Zhang, X;
Axmacher, J;
Wu, P;
Zhang, X;
Liu, Y;
(2019)
Productive Oilseed Rape Strips Supplement Seminatural Field-Margins in Promoting Ground-Dwelling Predatory Invertebrates in Agricultural Landscapes.
Journal of Insect Science
, 19
(3)
, Article 18. 10.1093/jisesa/iez055.
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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.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Productive Oilseed Rape Strips Supplement Seminatural Field-Margins in Promoting Ground-Dwelling Predatory Invertebrates in Agricultural Landscapes |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/jisesa/iez055 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/iez055 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10075751 |
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