Sharing enemies: evidence of forest contribution to natural enemy communities in crops, at different spatial scales

GONZÁLEZ, E.; SALVO, A; VALLADARES, G.

INSECT CONSERVATION AND DIVERSITY

WILEY-LISS, DIV JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2015 vol. 22 p. 129 - 138

1752-458X

1.The increase in cultivated lands has led to ecosystem and biodiversity loss. Arthropod natural enemies, involved in the ecosystem service of biological control, benefit from non-crop habitat and may be affected by its proximity and amount in the landscape. 2.We have evaluated natural enemy richness and composition in relation to forest cover in the landscape and distance from the forest, for a Chaco Serrano forest-soybean crop system. Forest contribution to natural enemies on soybean was also investigated, by assessing similarities between forest and crop assemblages, and examining body size of shared enemies in relation to distance from the forest. In nine landscape circles, yellow pan traps were placed in forest and soybean crops (5, 25, 50 and 100m from forest edge), which collected 8,041 specimens representing 290 species. 3.Species richness of natural enemies was positively related to forest cover and declined from the forest to the furthermost soybean locations, with both forest cover and its proximity affecting community composition. Also, similarity of forest and crop assemblages increased with forest cover and proximity. Finally, forest-crop shared assemblages showed larger average body size at greater distances from the forest, indicating dispersal limitations on forest contribution to the crop. 4.Our results suggest that forest species are important components of natural enemy communities on soybean, and that both the amount of natural habitat and its proximity may influence agroecosystems. We emphasize the importance of non-crop habitat to help maintain natural enemy communities and ensure the ecosystem service of pest control