Forest cover enhances natural enemy diversity and biological control services in Brazilian sun coffee plantations

Autor(es)

Medeiros, Hugo Reis ^{[1, 2]} ; Grandinete, Yuri Campanholo ^[3] ; Manning, Paul ^[4] ; Harper, Karen A. ^{[5, 6, 7]} ; Cutler, G. Christopher ^[4] ; Tyedmers, Peter ^{[5, 6]} ; Righi, Ciro Abbud ^{[8, 1]} ; Ribeiro, Milton Cezar ^[2]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, CENA, Propama Posgrad Ecol Aplicada Interunidades, BR-13400000 Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Estadual Paulista, UNESP, Inst Biociencias, Dept Ecol, Spatial Ecol & Conservat Lab LEEC, BR-13506900 Rio Claro, SP - Brazil

^[3] Univ Estadual Paulista, UNESP, Dept Zool & Bot, Inst Biociencias Letras & Ciencias Exatas IBILCE, BR-15054000 Sao Jose Do Rio Preto, SP - Brazil

^[4] Dalhousie Univ, Fac Agr, Dept Plant Food & Environm Sci, Truro, NS B2N 5E3 - Canada

^[5] Dalhousie Univ, Sch Resource & Environm Studies, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2 - Canada

^[6] Dalhousie Univ, Coll Sustainabil, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2 - Canada

^[7] St Marys Univ, Biol Dept, Halifax, NS B3H 3C3 - Canada

^[8] Univ Sao Paulo, ESALQ, Dept Ciencias Florestais, BR-13418900 Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: AGRONOMY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT; v. 39, n. 6 DEC 2019.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

Landscape structure and crop management directly affect insect communities, which can influence agriculturally relevant ecosystem services and disservices. However, little is known about the effect of landscape structure and local factors on pests, natural enemies, and biological control services in the Neotropics. We investigated how environmental conditions at local and landscape levels affect Leucoptera coffeella (insect pest), social wasps (natural enemies), and the provision of biological control services in 16 Brazilian coffee plantations under different crop management and landscape contexts. We considered microclimatic conditions, coffee plantation size, and management intensity at the local level; and forest cover, landscape diversity, and edge density at the landscape level. Pest population, wasp communities, and biocontrol services were monitored in wet and dry seasons when L. coffeella outbreaks occur. We found that the amount of forest in the surrounding landscape was more important for explaining patterns than the local environment, landscape diversity, or landscape configuration. In both seasons, L. coffeella was negatively affected by forest cover, whereas biological control and richness and abundance of social wasps increased with increasing forest cover at multiple spatial scales. Moreover, biological control was positively correlated with wasp abundance during pest outbreaks, suggesting that social wasps are important natural enemies and provide pest control services within coffee plantations. We provide the first empirical evidence that forest cover is important for the maintenance of social wasp diversity and associated pest control services in a Brazilian coffee-producing region. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 13/50421-2 - Novos métodos de amostragem e ferramentas estatísticas para pesquisa em biodiversidade: integrando ecologia de movimento com ecologia de população e comunidade
• Beneficiário: Milton Cezar Ribeiro
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular