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Crop diversity benefits carabid and pollinator communities in landscapes with semi-natural habitats

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kirsten Miller

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Applied Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. In agricultural landscapes, arthropods provide essential ecosystem services such as biological pest control and pollination. Intensified crop management practices and homogenization of landscapes have led to declines among such organisms. Semi-natural habitats, associated with high numbers of these organisms, are increasingly lost from agricultural landscapes but diversification by increasing crop diversity has been proposed as a way to reverse observed arthropod declines and thus restore ecosystem services. However, whether or not an increase in the diversity of crop types within a landscape promotes diversity and abundances of pollinating and predaceous arthropods, and how semi-natural habitats might modify this relationship, are not well understood. To test how crop diversity and the proportion of semi-natural habitats within a landscape are related to the diversity and abundance of beneficial arthropod communities, we collected primary data from seven studies focusing on natural enemies (carabids and spiders) and pollinators (bees and hoverflies) from 154 crop fields in Southern Sweden between 2007 and 2017. Crop diversity within a 1-km radius around each field was positively related to the Shannon diversity index of carabid and pollinator communities in landscapes rich in semi-natural habitats. Abundances were mainly affected by the proportion of semi-natural habitats in the landscape, with decreasing carabid and increasing pollinator numbers as the proportion of this habitat type increased. Spiders showed no response to either crop diversity or the proportion of semi-natural habitats. Synthesis and applications. We show that the joint effort of preserving semi-natural habitats and promoting crop diversity in agricultural landscapes is necessary to enhance communities of natural enemies and pollinators. Our results suggest that increasing the diversity of crop types can contribute to the conservation of service-providing arthropod communities, particularly if the diversification of crops targets complex landscapes with a high proportion of semi-natural habitats.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Aguilera G, Roslin T, Miller K, Tamburini G, Birkhofer K, Caballero-Lopez B, Lindstrom SA-M, Ockinger E, Rundlof M, Rusch A, Smith HG, Bommarco R

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Journal of Applied Ecology

Year: 2020

Volume: 57

Issue: 11

Pages: 2170-2179

Print publication date: 01/11/2020

Online publication date: 12/08/2020

Acceptance date: 25/06/2020

Date deposited: 15/10/2020

ISSN (print): 0021-8901

ISSN (electronic): 1365-2664

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd

URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13712

DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13712


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
2013–2014 BiodivERsA/FACCE‐JPI
EU7th framework
FORMAS
Swedish Board of Agriculture. Grant Number: 28‐13610‐10
Swedish Farmers' Foundation for Agricultural Research. Grant Number: V1133010
Swedish Research Council FORMAS. Grant Number: 2016‐01168

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