Both woody and herbaceous semi-natural habitats are essential for spider overwintering in European farmland

Both woody and herbaceous semi-natural habitats are essential for spider overwintering in European farmland

•Spider densities in semi-natural habitats are three times as high as in crops.•As an exception, Oedothorax apicatus overwinters almost entirely in crops.•Most spiders emerge prior to the arrival of pests in crop fields.•Woody SNH have the highest spider species richness.•Herbaceous SNH have the hig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Agriculture, ecosystems & environment Vol. 267; pp. 141 - 146
Main Authors: Mestre, Laia, Schirmel, Jens, Hetz, Johanna, Kolb, Sebastian, Pfister, Sonja C., Amato, Michael, Sutter, Louis, Jeanneret, Philippe, Albrecht, Matthias, Entling, Martin H.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15-11-2018
Elsevier BV
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Agriculture
Arthropods
Biodiversity
Biological control
Communities
Conservation
Crop fields
Crops
Ecosystem services
Ecosystems
Emergence trap
Flower strips
Grassland
Ground based control
Habitats
Hedgerow
Hibernation
Landscape
Overwintering
Pest control
Species richness
Spiders
Sustainable agriculture
Grassland
Emergence trap
Hedgerow
Flower strips
Biological control
Hibernation
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Summary:•Spider densities in semi-natural habitats are three times as high as in crops.•As an exception, Oedothorax apicatus overwinters almost entirely in crops.•Most spiders emerge prior to the arrival of pests in crop fields.•Woody SNH have the highest spider species richness.•Herbaceous SNH have the highest potential as source habitat for agrobionts. Semi-natural habitats (SNH) support biodiversity and associated ecosystem services on farmland, thereby contributing to sustainable agriculture. However, little is known about the specific suitability of different types of SNH as overwintering habitat for predatory arthropods, despite the crucial role of such knowledge for conservation biological control. We used ground photoeclectors to sample spiders in 65 habitats comprising crop fields and four major SNH types (herbaceous areal, herbaceous linear, woody areal, woody linear) across two study regions in Switzerland and Germany to identify the most important overwintering habitats for spiders. Spider emergence started in February and over half of the individuals of the most common spiders had already emerged by late April. SNH supported on average 146% higher species richness and 194% higher densities of spiders than crop fields. Woody and herbaceous SNH supported distinct spider communities, with individual species exhibiting marked preferences for either woody or herbaceous SNH. Habitat shape (areal or linear) had no significant effects on spider overwintering. Woody SNH hosted more species, whereas herbaceous SNH had higher densities of agrobiont species (i.e. species known to reach high densities in crops in the growing season). Given the higher number of overwintering agrobionts in herbaceous SNH, this habitat type has potential to promote pest control by spill-over of spiders into nearby crops early in the season. In contrast, woody SNH seem to be more important for the conservation of diverse spider communities that are highly distinct from those inhabiting open land. Hence, creating and preserving a variety of SNH is key to provide suitable overwintering sites for species in agricultural landscapes.
ISSN:0167-8809
1873-2305
DOI:10.1016/j.agee.2018.08.018