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Organic farming affects the potential of a granivorous carabid beetle to control arable weeds at local and landscape scales

Diekötter, Tim ; Wamser, Sabine ; Dörner, Tanja ; Wolters, Volkmar and Birkhofer, Klaus LU (2016) In Agricultural and Forest Entomology 18(2). p.167-173
Abstract

Organic farming not only increases plant diversity, but also simultaneously promotes biological weed control through provisioning of ample resources to seed predators. Harpalus affinis (Schrank, 1781) was collected from organically or conventionally managed winter-wheat fields with high or low surrounding shares of organic fields, aiming to test the impact of agricultural management on its activity density, body size and nutritional condition. Body size and nutritional condition were then related to the arable weed seed predation of this granivorous carabid beetle. Activity density of H. affinis was 3.5-fold higher in organically compared with conventionally managed fields, if these were primarily surrounded by conventional fields. Body... (More)

Organic farming not only increases plant diversity, but also simultaneously promotes biological weed control through provisioning of ample resources to seed predators. Harpalus affinis (Schrank, 1781) was collected from organically or conventionally managed winter-wheat fields with high or low surrounding shares of organic fields, aiming to test the impact of agricultural management on its activity density, body size and nutritional condition. Body size and nutritional condition were then related to the arable weed seed predation of this granivorous carabid beetle. Activity density of H. affinis was 3.5-fold higher in organically compared with conventionally managed fields, if these were primarily surrounded by conventional fields. Body size was larger in fields surrounded by large proportions of organically managed land, independent of local management. The nutritional condition of beetles was unaffected by local or landscape scale farming. Per capita seed predation significantly increased with body size, whereas nutritional condition had no effect. The results of the present study suggest that organic farming at local and landscape scales enhances the potential of species to control arable weeds by increasing activity densities and intraspecific body size. Seed predation therefore not only depends on local and landscape effects on the community composition of local guilds of granivores, but also on the contribution of individual species to this important ecosystem service.

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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Agri-environment schemes, Agricultural intensification, Agro-ecosystem, Arable weeds, Biodiversity, Biological control, Ecosystem services, Plant diversity
in
Agricultural and Forest Entomology
volume
18
issue
2
pages
7 pages
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • wos:000373777800009
  • scopus:84960368698
ISSN
1461-9555
DOI
10.1111/afe.12150
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
cb7b07a9-8156-4f86-9e8f-d82d273a3013
date added to LUP
2016-05-10 13:49:58
date last changed
2024-05-03 00:45:22
@article{cb7b07a9-8156-4f86-9e8f-d82d273a3013,
  abstract     = {{<p>Organic farming not only increases plant diversity, but also simultaneously promotes biological weed control through provisioning of ample resources to seed predators. Harpalus affinis (Schrank, 1781) was collected from organically or conventionally managed winter-wheat fields with high or low surrounding shares of organic fields, aiming to test the impact of agricultural management on its activity density, body size and nutritional condition. Body size and nutritional condition were then related to the arable weed seed predation of this granivorous carabid beetle. Activity density of H. affinis was 3.5-fold higher in organically compared with conventionally managed fields, if these were primarily surrounded by conventional fields. Body size was larger in fields surrounded by large proportions of organically managed land, independent of local management. The nutritional condition of beetles was unaffected by local or landscape scale farming. Per capita seed predation significantly increased with body size, whereas nutritional condition had no effect. The results of the present study suggest that organic farming at local and landscape scales enhances the potential of species to control arable weeds by increasing activity densities and intraspecific body size. Seed predation therefore not only depends on local and landscape effects on the community composition of local guilds of granivores, but also on the contribution of individual species to this important ecosystem service.</p>}},
  author       = {{Diekötter, Tim and Wamser, Sabine and Dörner, Tanja and Wolters, Volkmar and Birkhofer, Klaus}},
  issn         = {{1461-9555}},
  keywords     = {{Agri-environment schemes; Agricultural intensification; Agro-ecosystem; Arable weeds; Biodiversity; Biological control; Ecosystem services; Plant diversity}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{167--173}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Agricultural and Forest Entomology}},
  title        = {{Organic farming affects the potential of a granivorous carabid beetle to control arable weeds at local and landscape scales}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/afe.12150}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/afe.12150}},
  volume       = {{18}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}