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Management intensity at field and landscape levels affects the structure of generalist predator communities

  • Community ecology - Original research
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Abstract

Agricultural intensification is recognised as a major driver of biodiversity loss in human-modified landscapes. Several agro-environmental measures at different spatial scales have been suggested to mitigate the negative impact of intensification on biodiversity and ecosystem services. The effect of these measures on the functional structure of service-providing communities remains, however, largely unexplored. Using two distinct landscape designs, we examined how the management options of organic farming at the field scale and crop diversification at the landscape level affect the taxonomic and functional structure of generalist predator communities and how these effects vary along a landscape complexity gradient. Organic farming as well as landscapes with longer and more diversified crop rotations enhanced the activity-density of spiders and rove beetles, but not the species richness or evenness. Our results indicate that the two management options affected the functional composition of communities, as they primarily enhanced the activity-density of functionally similar species. The two management options increased the functional similarity between spider species in regards to hunting mode and habitat preference. Organic farming enhanced the functional similarity of rove beetles. Management options at field and landscape levels were generally more important predictors of community structure when compared to landscape complexity. Our study highlights the importance of considering the functional composition of generalist predators in order to understand how agro-environmental measures at various scales shape community assemblages and ecosystem functioning in agricultural landscapes.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mattias Jonsson for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript and two anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments on the manuscript. Financial support was provided by the Swedish research council FORMAS to the project “SAPES—Multifunctional agriculture: harnessing biodiversity for sustaining agricultural production and ecosystem services”, and by the ERA-Net Biodiversa to the project “APPEAL—Assessment and valuation of Pest suppression Potential through biological control in European Agricultural Landscapes”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRA, ISVV, UMR 1065 Santé et Agroécologie du Vignoble, 33883, Villenave d’Ornon, France

    Adrien Rusch

  2. Université de Bordeaux, UMR 1065 SAVE, Bordeaux Sciences Agro, 33883,, Villenave d’Ornon, France

    Adrien Rusch

  3. Department of Biology, Centre of Environmental and Climate Research, Lund University, Ecology Building, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    Klaus Birkhofer & Henrik G. Smith

  4. Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

    Adrien Rusch, Riccardo Bommarco & Barbara Ekbom

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  1. Adrien Rusch
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  2. Klaus Birkhofer
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  4. Henrik G. Smith
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  5. Barbara Ekbom
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Correspondence to Adrien Rusch.

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Communicated by Raphael Didham.

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Rusch, A., Birkhofer, K., Bommarco, R. et al. Management intensity at field and landscape levels affects the structure of generalist predator communities. Oecologia 175, 971–983 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-014-2949-z

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