Hedgerow benefits align with food production and sustainability goals

Long, Rachael; Garbach, Kelly; Morandin, Lora A.

doi:10.3733/ca.2017a0020

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In intensively-managed production systems in California, hedgerow plantings, implemented to enhance pest control, game birds, and/or other ecosystem services, are made up of diverse, perennial native shrubs, grasses, and forbs that provide a sequence of floral resources (Bugg et al, 1998;Garbach and Long, 2017;Long et al, 2017). Our previous studies examined how these hedgerows affect pollinator populations and communities, focusing on time since restoration in two types of studies: before-after-control-impact M'Gonigle et al, 2015) or space-for-time substitution (Ponisio et al, , 2017.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollinator Community Assembly Tracks Changes in Floral Resources as Restored Hedgerows Mature in Agricultural Landscapes

2018

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Intensive agriculture reduces wild pollinator abundance, diversity and pollination services, while depending critically on wild pollinators for crop pollination. Floral enhancements such as hedgerows (native, perennial flowering trees and shrubs) can enhance pollinator colonization, persistence, occupancy, and species richness within intensive agricultural landscapes. However, little is known about the specific features of hedgerows that promote pollinator communities in such landscapes. Understanding how pollinator communities respond to local changes in site conditions as hedgerows mature, such as the availability of floral or nesting resources, can help guide the design of more effective hedgerows that promote pollinators and/or pollination services. In an intensively-managed agricultural region of California, we found that pollinator community attributes responded principally to the enhancement of floral diversity as hedgerows mature, as well as to surrounding natural habitat. Once hedgerows matured, this relationship leveled off, suggesting either saturation of community assembly processes, or greater importance of floral density/display relative to diversity. Although we did not find any relationships between measures of pollinator community diversity and nesting resources, such resources are notably difficult to measure. Surrounding natural habitat also affected species and functional richness at hedgerows, particularly for solitary bees that nest above ground. Such species are known to be particularly sensitive to the negative effects of agriculture. Thus, hedgerows in combination with natural habitat may reverse some of the community disassembly provoked by intensive agriculture.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollinator Community Assembly Tracks Changes in Floral Resources as Restored Hedgerows Mature in Agricultural Landscapes

2018

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“…Woody margins in our study area were planted or retained primarily to attract beneficial invertebrates, including natural enemies and native bees (Long and Anderson , Garbach and Long , Long et al. ), or for windbreaks and erosion control (Baudry et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiscale habitat mediates pest reduction by birds in an intensive agricultural region

Heath

Long²

2019

Ecosphere

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Habitat augmentation on farms is predicted to conserve biological diversity and support beneficial animals that reduce crop pests. Effectiveness of local habitat enhancement and subsequent pest reduction services can be mediated by the amount of habitat at larger scales. We tested whether the presence and increase of local and landscape scale bird habitat increased avian predator abundance and pest reduction by birds. We surveyed birds and performed a sentinel prey exclosure experiment in walnut orchards in the Sacramento Valley, California, USA—comparing predation probability between orchards with (n = 10) and without (n = 10) woody habitat in uncultivated orchard margins. We digitized seminatural habitat cover in landscapes around orchards to test the effectiveness of avian predators in reducing sentinel prey along a seminatural cover gradient of 0–38%. Experimental prey were diapausing larvae of Cydia pomonella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae; codling moth), a significant pest of walnuts, which overwinter in cocoons in orchards, emerge as adults, and produce larvae that feed on the nuts the following spring. Permitting bird access to cocoons increased larval predation from 11% (caged) to 46% (no cage), and predation increased with increasing proportions of seminatural habitat within 500‐m of orchard transects. Predation also increased as the size and bark furrow depth of walnut trees increased, likely because these characteristics were associated with increasing abundance of avian predators with functional traits specific to consuming tree‐dwelling cocoons (e.g., woodpeckers). The presence and increasing complexity of local margin habitat increased the species richness and abundance of avian predators but was not predictive of cocoon predation. Consistent with intermediate landscape‐complexity hypothesis predictions, the effect size of woodpecker abundance on predation was large in simple landscapes (1–20% seminatural cover) and low in complex landscapes (>20% cover). Contrary to predictions, effect size was large in cleared landscapes (<1% cover), suggesting that orchards supported predators in cleared landscapes, with positive effects on pest reduction. We provide evidence that increasing the abundance of avian predators with traits specific for consuming target pests—by retaining old trees and seminatural cover—can increase orchard pest reduction services in an intensive agricultural region.

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“…However, there is considerable opportunity for more active management of these features. Interest is growing among farmers and conservation partners in this region to improve riparian habitat along agricultural waterways, which can include building gentle riparian bank slopes, planting or preserving riparian vegetation, or allowing these features to develop (A. J. Webster, personal observation; Brodt et al 2008, Long et al 2017. By utilizing farm edges along waterways, riparian habitat and a suite of associated ecosystem services could be increased while minimizing loss of productive farm land.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Long et al. ). By utilizing farm edges along waterways, riparian habitat and a suite of associated ecosystem services could be increased while minimizing loss of productive farm land.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controls on denitrification potential in nitrate‐rich waterways and riparian zones of an irrigated agricultural setting

Webster

Groffman

Cadenasso

2018

Ecological Applications

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Denitrification, the microbial conversion of NO to N gases, is an important process contributing to whether lotic and riparian ecosystems act as sinks for excess NO from agricultural activities. Though agricultural waterways and riparian zones have been a focus of denitrification research for decades, almost none of this research has occurred in the irrigated agricultural settings of arid and semiarid climates. In this study, we conducted a broad survey of denitrification potential in riparian soils and channel sediments from 79 waterway reaches in the irrigated agricultural landscape of California's Central Valley. With this approach, we sought to capture the wide range of variation that arose from diverse waterway management and fluctuating flow conditions, and use this variation to identify promising management interventions. We explored associations of denitrification potentials with surface water NO -N, organic matter, flow conditions, vegetation cover, near-channel riparian bank slope, and channel geomorphic features using generalized linear mixed models. We found strong associations of sediment denitrification potentials with reach flow conditions, which we hypothesize was the result of variation in microbial communities' tolerance to dry-wet cycles. Denitrification potentials in riparian soils, in contrast, did not appear affected by flow conditions, but instead were associated with organic matter, vegetation cover, and bank slope in the riparian zone. These results suggest a strong need for further work on how denitrification responds to varying flow conditions and dry-wet cycles in non-perennial lotic ecosystems. Our findings also demonstrate that denitrifier communities respond to key features of waterway management, which can therefore be leveraged to control denitrification through a variety of management actions.

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Hedgerow benefits align with food production and sustainability goals

Cited by 19 publications

References 19 publications

Pollinator Community Assembly Tracks Changes in Floral Resources as Restored Hedgerows Mature in Agricultural Landscapes

Pollinator Community Assembly Tracks Changes in Floral Resources as Restored Hedgerows Mature in Agricultural Landscapes

Multiscale habitat mediates pest reduction by birds in an intensive agricultural region

Controls on denitrification potential in nitrate‐rich waterways and riparian zones of an irrigated agricultural setting

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