In the past century, oil palm has developed from a sustenance crop in West Africa to a major global agricultural commodity, with substantial impacts on biodiversity, the environment, society, and livelihoods. Although the oil palm industry contributes to local and national economies across the tropics, there are significant concerns about the negative effects of oil palm cultivation on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, as well on local communities and farmers. There is a growing awareness of the need for managing agricultural landscapes more sustainably, and the importance of ecological, social, and also interdisciplinary research to inform this. To understand the current status of research across these areas for oil palm, we carried out a systematic mapping exercise to quantify social, ecological, and interdisciplinary socio-ecological research on oil palm cultivation, assess trends in the research, and to identify priority knowledge gaps in the literature. Literature was searched using adapted preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses and Collaboration for Environmental Evidence protocols. We reviewed 4959 publications on the ecological, social, and socioecological effects of oil palm cultivation. Each publication was classified according to study context (the study site location and type), comparators (the type of comparison the study makes), intervention (the potential action or decision being studied), and outcome (the effects of the intervention on the population). This resulted in 443 classified papers, which we then analyzed in more detail, to identify co-occurrence of different research foci between the disciplines and in socio-ecological research. We found a global increase in oil palm research over the past three decades, with a clear bias to Malaysia and Indonesia, mirroring global production trends. Over 70% of the research was focused on ecological outcomes, 19% on social, and less than 10% interdisciplinary. The majority of studies were conducted within industrial plantations, with comparisons to non-modified habitats, such as forests. Research has focused most on the effects of cultivation on yield, invertebrate biodiversity, and livelihood. To place our findings in context of production of palm oil and sustainability priorities, we used information on regional oil palm production in Tonnes, priorities of sustainable certification bodies, and recognized causes of yield gaps. The most pressing knowledge gaps included a lack of studies on the effects of plantation inputs on pollination and herbivory, the relationship between ecological factors and human health and wellbeing, and comparisons of different management practices within oil palm plantations. We advocate that these gaps become the focus of future research attention, as they lie in identified priority research areas and outcomes are likely to be critical to informing the development of more sustainable palm oil production.

在过去的一个世纪里，油棕已经从西非的一种粮食作物发展成为一种主要的全球农业商品，对生物多样性、环境、社会和生计产生了重大影响。尽管油棕产业为整个热带地区的地方和国家经济做出了贡献，但人们对油棕种植对生物多样性和生态系统功能以及当地社区和农民的负面影响表示严重关切。人们越来越意识到需要以更可持续的方式管理农业景观，以及生态、社会和跨学科研究对此的重要性。为了了解油棕这些领域的研究现状，我们进行了系统的绘图练习，以量化社会、生态、和跨学科的油棕种植社会生态研究，评估研究趋势，并确定文献中的优先知识差距。使用经过调整的首选报告项目搜索文献，用于系统评价和荟萃分析以及环境证据合作协议。我们查阅了 4959 篇关于油棕种植的生态、社会和社会生态影响的出版物。每个出版物都根据研究背景（研究地点和类型）、比较对象（研究进行的比较类型）、干预（正在研究的潜在行动或决定）和结果（干预对人群的影响）进行分类）。这产生了 443 篇分类论文，然后我们对其进行了更详细的分析，确定学科之间和社会生态研究中不同研究焦点的共同发生。我们发现过去三十年全球油棕研究有所增加，明显偏向于马来西亚和印度尼西亚，反映了全球生产趋势。超过 70% 的研究侧重于生态成果，19% 侧重于社会，不到 10% 的跨学科研究。大多数研究是在工业种植园内进行的，并与未经改造的栖息地（如森林）进行了比较。研究主要集中在种植对产量、无脊椎动物生物多样性和生计的影响上。为了将我们的研究结果放在棕榈油生产和可持续性优先事项的背景下，我们使用了有关以吨计算的区域油棕产量、可持续认证机构的优先事项以及公认的产量差距原因的信息。最紧迫的知识差距包括缺乏关于种植园投入对授粉和食草动物的影响、生态因素与人类健康和福祉之间的关系以及油棕种植园内不同管理实践的比较的研究。我们主张将这些差距作为未来研究关注的焦点，因为它们存在于已确定的优先研究领域，而结果可能对开发更可持续的棕榈油生产至关重要。