In order to secure the provisioning of ecosystem services, detailed analyses of the relationship between biodiversity and agriculture are required. We studied ground spider diversity in a 52 km² coffee landscape in Southern Mexico, and asked the following questions. (1) How do coffee management variables and local microhabitat variables change among coffee agroecosystems and forest sites and across seasons? (2) How does coffee management affect ground spider richness, abundance, and composition? (3) How do local and landscape factors in fl uence ground spider richness and abundance? and (4) What role does seasonality play in shaping ground spider communities? During the dry season and rainy season of 2011 we sampled ground active spiders using pitfall traps from high and low shade coffee agroecosystems (27 sites) and from forest (10 sites). On local scale, for each 20 m × 20 m site we measured leaf litter variables, invertebrate dry biomass, slope of the terrain and elevation, and management variables such as canopy cover, shade tree richness, shade tree density and proportion of Inga trees. At the landscape scale, we measured distance to the nearest forest and percent of forest in buffers of 500 m. Results show that agricultural management had a strong influence on spider richness and abundance. Across seasons, local spider richness and abundance had or tended to have higher values in the low-shade coffee. Spider richness and abundance were strongly in fl uenced by physiographic and local predictors and weakly by landscape predictors. Furthermore, predictors varied with seasonality, with slope of the terrain being the strongest predictor in the dry season and canopy cover being the strongest predictor in the rainy season. We conclude that ground active spiders in this coffee landscape are greatly in fl uenced by coffee management and local characteristics.

Traditional Mexican coffee plantations, with a diverse shade vegetation of native tree species, are being replaced by coffee monocultures shaded by trees of the genus Inga, resulting in loss of biodiversity and ecological services. Coffee production is said to benefit from Inga shade, but few on-field experiments have been done to support this hypothesis. Secondary production (timber, firewood, fruits, medicines, etc.) is probably lower in Inga-shaded coffee plantations, and that loss could outweigh benefits from increased coffee production. Coffee yields, present stock of timber, and aboveground tree biomass as an indicator of firewood production were measured and compared for plots in traditional and in Inga-shaded plantations in Plan Paredón, Chiapas, Mexico. Coffee production was similar in both plantation types. Timber production was significantly higher in traditional plantations, and amounted to ten times the timber production in Inga-shaded plantations. Total tree biomass was significantly higher in traditional coffee plantations, but not biomass of tree species apt for firewood. However, firewood production could be higher in traditional plantations. There seems to be no reason to replace traditional plantations by Inga-shaded ones in order to increase production in the plantations studied.

Traditional Mexican coffee plantations, with a diverse shade of native tree species, are being replaced by coffee monocultures shaded by trees of the genus Inga, resulting in loss of biodiversity and ecological services. Coffee production is said to benefit by Inga shade, but few on-field experiments were done to support this hypothesis. Secondary production (timber, firewood, fruits, medicines, etc.) is probably lower in Inga-shaded coffee plantations, and that loss could counteract benefits from increased coffee production. We measured and compared coffee production, present stock of timber, and aboveground tree biomass as an indicator of firewood production, for plots in traditional and in Inga-shaded plantations in Plan Paredón, Chiapas, Mexico. Coffee production was similar in both plantation types. Timber production was significantly higher in traditional plantations, and amounted to ten times the timber production in Inga-shaded plantations. Total tree biomass was significantly higher in traditional coffee plantations, but not biomass of tree species apt for firewood. However, we suspect firewood production could be higher in traditional plantations. We see no reason to replace traditional plantations by Inga-shaded ones in order to increase production in the plantations studied.

Much of the remaining “forest” vegetation in eastern Chiapas, Mexico is managed for coffee production. In this region coffee is grown under either the canopy of natural forest or under a planted canopy dominated by Inga spp. Despite the large differences in diversity of dominant plant species, both planted and rustic shade coffee plantations support a high overall diversity of bird species; we recorded approximately 105 species in each plantation type on fixed radius point counts. We accumulated a combined species list of 180 species on repeatedly surveyed transects through both coffee plantation types. These values are exceeded regionally only by moist tropical forest. Of the habitats surveyed, shade coffee was second only to acacia groves in the abundance and diversity of Nearctic migrants. The two plantation types have similar bird species lists and both are similar in composition to the dominant woodland—mixed pine-oak. Both types of shade coffee plantation habitats differ from other local habitats in supporting highly seasonal bird populations. Survey numbers almost double during the dry season—an increase that is found in omnivorous migrants and omnivorous, frugivorous, and nectarivorous resident species. Particularly large influxes were found for Tennessee warblers (Vermivora peregrina) and northern orioles (Icterus galbula) in Inga dominated plantations.