The role of ecological infrastructure on beneficial arthropods in vineyards

Abstract

Weeds and non-cultivated plants have a great impact on abundance and diversity of beneficial arthropods in agriculture. The main aim of this work was to study the influence of the ecological infrastructure (meadows and weedy margins) on the arthropod composition in vineyard surrounding landscape. Research was carried out from May to October during three years. Sampling took place in the ecological infrastructure of three differently managed vineyards (organic, integrated and extensive). Three zones were chosen in each vineyard (3 m, 10 m, and 30 m from the edge of the vineyard). Samples were taken using a standardised sweep net method. In total, we captured 6032 spiders and 1309 insects belonging to 4 orders and 10 families. Arthropod fauna was numerically dominated by Aranea (82.1%); among insects, Coleoptera was the most abundant taxonomic group (10.6%); Neuroptera showed the lowest value (0.88%). Significant differences were found between sites and zones. Organic vineyard showed the highest abundance of arthropods (92.41% were spiders) and in the integrated vineyard there was a 23% of insects. Both the highest abundance of arthropods and the highest Shannon Index value (2.46) was found 3 m away from the edge of the vineyard. Results showed that spiders were the dominant arthropods and ladybugs the dominant insects. Weedy strips near the edge of the vineyard contained a high number of insects and spiders. Our results support the importance of weedy margins in enhancing the population of arthropods as well as in biodiversity promotion. Well-managed field margins could play important role in biological control of vineyard pests.

Ground beetles (Carabidae) of field margin habitats

“…Intensive farming practices have significantly reduced the fragmentation/mosaic spaces of the agricultural landscape (Rusch et al 2016;Landis 2017;Kadej et al 2018;Ortiz-Martinez and Lavandero 2018). The monitoring of ecological/agroecological infrastructure in the cultural landscape is one of the aspects that should be considered in ecological engineering (Franin et al 2016;Ortiz-Martinez and Lavandero 2018). This management model should consider the fragmentation of non-arable ecosystems, i.e.…”

“…polyculture (de Bruin et al 2010;Tscharntke et al 2016). All this should create the foundation for greening the rural economy, to prevent the progressive fragmentation and diminished role of margin habitats as hot-spots of biodiversity (Ranjha and Irmler 2013;Franin et al 2016). Polycultural landscape means the protection of habitats with reservoirs of zoophages, which are both host plants for invertebrates, as well as invertebrates as alternative food for zoophages.…”

“…Different types of margin habitats have been identified: headlands with herbaceous vegetation, tree stands or tree lines, mid-field tree belts, shelterbelts, shrubby areas, roadsides, mid-field forests or midfield woodlots or forest islands, ditches, ponds, meadows, etc. (Šustek 1994, 1998Marshall and Moonen 2002;Kujawa et al 2006;Alemu 2016;Franin et al 2016;Schirmel et al 2016;Tscharntke et al 2016;Fusser et al 2017;Holland et al 2017;Ingrao et al 2017;Medeiros et al 2018). The multifunctional role of these habitats consists in: increasing the number of natural enemies of pests; increasing the biodiversity of wild organisms; providing primary food or alternative food sources for beneficial entomofauna, including pollinators, parasitoids and predators; providing sites for nesting, sheltering and overwintering of invertebrates, mammals and birds; reducing the use of chemicals in crops, and the transfer of pollutants to different areas of the landscape (e.g.…”

“…In some habitats with lower plant cover rate they disperse easily, while other habitats create obstacles to their migration (Cole et al 2012;Ohwaki et al 2015). Generally Carabidae, like other invertebrates, respond positively to habitat diversity by increased abundance and species richness (Kromp and Steinberger 1992;Yu et al 2006;Cameron and Leather 2012;ÓHuallachain et al 2014;Franin et al 2016;Schirmel et al 2016).…”

Effects of vineyard inter-row management on the diversity and abundance of plants and surface-dwelling invertebrates in Central Romania

“…The respective plant communities determine the physical structure, climatic conditions, food and nesting resources in most habitats and therefore exert considerable influence on the distribution and interactions of animal species (Lawton 1983;McCoy and Bell 1991) and ecosystem services (Winter et al 2018). Spontaneous vegetation and/ or seeded cover crops have a great impact on abundance and diversity of beneficial arthropods in vineyards (Buchholz et al 2017;Franin et al 2016). Flowering plants provide nectar and pollen resources to flower-visiting insects (Ambrosino et al 2006;Kratschmer et al 2019).…”