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Landscape agricultural simplification correlates positively with the spatial distribution of a specialist yet negatively with a generalist pest.

ABSTRACT: Agricultural expansion at the cost of natural or semi-natural habitats is simplifying human-dominated landscapes. As croplands provide a large resource of food to herbivores, pest damage may increase, but such large-scale patterns across regions are little known. Here, we used two years of maize field data from 102 counties (each 1318 km² on average) across Shandong Province in China to study the spatial distribution of two major co-occurring maize pests: the putative habitat specialist the Asian Corn Borer (Ostrinia furnacalis) (ACB) and the generalist Yellow Peach Moth (Conogethes punctiferalis) (YPM). We used Spatial Analysis by Distance Indices (SADIE) to assess the spatial distribution patterns of these pests and their relation to landscape factors. In both 2016 and 2017, the aggregation and abundance of the ACB was positively correlated with the proportion of maize on the county level, whereas the YPM exhibited the opposite pattern, i.e., a negative correlation with maize proportion. The ACB abundance was below the economic threshold level when maize was <31% in 2017, whereas the YPM abundance was below the threshold when maize was >27% (in 2016) or 23% (in 2017). Maize plant presence was the main determinant of the abundance of the ACB, while the YPM appeared to benefit from further resources in non-crop habitats. These contrasting distribution patterns suggest that the two pests are driven by their different resource requirements. In more diversified landscapes, pest control may need to focus primarily on the generalist consumer, the YPM, whereas in maize-dominated landscapes, the specialist consumer, the ACB, is dominant and needs attention.

SUBMITTER: Dong Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6962322 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Landscape agricultural simplification correlates positively with the spatial distribution of a specialist yet negatively with a generalist pest.

Dong Zhaoke Z Zhang Qingqing Q Li Lili L Lu Zengbin Z Li Chao C Ouyang Fang F Tscharntke Teja T Yu Yi Y Men Xingyuan X

Scientific reports 20200115 1

Agricultural expansion at the cost of natural or semi-natural habitats is simplifying human-dominated landscapes. As croplands provide a large resource of food to herbivores, pest damage may increase, but such large-scale patterns across regions are little known. Here, we used two years of maize field data from 102 counties (each 1318 km<sup>2</sup> on average) across Shandong Province in China to study the spatial distribution of two major co-occurring maize pests: the putative habitat speciali ...[more]

PMID: 31941914

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Project description:BackgroundTheory in ecology points out the potential link between the degree of specialisation of organisms and their responses to disturbances and suggests that this could be a key element for understanding the assembly of communities. We evaluated this question for the arable weed flora as this group has scarcely been the focus of ecological studies so far and because weeds are restricted to habitats characterised by very high degrees of disturbance. As such, weeds offer a case study to ask how specialization relates to abundance and distribution of species in relation to the varying disturbance regimes occurring in arable crops.ResultsWe used data derived from an extensive national monitoring network of approximately 700 arable fields scattered across France to quantify the degree of specialisation of 152 weed species using six different ecological methods. We then explored the impact of the level of disturbance occurring in arable fields by comparing the degree of specialisation of weed communities in contrasting field situations.The classification of species as specialist or generalist was consistent between different ecological indices. When applied on a large-scale data set across France, this classification highlighted that monoculture harbour significantly more specialists than crop rotations, suggesting that crop rotation increases abundance of generalist species rather than sets of species that are each specialised to the individual crop types grown in the rotation. Applied to a diachronic dataset, the classification also shows that the proportion of specialist weed species has significantly decreased in cultivated fields over the last 30 years which suggests a biotic homogenization of agricultural landscapes.ConclusionsThis study shows that the concept of generalist/specialist species is particularly relevant to understand the effect of anthropogenic disturbances on the evolution of plant community composition and that ecological theories developed in stable environments are valid in highly disturbed environments such as agro-ecosystems. The approach developed here to classify arable weeds according to the breadth of their ecological niche is robust and applicable to a wide range of organisms. It is also sensitive to disturbance regime and we show here that recent changes in agricultural practices, i.e. increased levels of disturbance have favoured the most generalist species, hence leading to biotic homogenisation in arable landscapes.

Dataset Information

Landscape agricultural simplification correlates positively with the spatial distribution of a specialist yet negatively with a generalist pest.

Publications

Landscape agricultural simplification correlates positively with the spatial distribution of a specialist yet negatively with a generalist pest.

Similar Datasets

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