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Inconsistent responses of carabid beetles and spiders to land-use intensity and landscape complexity in north-western Europe

Mei, Zulin ; Scheper, Jeroen ; Bommarco, Riccardo LU ; de Groot, Gerard Arjen ; Garratt, Michael P.D. ; Hedlund, Katarina LU orcid ; Potts, Simon G. ; Redlich, Sarah ; Smith, Henrik G. LU and Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf , et al. (2023) In Biological Conservation 283.
Abstract

Reconciling biodiversity conservation with agricultural production requires a better understanding of how key ecosystem service providing species respond to agricultural intensification. Carabid beetles and spiders represent two widespread guilds providing biocontrol services. Here we surveyed carabid beetles and spiders in 66 winter wheat fields in four northwestern European countries and analyzed how the activity density and diversity of carabid beetles and spiders were related to crop yield (proxy for land-use intensity), percentage cropland (proxy for landscape complexity) and soil organic carbon content, and whether these patterns differed between dominant and non-dominant species. <17 % of carabid or spider species were... (More)

Reconciling biodiversity conservation with agricultural production requires a better understanding of how key ecosystem service providing species respond to agricultural intensification. Carabid beetles and spiders represent two widespread guilds providing biocontrol services. Here we surveyed carabid beetles and spiders in 66 winter wheat fields in four northwestern European countries and analyzed how the activity density and diversity of carabid beetles and spiders were related to crop yield (proxy for land-use intensity), percentage cropland (proxy for landscape complexity) and soil organic carbon content, and whether these patterns differed between dominant and non-dominant species. <17 % of carabid or spider species were classified as dominant, which accounted for >90 % of individuals respectively. We found that carabids and spiders were generally related to different aspects of agricultural intensification. Carabid species richness was positively related with crop yield and evenness was negatively related to crop cover. The activity density of non-dominant carabids was positively related with soil organic carbon content. Meanwhile, spider species richness and non-dominant spider species richness and activity density were all negatively related to percentage cropland. Our results show that practices targeted to enhance one functionally important guild may not promote another key guild, which helps explain why conservation measures to enhance natural enemies generally do not ultimately enhance pest regulation. Dominant and non-dominant species of both guilds showed mostly similar responses suggesting that management practices to enhance service provisioning by a certain guild can also enhance the overall diversity of that particular guild.

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Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Dominant species, Ecological intensification, Evenness, Natural enemies, Pest control service, Soil organic carbon
in
Biological Conservation
volume
283
article number
110128
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85159580857
ISSN
0006-3207
DOI
10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110128
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
8140dc97-df0d-497f-bc43-94252c22cde2
date added to LUP
2023-08-17 10:25:53
date last changed
2024-05-18 04:27:13
@article{8140dc97-df0d-497f-bc43-94252c22cde2,
  abstract     = {{<p>Reconciling biodiversity conservation with agricultural production requires a better understanding of how key ecosystem service providing species respond to agricultural intensification. Carabid beetles and spiders represent two widespread guilds providing biocontrol services. Here we surveyed carabid beetles and spiders in 66 winter wheat fields in four northwestern European countries and analyzed how the activity density and diversity of carabid beetles and spiders were related to crop yield (proxy for land-use intensity), percentage cropland (proxy for landscape complexity) and soil organic carbon content, and whether these patterns differed between dominant and non-dominant species. &lt;17 % of carabid or spider species were classified as dominant, which accounted for &gt;90 % of individuals respectively. We found that carabids and spiders were generally related to different aspects of agricultural intensification. Carabid species richness was positively related with crop yield and evenness was negatively related to crop cover. The activity density of non-dominant carabids was positively related with soil organic carbon content. Meanwhile, spider species richness and non-dominant spider species richness and activity density were all negatively related to percentage cropland. Our results show that practices targeted to enhance one functionally important guild may not promote another key guild, which helps explain why conservation measures to enhance natural enemies generally do not ultimately enhance pest regulation. Dominant and non-dominant species of both guilds showed mostly similar responses suggesting that management practices to enhance service provisioning by a certain guild can also enhance the overall diversity of that particular guild.</p>}},
  author       = {{Mei, Zulin and Scheper, Jeroen and Bommarco, Riccardo and de Groot, Gerard Arjen and Garratt, Michael P.D. and Hedlund, Katarina and Potts, Simon G. and Redlich, Sarah and Smith, Henrik G. and Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf and van der Putten, Wim H. and van Gils, Stijn and Kleijn, David}},
  issn         = {{0006-3207}},
  keywords     = {{Dominant species; Ecological intensification; Evenness; Natural enemies; Pest control service; Soil organic carbon}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Biological Conservation}},
  title        = {{Inconsistent responses of carabid beetles and spiders to land-use intensity and landscape complexity in north-western Europe}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110128}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110128}},
  volume       = {{283}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}