1. Is the distribution of beneficial arthropods influenced by mixed hedgerows?
- Author
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Debras, Jean Francois, Senoussi, Rachid, Rieux, René, Buisson, Elise, Dutoit, Thierry, Unité de recherche Plantes et Systèmes de Culture Horticoles (PSH), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Biostatistique et Processus Spatiaux (BioSP), and Avignon Université (AU)
- Subjects
CACOPSYLLA PYRI ,MIXED HEDGE ,[SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio] ,[SDE]Environmental Sciences ,IPM ,[INFO]Computer Science [cs] ,ARTHROPOD COMMUNITY ,SHANNON INDEX OF DIVERSITY ,[MATH]Mathematics [math] - Abstract
National audience; Farming intensification in recent decades has led to an alarming level of degradation and loss of wildlife and its hedgerow habitat. The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has emerged as a central issue in ecological sciences, but the situation regarding hedgerow function as a potential source of biological control agents against agricultural pests remains poorly understood. We evaluated possible effects of the arthropod community in a neighbouring hedge on the distribution of the pest psylla Cacopsylla pyri L. (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) in a pear orchard Pyrus communis L. over three consecutive years (1999-2001). We measured the diversity of the arthropod community in the hedge and in the orchard at increasing distances from the hedge using Shannon index of diversity, and the Hellinger distance and Mahalanobis index to highlight dissimilarities between population distributions. Our results showed a convergence between predator populations in the orchard and the hedgerow during Psylla proliferation. There was a decreasing diversity gradient as distance from the hedge increased. Beneficial arthropod exchanges occurring between the mixed hedgerow and the pear orchard during the pest proliferation period suggest that field border management can be used in an integrated pest management strategy aimed at reducing insecticide use.
- Published
- 2008