Influence of landscape composition and avian functional and phylogenetic diversity on agricultural pest control services

• Grant number: 13/12777-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: December 01, 2013
• End date: October 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Jean Paul Walter Metzger
• Grantee: Andrea Larissa Boesing
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Ecosystem services are those ecological functions and processes that directly or indirectly benefit human wellbeing. The regulation of agricultural crop pests is a particularly crucial service in tropical regions where insect-pests cause considerable economic damage. Despite demonstrated links between anthropogenic drivers of environmental change (e.g. land-use change) and biodiversity decline, we have little predictive understanding on how environmental change influences ecosystem service provision. The overall objective of this project is to (i) investigate how landscape forest cover and matrix type composition affect the functional and phylogenetic diversity of bird communities in the Atlantic Forest and, (ii) to analyze how these changes on bird community structure subsequently affects the avian regulation of 'spittlebugs' (Homoptera: Cercopidae); a key insect pests of forage grasses. With a well-replicated study design, we will quantify both avian biodiversity within 30 focal landscapes (n=15 for both coffee and pasture) evenly distributed across a forest cover gradient (5-60%) to verify the changes in the bird communities structure following the habitat loss; and, to quantify avian contribution to 'spittlebug' regulation, we will analyses the relative avian diversity to observed pest prevalence in the landscapes with pasture matrix (n=15), and conduct a series of highly replicated manipulative experiments designed to quantify the per capita contribution of an avian focal group to this pest regulation. The expected results will both inform how landscape and community structure interact to influence pest control services, could be applied in improving pasture's quality. (AU)

Scientific publications

(4)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BOESING, ANDREA LARISSA; NICHOLS, ELIZABETH; METZGER, JEAN PAUL. Biodiversity extinction thresholds are modulated by matrix type. ECOGRAPHY, v. 41, n. 9, p. 1520-1533, NOV 2018. (13/12777-0, 13/23457-6, 14/11676-8)

BOESING, ANDREA L.; NICHOLS, ELIZABETH; METZGER, JEAN P.. Effects of landscape structure on avian-mediated insect pest control services: a review. LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY, v. 32, n. 5, p. 931-944, MAY 2017. (13/12777-0, 13/23457-6, 14/11676-8)

BOESING, ANDREA LARISSA; NICHOLS, ELIZABETH; METZGER, JEAN PAUL. Land use type, forest cover and forest edges modulate avian cross-habitat spillover. JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, v. 55, n. 3, p. 1252-1264, MAY 2018. (13/23457-6, 14/11676-8, 13/12777-0)

BOESING, ANDREA LARISSA; MARQUES, THIAGO SIMON; MARTINELLI, LUIZ ANTONIO; NICHOLS, ELIZABETH; SIQUEIRA, PAULO RICARDO; BEIER, CHRISTIAN; DE CAMARGO, PLINIO BARBOSA; METZGER, JEAN PAUL. Conservation implications of a limited avian cross-habitat spillover in pasture lands. Biological Conservation, v. 253, JAN 2021. (13/23457-6, 13/11032-0, 17/26093-6, 19/13802-4, 13/12777-0)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

BOESING, Andrea Larissa. Landscape processes underpinning bird persistence and avian-mediated pest control in fragmented landscapes. 2016. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências (IBIOC/SB) São Paulo.