Flowering fields, organic farming and edge habitats promote diversity of plants and arthropods on arable land

Gayer, Christoph; Berger, Jochen; Dieterich, Martin; Gallé, Róbert; Reidl, Konrad; Witty, Rosa; Woodcock, Ben A.; Batáry, Péter

doi:10.1111/1365-2664.13851

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The primary role of overwintering carabid for CBC in spring has already been found in earlier studies (Holland et al, 2005; Marrec et al, 2015). Especially, landscape configuration such as edge density and field size has shown positive effects on carabid functional diversity (Gallé et al, 2018, 2019; Gayer et al, 2021). However, landscape composition and the intensity of farming practices may also influence their abundance (Duflot et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural enemies emerging in cereal fields in spring may contribute to biological control

Tortosa

Duflot

Rivers‐Moore

et al. 2022

Agri and Forest Entomology

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Biological pest control is known to depend on landscape heterogeneity. However, such relationship shows irregular pattern and seems influenced by local farming practices and natural enemies that overwinter within crop fields. The objective of this study was to assess the contribution of emerging natural enemies in spring to biological control, and their response to the interaction between landscape heterogeneity and farming intensity. We monitored the overwintering insect community using emergence traps and measured the local potential pest predation using prey cards in 30 cereal fields, in spring in France. Study fields were selected along a landscape heterogeneity gradient and farming practices were recorded. None of the 10 emerging taxa influenced predation of lepidopteran eggs or weed seeds. On the ground, aphid predation was positively correlated with emerging carabid beetles. On foliage, aphid predation was negatively correlated with emerging parasitoids. Overall, the community of natural enemies that overwinters within crop fields seemed to benefit from landscape‐scale lower crop diversity and higher edge density in combination with higher local‐scale farming intensities. This suggests that they represent a subset of species adapted to intensified farming systems. This study highlights a broad taxonomic range of emerging natural enemies and their potential contribution to local pest predation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural enemies emerging in cereal fields in spring may contribute to biological control

Tortosa

Duflot

Rivers‐Moore

et al. 2022

Agri and Forest Entomology

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“…A more recent study showed an overall positive effect of AES on multiple taxa (Boetzl et al, 2021). In a recent study, Gayer et al (2021) showed that promoting diverse habitats such as flower strips, hedgerows and organic farms promotes the diversity of plants and arthropods in croplands. Our results show that conclusions may differ if, in addition to species richness, species composition is taken into account (see also Smart et al, 2006;Clough et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spiders indicate delivery of an agri-environment scheme at multiple diversity levels

Jeanneret

Pozzi²,

Nuñez

2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Agri-environment schemes (AES) are expected to counteract the negative impacts of intensive agriculture on biodiversity. These schemes were specifically designed to target farmland biodiversity and included, for instance, ecological focus areas (EFAs). In Switzerland, in order to qualify for direct payments, farmers must manage 7% or more of their land as biodiversity promotion areas (BPAs). BPAs encompass extensively managed and low intensity hay meadows, fallows (wildflower strips), traditional orchards with high-stem trees and hedgerows. Evaluation of AES delivery for biodiversity is of crucial importance but must be performed across several years and considering the various components of species diversity to avoid incomplete or wrong conclusions. From a complex study design comprising 478 fields in three regions and sampling over 7 years with four sampling times, spider assemblages of BPA habitats were compared to corresponding conventionally managed fields. A battery of investigations was performed including alpha- and beta-diversity analysis, multivariate dispersion, indicator species and species specificity to understand what BPAs deliver for spiders in the habitat scale and farming landscape. Results showed that alpha-diversity (average number of species) was usually higher in BPA habitats than in conventionally managed fields but the species composition (beta-diversity) had more power to perceive AES impact. Furthermore, the various environmental conditions of BPAs in the farming landscape led to highly diverse spider assemblages (multivariate dispersion) emphasizing that not only the agricultural management plays a role in determining species diversity but the environmental heterogeneity. Indicator (and rare) species were mostly found in woody BPAs (hedges and high-stem tree orchards) revealing the high importance of these BPA habitats for spider conservation. At regional scale, BPA hedges contributed most to the regional diversity of spiders in grassland and mixed regions while BPA meadows and wildflower strip BPAs were first delivering in the region of arable crops. Recommendations highlight the role of the woody habitats and of the environmental heterogeneity in the farming landscape as well as of regional planning to make AES effective.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They show a great heterogeneity based on regulations concerning design of and compensation. For example, they can be established as annual or perennial flower strips or even as whole fields (Gayer et al., 2021). Flower strip management can vary following sowing time, harvest time and seed mixture, partly depending on the objective, for example whether pollinators or natural enemies or biodiversity in general should be supported (Albrecht et al., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic farming supports lower pest infestation, but fewer natural enemies than flower strips

Török

Zieger

Rosenthal

et al. 2021

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Flowering fields, organic farming and edge habitats promote diversity of plants and arthropods on arable land

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Cited by 17 publications

References 55 publications

Natural enemies emerging in cereal fields in spring may contribute to biological control

Natural enemies emerging in cereal fields in spring may contribute to biological control

Spiders indicate delivery of an agri-environment scheme at multiple diversity levels

Organic farming supports lower pest infestation, but fewer natural enemies than flower strips

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