Changes in arthropod communities mediate the effects of landscape composition and farm management on pest control ecosystem services in organically managed strawberry crops

Lu, Adrian; Gonthier, David J.; Sciligo, Amber R.; García, Karina; Chiba, Taiki; Juárez, Gila; Kremen, Claire

doi:10.1111/1365-2664.14076

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 122 publications

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“…For example, Morandin et al (2014) demonstrated that weeds contain more pests (including Lygus ) and fewer natural enemies relative to those collected from native perennial hedgerows. Similarly, Lu et al (2022) found that woodland habitat increased natural enemy abundance in organic strawberry, which in turn increased the likelihood of predation on sentinel Lygus nymphs; interestingly, grassy (i.e., weedy) habitats did not have a significant positive or negative effect on either outcome. Thus, the thoughtful diversification of strawberry production systems, which includes habitats inside and outside of cultivated fields, is warranted.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Immigration of Lygus spp. (Hemiptera: Miridae) and predaceous natural enemies to trap-cropped organic strawberry

Nieto,

Hagler,

Swezey

et al. 2023

Environmental Entomology

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Lygus spp. are polyphagous pests that overwinter in weedy vegetation. In the spring on the central coast of California, Lygus spp. emigrate from weeds into strawberry fields. Subsequent feeding on strawberry flowers causes fruit deformation that precludes sale on the fresh market. Use of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) (Fabales: Fabaceae) as a trap crop has been hypothesized to prevent Lygus spp. colonization in strawberries. We examined the movement of Lygus spp. and associated predators from weeds to strawberry fields with alfalfa trap crops using a protein mark–capture technique. Insects and spiders were collected from weeds, strawberry, and alfalfa 1 day, 2 days, and ~2 wk after an albumin protein mark was applied to weeds bordering strawberry fields. For marked Lygus spp. that emigrated from weeds, the majority (79%) of adults were recovered from alfalfa trap crops; however, all nymphs immigrated to strawberry. Most protein-marked predators immigrated to strawberry, rather than trap crops, resulting in a marked predator-to-Lygus spp. ratio of 5:1. Trap cropping effectively reduced the colonization of Lygus adults in strawberry. Converting weedy areas to native perennial plantings could further mitigate the risk of pest migration, while simultaneously conserving beneficial insects.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Immigration of Lygus spp. (Hemiptera: Miridae) and predaceous natural enemies to trap-cropped organic strawberry

Nieto,

Hagler,

Swezey

et al. 2023

Environmental Entomology

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“…Although energy use has been suggested as a useful proxy for prey consumption (Perović et al, 2018), it has also been argued that an increase in body size and energy requirement can alter predator–prey dynamics by shifting prey preferences or increasing intraguild predation, which can even result in a net negative effect of a higher energy requirement on pest consumption (Rusch et al, 2015). Similar mechanisms may be at work when richness increases, which may stimulate egg predation through resource partitioning and facilitation, but can also negatively affect pest predation due to negative intraguild interactions (Lu et al, 2021). Additionally, predator richness and energy use might have been better predictors if predators were identified to species level instead of family level, but this was not feasible due to the high number of juvenile specimens in our samples.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…apple cultivation, biological control, integrated pest management, landscape context, organic management, semi-natural benchmark, structural equation modelling of direct effects of both local management and landscape variables on pest abundance and crop damage (Flores-Gutierrez et al, 2020;Samnegård et al, 2019) as well as indirect, predator-mediated effects (Lu et al, 2021), or combinations of both (Flores-Gutierrez et al, 2020;González et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the reasons for this may be the methodological difficulty of disentangling direct and indirect effects between variables and distinguishing between associative and causal relationships. Recently developed statistical tools such as Piecewise Structural Equation Modelling (PSEM), however, can tackle these issues and have been increasingly used to investigate the effects of local and landscape variables on communities of natural enemies and the cascading effects they have on pest infestations and crop damage (Flores‐Gutierrez et al, 2020; González et al, 2020; Lefcheck, 2016; Lu et al, 2021; Samnegård et al, 2019). Studies employing this methodology found evidence of direct effects of both local management and landscape variables on pest abundance and crop damage (Flores‐Gutierrez et al, 2020; Samnegård et al, 2019) as well as indirect, predator‐mediated effects (Lu et al, 2021), or combinations of both (Flores‐Gutierrez et al, 2020; González et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently developed statistical tools such as Piecewise Structural Equation Modelling (PSEM), however, can tackle these issues and have been increasingly used to investigate the effects of local and landscape variables on communities of natural enemies and the cascading effects they have on pest infestations and crop damage (Flores‐Gutierrez et al, 2020; González et al, 2020; Lefcheck, 2016; Lu et al, 2021; Samnegård et al, 2019). Studies employing this methodology found evidence of direct effects of both local management and landscape variables on pest abundance and crop damage (Flores‐Gutierrez et al, 2020; Samnegård et al, 2019) as well as indirect, predator‐mediated effects (Lu et al, 2021), or combinations of both (Flores‐Gutierrez et al, 2020; González et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Direct and indirect effects of management and landscape on biological pest control and crop pest infestation in apple orchards

Daelemans

Hulsmans

Laenen

et al. 2022

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Biological pest control, relying on naturally occurring predator–prey dynamics, is considered a key element to achieve more sustainable farming systems. However, the combined effects of local management and landscape factors on communities of natural enemies as well as the cascading effects on pest infestations are rarely addressed, especially in perennial crops. Here, we used Piecewise Structural Equation Modelling (PSEM) to test direct and indirect effects of landscape composition, landscape configuration and local management practices on natural enemy communities, the pest control services they provide and ultimately on pest infestation and pest‐related yield damage in apple crops. To this end, we surveyed 12 organic and 12 Integrated Pest Management (IPM) orchards during three consecutive years, and we also established a semi‐natural benchmark to quantify the extent to which predator communities in the orchards were degraded. Natural enemies had a different community composition and were more abundant in organic orchards compared with IPM orchards. This had a small and positive effect on sentinel egg predation rates in organic orchards, but overall had very little impact on actual apple pest infestation. On the contrary, apple pest infestation levels were directly and positively affected by organic management practices and by increasing semi‐natural habitat cover and landscape edge density. Compared with a semi‐natural benchmark, both agricultural management systems showed degraded predator communities, which translated into an impaired delivery of biological control services. Synthesis and applications. Our results indicate that organic management and habitat conservation can enhance natural enemies and stimulate pest control, but also show that these factors can enhance pest infestations and can even lead to an overall increase in pest‐related crop damage. Our study thus highlights the complex interplay of ecosystem services and disservices provided by biodiversity, which should be taken into account when advising farmers, policy makers and land managers on effective and sustainable strategies to control pest species and safeguard crop production.

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The effectiveness of intercropping and agri-environmental schemes on ecosystem service of biological pest control: a meta-analysis

Yousefi,

Marja,

Barmettler

et al. 2024

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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Plant diversification contributes to the ecological intensification of agroecosystems through pest biocontrol services provision. However, the existing evidence for the effectiveness of plant diversification in enhancing pest biocontrol services is highly uncertain across features of plant diversity and biodiversity characteristics. We undertook a comparative meta-analysis focusing on three essential crops (wheat, maize, and soybean) to investigate how diversification schemes in-field (intercropping) and Agri-environmental scheme (AES) around the field (flower strip, hedgerow and field margin) affect arthropod abundance. A random effects analysis was used to determine the role of 10 key factors underlying the effectiveness of plant diversification including biodiversity level and habitat, main and companion plant species, intercropping arrangement, the growth stage of the main crops, type of AES planting scheme, AES planting width, distance from AES plantings and geographical latitude. The overall results revealed that intercropping reduced herbivore and boosted predators and parasitoids abundance significantly, while AES successfully increased predators but not herbivores. Maize intercropping with legume and non-legume plants and row intercropping allowed for effective pest management. The abundance of predators increased in wheat fields immediately adjacent to planting around the field (AES), but this effect declined beyond 5 m from the flower strips. Our results suggest that the response of arthropod abundance to plant diversification is a compromise between spatial management scale, ecological characteristics of arthropod and plant diversification features. These results offer promising pathways for optimizing plant diversification schemes that include functional farm biodiversity across spatial and temporal scales and designing multi-functional landscapes.

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Changes in arthropod communities mediate the effects of landscape composition and farm management on pest control ecosystem services in organically managed strawberry crops

Cited by 9 publications

References 122 publications

Immigration of Lygus spp. (Hemiptera: Miridae) and predaceous natural enemies to trap-cropped organic strawberry

Immigration of Lygus spp. (Hemiptera: Miridae) and predaceous natural enemies to trap-cropped organic strawberry

Direct and indirect effects of management and landscape on biological pest control and crop pest infestation in apple orchards

The effectiveness of intercropping and agri-environmental schemes on ecosystem service of biological pest control: a meta-analysis

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