Abstract

The expansion of intensive agricultural practices is a major threat to biodiversity and to the delivery of ecosystem services on which humans depend. Local-scale conservation management strategies, such as agri-environment schemes to preserve biodiversity, have been widely adopted to reduce the negative impacts of agricultural intensification. However, it is likely that the effectiveness of these local-scale management actions depend on the structure and composition of the surrounding landscape. We experimentally tested the utility of floral resource strips to improve local-scale biological control of crop pests, when placed within a gradient of moderately simple through to highly complex landscapes. We found that experimental provision of floral resources enhanced parasitism rates of two globally important crop pests in moderately simple landscapes but not in highly complex ones, and this translated into reduced pest abundances and increased crop yield.Synthesis and applications. Our results lend experimental support for the intermediate landscape complexity hypothesis', which predicts that local conservation management will be most effective in moderately simple agricultural landscapes, and less effective in either very simple landscapes where there is no capacity for response, or in highly complex landscapes where response potential is already saturated. This knowledge will allow more targeted and cost-effective implementation of conservation biological control programs based on an improved understanding of landscape-dependent processes, which will reduce the negative impacts of agricultural intensification.Our results lend experimental support for the intermediate landscape complexity hypothesis', which predicts that local conservation management will be most effective in moderately simple agricultural landscapes, and less effective in either very simple landscapes where there is no capacity for response, or in highly complex landscapes where response potential is already saturated. This knowledge will allow more targeted and cost-effective implementation of conservation biological control programs based on an improved understanding of landscape-dependent processes, which will reduce the negative impacts of agricultural intensification.

Keywords

agri-environment schemes; Brevicoryne brassicae; ecosystem services; floral resource subsidies; landscape context; parasitism; Plutella xylostella

Published in

Journal of Applied Ecology
2015, Volume: 52, number: 5, pages: 1274-1282
Publisher: WILEY-BLACKWELL

SLU Authors

• Jonsson, Mattias

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Lincoln University

Associated SLU-program

SLU Plant Protection Network


Sustainable Development Goals

SDG15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
SDG2 End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture


UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science
Ecology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12489

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/68735