Dataset Information

Productive Oilseed Rape Strips Supplement Seminatural Field-Margins in Promoting Ground-Dwelling Predatory Invertebrates in Agricultural Landscapes.

ABSTRACT: Intensively managed flowering crops like canola (Brassicales: Brassicaceae) (oilseed rape, OSR) provide significant short-term nectar resources for pollen consumers. They may also play important roles as annual "service strips" in temporarily promoting predatory invertebrates. We set out to test this assumption by comparing overall and functional group-specific species richness, activity density, and assemblage composition of carabids (Coleoptera: Carabidae) and spiders (Araneae), in three types of service strips-OSR, woody, and grassy strips established in direct vicinity to cropland. OSR strips were found to harbor the highest carabid species richness and activity density of small carabids. The activity density of carabids overall and of omnivorous species, the species richness and activity density of spiders across size classes and feeding strategies were all significantly reduced in woody strips. The percentage of seminatural habitat in the wider landscape was positively linked to the activity density of spiders overall, ground hunting and large spiders, whereas in carabids, positive effects were limited to large species occurring in grassy strips. Habitat type was the main predictor of both carabid and spider assemblage composition. Our results indicate that carabid and spider activity density across functional groups responded more strongly to changes in the landscape composition than the diversity of individual taxonomic groups. For agricultural landscape management, the establishment of habitat mosaics that include regular OSR could promote abundant, species-rich predatory invertebrates particularly in early spring. In contrast, structurally homogenous woody strips represent limited value in promoting the investigated biological pest control agents.

SUBMITTER: Zhang X

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6556080 | biostudies-other | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Productive Oilseed Rape Strips Supplement Seminatural Field-Margins in Promoting Ground-Dwelling Predatory Invertebrates in Agricultural Landscapes.

Zhang Xuzhu X Axmacher Jan C JC Wu Panlong P Zhang Xin X Liu Yunhui Y

Journal of insect science (Online) 20190501 3

Intensively managed flowering crops like canola (Brassicales: Brassicaceae) (oilseed rape, OSR) provide significant short-term nectar resources for pollen consumers. They may also play important roles as annual "service strips" in temporarily promoting predatory invertebrates. We set out to test this assumption by comparing overall and functional group-specific species richness, activity density, and assemblage composition of carabids (Coleoptera: Carabidae) and spiders (Araneae), in three types ...[more]

PMID: 31175836

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Project description:Ongoing intensification and fragmentation of European agricultural landscapes dramatically reduce biodiversity and associated functions. Enhancing perennial noncrop areas holds great potential to support ecosystem services such as ant-mediated pest control.To study the potential of newly established grassland strips to enhance ant diversity and associated functions, we used hand collection data and predation experiments to investigate differences in (a) ant community composition and (b) biocontrol-related functional traits, and (c) natural pest control across habitats in cereal fields, old grasslands, and new grassland transects of three years of age.Ant species diversity was similar between new and old grasslands, but significantly higher in new grasslands than in surrounding cereal fields. Contrary, ant community composition of new grasslands was more similar to cereal fields and distinct from the species pool of old grasslands. The functional trait space covered by the ant communities showed the same distribution between old and new grasslands. Pest control did not differ significantly between habitat types and therefore could not be linked to the prevalence of functional ant traits related to biocontrol services in new grasslands.Our findings not only show trends of convergence between old and new grasslands, but also indicate that enhancing ant diversity through new grasslands takes longer than three years to provide comparable biodiversity and functionality. Synthesis and applications: Newly established grasslands can increase ant species richness and abundance and provide a consistent amount of biocontrol services in agroecosystems. However, three years after their establishment, new grasslands were still dominated by common agrobiont ant species and lacked habitat specialists present in old grasslands, which require a constant supply of food resources and long colony establishment times. New grasslands represent a promising measure for enhancing agricultural landscapes but must be preserved in the longer term to promote biodiversity and resilience of associated ecosystem services.

Dataset Information

Productive Oilseed Rape Strips Supplement Seminatural Field-Margins in Promoting Ground-Dwelling Predatory Invertebrates in Agricultural Landscapes.

Publications

Productive Oilseed Rape Strips Supplement Seminatural Field-Margins in Promoting Ground-Dwelling Predatory Invertebrates in Agricultural Landscapes.

Similar Datasets

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