Evaluating a trait‐based approach to compare natural enemy and pest communities in agroforestry vs. arable systems

Staton, Tom; Walters, Richard J.; Smith, Jo; Breeze, Tom D.; Girling, Robbie D.

doi:10.1002/eap.2294

Cited by 22 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…This distance was selected to minimise interference from other understorey treatments. Previous data from this site and two other sites showed limited spatial effects of diversity and richness metrics across alleys [36], therefore samples at this distance can be expected to be broadly representative of the arable alley. No pitfall traps were installed within the tree rows because vegetation structure can bias capture rates [37] and the ground-based invertebrate community is more relevant to the arable cropping area.…”

Section: Sampling Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Statistical significance was tested using the 'anova.cca' function in the 'vegan' package, using 9999 permutations. Effects on natural enemy traits were also investigated according to the same method, using an existing trait database [36], but the results were not close to significance (p-value > 0.1) and are not presented. Similarly, the diversity of functional effect traits was investigated based on the approach in Greenop et al [48] and adapted in Staton et al [36], but the results were not close to significance (p-value > 0.1) and are not presented.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…ment per block (Figure 3), except arable yield samples which were rep each treatment block. This led to a total of 40 samples for each samplin arable yield), for each visit (4 sample locations × 2 treatments × 5 b sticky traps, and grain samples were sited 0.5 m into the adjacent crop effect of the understorey treatment on the adjacent crop and its inver This distance was selected to minimise interference from other und Previous data from this site and two other sites showed limited spatia and richness metrics across alleys [36], therefore samples at this dista to be broadly representative of the arable alley. No pitfall traps were tree rows because vegetation structure can bias capture rates [37] an invertebrate community is more relevant to the arable cropping area mens captured using pitfall traps and sticky traps were stored in a fr using an optical microscope.…”

Section: Sampling Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Management to Promote Flowering Understoreys Benefits Natural Enemy Diversity, Aphid Suppression and Income in an Agroforestry System

et al. 2021

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Agroforestry systems, where productive trees are integrated into agricultural land, can deliver benefits to biodiversity, natural pest control, and pollination, but the effects are highly variable. Recent advances in our understanding of flower strips in agricultural systems suggest that the management of the tree row understorey could be an important contributor to this variation. Here, we compare two cutting regimes for an understorey, originally seeded with the same flower mix, in the tree rows of an apple-arable agroforestry system: (i) uncut vegetation to promote a flowering understorey, and (ii) regularly mown vegetation. We recorded the effects of management on invertebrate pests, natural enemies, and pollinators, in both the apple and arable components. Apple trees above flowering understoreys supported significantly: (i) more natural enemies early in the season, (ii) fewer aphid colonies, (iii) fewer aphid-damaged fruits, and (iv) higher pollinator visitation, compared with those above mown understoreys. In the arable crop alleys, both the taxonomic richness and Shannon diversity of ground-based natural enemies were significantly higher adjacent to flowering understoreys, compared with those adjacent to mown understoreys, early in the season. Financial modelling based on aphid damage to apples, mowing costs, and income from Countryside Stewardship grants, indicated that flowering understoreys increased farm income by GBP 231.02 per ha of agroforestry compared with mown understoreys. Our results provide the first empirical evidence that management to promote flowering understoreys in agroforestry systems can be a win-win option to improve invertebrate diversity, associated ecosystem services, and farm income.

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Section: Sampling Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sampling Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Management to Promote Flowering Understoreys Benefits Natural Enemy Diversity, Aphid Suppression and Income in an Agroforestry System

et al. 2021

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“…The performance of the pRDAs were determined using adjusted R 2 values along with F-statistics and P-values, based on 999 permutations. The vegan package (Oksanen et al, 2017) was used to calculate taxonomic richness and Shannon diversity from the most precise resolution available in the dataset, including specimens identified to levels above species (e.g., family), as described by Staton et al (2021). The effects of air pollution, diet specialisation and mobility on the abundance of invertebrates that could be classified into specialist or generalist feeders and winged or not winged (mobility) were determined using negative binomial GLMMs with "pollution treatment, " "diet" and "mobility" (and their interactions) as fixed effects and "run" nested within "year" as random effects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ozone Mitigates the Adverse Effects of Diesel Exhaust Pollutants on Ground-Active Invertebrates in Wheat

et al. 2022

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There is growing evidence to demonstrate that air pollution is affecting invertebrates both directly (e.g., causing physiological stress responses) and indirectly (e.g., via changes in host plant chemistry and/or by disruption of communication by volatile odours). Many of the studies to-date have focused upon winged insects and disruption of in-flight foraging. Therefore, in this study we investigated how the community composition of predominantly ground-dwelling invertebrates in fields of winter wheat are affected by two of the most ubiquitous lower tropospheric air pollutants, diesel exhaust emissions (including nitrogen oxides–NOx) and ozone (O3), both individually and in combination, over 2 years. Pitfall traps, located within the rings of a Free-Air Diesel and Ozone Enrichment (FADOE) facility, were used to sample invertebrates. The facility consisted of eight 8 m-diameter rings, which allowed elevation of the pollutants above ambient levels (ca 49–60 ppb NOx and 35–39 ppb O3) but within levels currently defined as safe for the environment by the Environmental Protection Agency. The invertebrates collected were taxonomically identified and characterised by diet specialisation, mobility and functional group. Taxonomic richness and Shannon’s diversity index were calculated. Even under the relatively low levels of air pollution produced, there were adverse impacts on invertebrate community composition, with greater declines in the abundance and taxonomic richness of invertebrates in the diesel exhaust treatment compared with O3 treatment. In the combined treatment, pollutant levels were lower, most likely because NOx and O3 react with one another, and consequently a lesser negative effect was observed on invertebrate abundance and taxonomic richness. Specialist-feeding and winged invertebrate species appeared to be more sensitive to the impacts of the pollutants, responding more negatively to air pollution treatments than generalist feeders and wingless species, respectively. Therefore, these results suggest a more severe pollution-mediated decline in specialist- compared with generalist-feeding invertebrates, and in more mobile (winged) individuals. Understanding how invertebrate communities respond to air pollutants alone and in combination will facilitate predictions of how terrestrial environments respond to changes in anthropogenic emissions, especially as we shift away from fossil fuel dependence and therefore manipulate the interactions between these two common pollutants.

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“…Results of studies are just beginning to emerge (e.g. [ 15 , 48 – 51 ]). Only eight studies included in this meta-analysis involved alley cropping systems.…”

Section: Too Early For a Meta-analysis On Alley Cropping Agroforestry...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on agroforestry systems and biodiversity conservation: what can we conclude so far and what should we improve?

et al. 2022

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Through a meta-analysis, Mupepele et al. (BMC Ecol Evol 21:1–193, 2021) assessed the effects of European agroforestry systems on biodiversity, estimated by species richness or species diversity. They showed that the effects of silvoarable and silvopastoral systems depend on the systems they are compared to and the taxa studied. Further, they found that only silvoarable systems increased species richness or diversity, compared to cropland. The authors conclude that agroforestry systems have weak effects on biodiversity and that landscape context or land-use history are probably more important than the practice of agroforestry in itself. However, we draw attention to important shortcomings in this meta-analysis, which downplay the potential of agroforestry for biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. We hope that the meta-analysis by Mupepele et al. (BMC Ecol Evol 21:1–193, 2021), and our comments, will contribute to improving the quality of research on agroforestry systems and biodiversity conservation.

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Evaluating a trait‐based approach to compare natural enemy and pest communities in agroforestry vs. arable systems

Abstract: Evaluating a trait-based approach to compare natural enemy and pest communities in agroforestry vs. arable systems. Ecological

Cited by 22 publications

References 57 publications

Management to Promote Flowering Understoreys Benefits Natural Enemy Diversity, Aphid Suppression and Income in an Agroforestry System

Management to Promote Flowering Understoreys Benefits Natural Enemy Diversity, Aphid Suppression and Income in an Agroforestry System

Ozone Mitigates the Adverse Effects of Diesel Exhaust Pollutants on Ground-Active Invertebrates in Wheat

Research on agroforestry systems and biodiversity conservation: what can we conclude so far and what should we improve?

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