoples. This study highlights the crucial role of traditional ecological knowledge systems (TEKS) in sustaining the flow of ecosystem services and nature’s values in agroecosystem-based livelihoods in the Cordillera Region. It aims to document TEKS, identify the ecosystem services and values derived from agroecosystems, and assess the influence of gender and ethnic groupings on livelihood practices. Data collection was conducted using a participatory approach, incorporating key informant interviews and focused group discussions. The agroecosystem-based livelihoods including traditional rice farming, uma farming, conventional farming, and livestock production provide provisioning ecosystem services such as food, income generation, while cultural ecosystem services such as rice wine making, cultural and aesthetic values. Documented TEKS were categorized and found to be interrelated in the form of taboos, customs and rituals, norms and community regulations. These practices are deeply interwoven with agroecosystem management and are commonly observed across ethnic groups. Such adherences is driven to achieve both a bountiful harvest and resource management. The women respondents were widely recognized for their roles in traditional rice farming, while men were prominently involved in conventional farming. The connections between local communities and nature are fundamental concepts of reciprocity established through their practices and grounded in their TEKS. Safeguarding TEKS is imperative for strengthening local management strategies that promote the sustainable supply of resources obtained from these ecosystems.

Tropical wetlands are an important global source of greenhouse gas emissions, including nitrous oxide, a potent and long-lasting greenhouse gas. Tropical wetland ecosystems can be highly heterogeneous, featuring a variety of vegetation types, from grasses through to palms and mangroves. While soil conditions (particularly soil moisture and pH) are essential for determining the formation of nitrous oxide in soils, plants have a central role in determining the balance of emissions. In this review, we summarise the importance of vegetation in regulating tropical wetland nitrous oxide dynamics. We show how a variety of plant-mediated processes can exert key controls over wetland plant-soil nitrogen transportation and transformations. Key mechanisms of plant regulation of dynamics include influencing substrate availability (carbon and nitrogen) through litter inputs, rhizodeposition, root turnover and plant nitrogen uptake, rhizosphere biology, and plant-mediated nitrous oxide transportation, all of which can vary between species and dominant vegetation types. We propose that there is a critical need to better quantify such processes across dominant wetland ecotypes, to support improved upscaling of emissions, and assess their sensitivity to future environmental change.

Abstract Naturally, insect herbivore populations are controlled by their plant hosts and predators. These ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ controls influence leaf area lost to herbivory. Bottom-up control of herbivory may be driven by leaf nutrients and plant defences. Top-down control can be driven by abundance and species richness of natural enemies, host or prey specificity, and predation strategies (e.g., active searching or sit-and-wait ‘ambush’ predation). The relative importance of bottom-up and top-down controls is unresolved but likely to vary spatially and temporally and under different environmental conditions such as changing temperature. We surveyed leaf carbon and nitrogen, leaf area loss, and attacks on plasticine caterpillars across a tropical elevational gradient in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Provence, China. We show that predatory foraging activity decreases with elevation and temperature, whereas leaf nutrients and leaf area loss from herbivory remains more or less constant. Predation patterns were driven by ants, which are thermophiles and therefore more active, abundant, and diverse at warmer, lower elevations. Leaf nutritional values are important in driving herbivory patterns as herbivory was stable across this gradient, but other factors such as mechanical defences and herbivore-induced plant volatiles demand further study. Elevational studies provide insight into how ecosystem function will shift under climate change. As increasing temperatures following climate change allows predatory groups like ants to exploit higher elevations, top-down control in high elevation habitats could increase, resulting in re-wiring of these ecologically sensitive communities. At the same time, top-down control at lower elevations may be at risk if critical thermal maxima for natural enemies are exceeded.