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The effect of landscape context on the biological control of Sitobion avenae: temporal partitioning response of natural enemy guilds

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Abstract

Landscape contexts with high complexity may promote diversity of natural enemies, although the effect on biocontrol remains under discussion. Although biocontrol of Sitobion avenae is a well-studied system, little is known about the temporal effect of landscape context on the natural enemy assemblages. In a previous study, we showed a positive effect of predators in the decline of aphids; however, this effect had a temporal pattern responding to different landscape contexts. We study here two contrasting agricultural contexts, high landscape complexity with low intensification and low complexity with high intensification. Abundance and diversity of parasitoids was examined via a molecular approach, using a combination of diagnostic multiplex and singleplex PCR assays to test field-collected samples of S. avenae with genus- and species-specific parasitoid primer pairs. Temporal population dynamics were analyzed and differences related to these two contexts were observed. Parasitism rates were greater in the mid-sampling dates in high intensification simple landscapes, which were not observed for the low intensification complex landscapes. According to our results, we suggest that the greater landscape complexity in combination with a low agricultural intensification increase negative interactions for parasitoid population built-up; however, early predation by coccinellids was able to control the aphid populations. In contrast, under a simple landscape context with a high agricultural intensification, our results suggest an important role of parasitism with a complementary effect of late predation. We highlight the importance of different natural enemy guilds and their temporal dynamics under contrasting agricultural settings to further understand the relationship between functional diversity and biological control.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Cinthya Villegas, Nuri Cabrera, Vixania Faundez and Pablo Martinez for their help in field collection samples and laboratory procedures. To Lucie Raymond, Manuel Plantegenest, Joan van Baaren, Michael Traugott and Zhengpei Ye for their valuable comments and providing samples. We thank the anonymous referees for providing helpful comments and suggestions on the manuscript. This study was funded by Fondecyt Grant 1140632 and 1110341 of BL and CONICYT and Universidad de Talca doctoral Grant of SO. The authors also would like to thank to the Marie Curie grant “APHIDWEB: Structure, strength and invasibility of aphid food webs”.

Funding

This study was funded by Fondecyt grant 1140632 of BL and CONICYT and Universidad de Talca doctoral grant of SO.

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  1. Laboratorio de Control Biológico, Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de Talca, Avda. Lircay s/n, Talca, Chile

    Sebastián A. Ortiz-Martínez & Blas Lavandero

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  1. Sebastián A. Ortiz-Martínez
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Correspondence to Sebastián A. Ortiz-Martínez or Blas Lavandero.

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SO and BL declare that they have no conflict of interest. All authors contributed equally.

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Ortiz-Martínez, S.A., Lavandero, B. The effect of landscape context on the biological control of Sitobion avenae: temporal partitioning response of natural enemy guilds. J Pest Sci 91, 41–53 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-017-0855-y

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