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Jurczyk M, Wolters V, Birkhofer K. Utilization of prey-rich patches leads to reproductive advantages for clustered individuals of a web-building spider. ECOSCIENCE 2015. [DOI: 10.2980/19-2-3517] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Serbina L, Burckhardt D, Birkhofer K, Syfert MM, Halbert SE. The potato pest Russelliana solanicola Tuthill (Hemiptera: Psylloidea): taxonomy and host-plant patterns. Zootaxa 2015; 4021:33-62. [PMID: 26624119 DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4021.1.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2015] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
The Neotropical jumping plant-louse Russelliana solanicola Tuthill is a potato pest and a probable vector of plant pathogens. Populations morphologically similar to those found on potatoes have been collected on plants of at least ten different families, four of which have been confirmed as hosts by the presence of immatures. This suggests that R. solanicola is either a single polyphagous species or a complex of closely related, monophagous species (host races/cryptic species). Results of our analyses of multiple morphometric characters show for both sexes a grouping of the populations of R. solanicola and a clear separation of the latter from other Russelliana species. On the other hand, within R. solanicola, there is an overlap of populations from different host-plants as well as from different geographical regions. The results of the present study strongly suggest that R. solanicola is a single, polyphagous species and the known distribution indicates that it is native to the Andes. It is likely that R. solanicola has been introduced into eastern Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The polyphagy together with the ability to disperse and transmit plant pathogens potentially make this species an economically important pest of potato and other crop species.
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Tsiafouli MA, Thébault E, Sgardelis SP, de Ruiter PC, van der Putten WH, Birkhofer K, Hemerik L, de Vries FT, Bardgett RD, Brady MV, Bjornlund L, Jørgensen HB, Christensen S, Hertefeldt TD, Hotes S, Gera Hol WH, Frouz J, Liiri M, Mortimer SR, Setälä H, Tzanopoulos J, Uteseny K, Pižl V, Stary J, Wolters V, Hedlund K. Intensive agriculture reduces soil biodiversity across Europe. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2015; 21:973-85. [PMID: 25242445 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12752] [Citation(s) in RCA: 240] [Impact Index Per Article: 26.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2014] [Revised: 09/04/2014] [Accepted: 09/10/2014] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Soil biodiversity plays a key role in regulating the processes that underpin the delivery of ecosystem goods and services in terrestrial ecosystems. Agricultural intensification is known to change the diversity of individual groups of soil biota, but less is known about how intensification affects biodiversity of the soil food web as a whole, and whether or not these effects may be generalized across regions. We examined biodiversity in soil food webs from grasslands, extensive, and intensive rotations in four agricultural regions across Europe: in Sweden, the UK, the Czech Republic and Greece. Effects of land-use intensity were quantified based on structure and diversity among functional groups in the soil food web, as well as on community-weighted mean body mass of soil fauna. We also elucidate land-use intensity effects on diversity of taxonomic units within taxonomic groups of soil fauna. We found that between regions soil food web diversity measures were variable, but that increasing land-use intensity caused highly consistent responses. In particular, land-use intensification reduced the complexity in the soil food webs, as well as the community-weighted mean body mass of soil fauna. In all regions across Europe, species richness of earthworms, Collembolans, and oribatid mites was negatively affected by increased land-use intensity. The taxonomic distinctness, which is a measure of taxonomic relatedness of species in a community that is independent of species richness, was also reduced by land-use intensification. We conclude that intensive agriculture reduces soil biodiversity, making soil food webs less diverse and composed of smaller bodied organisms. Land-use intensification results in fewer functional groups of soil biota with fewer and taxonomically more closely related species. We discuss how these changes in soil biodiversity due to land-use intensification may threaten the functioning of soil in agricultural production systems.
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Birkhofer K, Diehl E, Andersson J, Ekroos J, Früh-Müller A, Machnikowski F, Mader VL, Nilsson L, Sasaki K, Rundlöf M, Wolters V, Smith HG. Ecosystem services—current challenges and opportunities for ecological research. Front Ecol Evol 2015. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2014.00087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 90] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Hines J, van der Putten WH, De Deyn GB, Wagg C, Voigt W, Mulder C, Weisser WW, Engel J, Melian C, Scheu S, Birkhofer K, Ebeling A, Scherber C, Eisenhauer N. Towards an Integration of Biodiversity–Ecosystem Functioning and Food Web Theory to Evaluate Relationships between Multiple Ecosystem Services. ADV ECOL RES 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.aecr.2015.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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Rader R, Birkhofer K, Schmucki R, Smith HG, Stjernman M, Lindborg R. Organic farming and heterogeneous landscapes positively affect different measures of plant diversity. J Appl Ecol 2014. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.12344] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Birkhofer K, Bird T, Bilde T, Lubin Y. Spatial patterns of social spider colonies in Namibia reflect habitat features and dispersal modes. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2014. [DOI: 10.1080/0035919x.2014.941044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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Rusch A, Birkhofer K, Bommarco R, Smith HG, Ekbom B. Management intensity at field and landscape levels affects the structure of generalist predator communities. Oecologia 2014; 175:971-83. [DOI: 10.1007/s00442-014-2949-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2013] [Accepted: 04/16/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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Andersson GK, Birkhofer K, Rundlöf M, Smith HG. Landscape heterogeneity and farming practice alter the species composition and taxonomic breadth of pollinator communities. Basic Appl Ecol 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2013.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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Diehl E, Sereda E, Wolters V, Birkhofer K. Effects of predator specialization, host plant and climate on biological control of aphids by natural enemies: a meta-analysis. J Appl Ecol 2013. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.12032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Birkhofer K, Schöning I, Alt F, Herold N, Klarner B, Maraun M, Marhan S, Oelmann Y, Wubet T, Yurkov A, Begerow D, Berner D, Buscot F, Daniel R, Diekötter T, Ehnes RB, Erdmann G, Fischer C, Foesel B, Groh J, Gutknecht J, Kandeler E, Lang C, Lohaus G, Meyer A, Nacke H, Näther A, Overmann J, Polle A, Pollierer MM, Scheu S, Schloter M, Schulze ED, Schulze W, Weinert J, Weisser WW, Wolters V, Schrumpf M. General relationships between abiotic soil properties and soil biota across spatial scales and different land-use types. PLoS One 2012; 7:e43292. [PMID: 22937029 PMCID: PMC3425568 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 116] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2012] [Accepted: 07/18/2012] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Very few principles have been unraveled that explain the relationship between soil properties and soil biota across large spatial scales and different land-use types. Here, we seek these general relationships using data from 52 differently managed grassland and forest soils in three study regions spanning a latitudinal gradient in Germany. We hypothesize that, after extraction of variation that is explained by location and land-use type, soil properties still explain significant proportions of variation in the abundance and diversity of soil biota. If the relationships between predictors and soil organisms were analyzed individually for each predictor group, soil properties explained the highest amount of variation in soil biota abundance and diversity, followed by land-use type and sampling location. After extraction of variation that originated from location or land-use, abiotic soil properties explained significant amounts of variation in fungal, meso- and macrofauna, but not in yeast or bacterial biomass or diversity. Nitrate or nitrogen concentration and fungal biomass were positively related, but nitrate concentration was negatively related to the abundances of Collembola and mites and to the myriapod species richness across a range of forest and grassland soils. The species richness of earthworms was positively correlated with clay content of soils independent of sample location and land-use type. Our study indicates that after accounting for heterogeneity resulting from large scale differences among sampling locations and land-use types, soil properties still explain significant proportions of variation in fungal and soil fauna abundance or diversity. However, soil biota was also related to processes that act at larger spatial scales and bacteria or soil yeasts only showed weak relationships to soil properties. We therefore argue that more general relationships between soil properties and soil biota can only be derived from future studies that consider larger spatial scales and different land-use types.
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Birkhofer K, Bezemer T, Hedlund K, Setälä H. Community composition of soil organisms under different wheat farming systems. MICROBIAL ECOLOGY IN SUSTAINABLE AGROECOSYSTEMS 2012. [DOI: 10.1201/b12339-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
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Birkhofer K, Henschel J, Lubin Y. Effects of extreme climatic events on small-scale spatial patterns: a 20-year study of the distribution of a desert spider. Oecologia 2012; 170:651-7. [PMID: 22580568 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-012-2342-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2011] [Accepted: 04/17/2012] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Birkhofer K, Wolters V, Diekötter T. Density-dependent and -independent effects on the joint use of space by predators and prey in terrestrial arthropod food-webs. OIKOS 2011. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2011.19546.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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Birkhofer K. . Basic Appl Ecol 2011; 12:476. [DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2011.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Dahms H, Mayr S, Birkhofer K, Chauvat M, Melnichnova E, Wolters V, Dauber J. Contrasting diversity patterns of epigeic arthropods between grasslands of high and low agronomic potential. Basic Appl Ecol 2010. [DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2009.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Haubert D, Birkhofer K, Fließbach A, Gehre M, Scheu S, Ruess L. Trophic structure and major trophic links in conventional versus organic farming systems as indicated by carbon stable isotope ratios of fatty acids. OIKOS 2009. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2009.17587.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Birkhofer K, Gavish-Regev E, Endlweber K, Lubin YD, von Berg K, Wise DH, Scheu S. Cursorial spiders retard initial aphid population growth at low densities in winter wheat. BULLETIN OF ENTOMOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2008; 98:249-55. [PMID: 18439342 DOI: 10.1017/s0007485308006019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
Generalist predators contribute to pest suppression in agroecosystems. Spider communities, which form a substantial fraction of the generalist predator fauna in arable land, are characterized by two functional groups: web-building and cursorial (non-web-building) species. We investigated the relative impact of these two functional groups on a common pest (Sitobion avenae, Aphididae) in wheat by combining a molecular technique that revealed species-specific aphid consumption rates with a factorial field experiment that analyzed the impact, separately and together, of equal densities of these two spider functional groups on aphid population growth. Only cursorial spiders retarded aphid population growth in our cage experiment, but this effect was limited to the initial aphid-population growth period and low-to-intermediate aphid densities. The molecular analysis, which used aphid-specific primers to detect aphid DNA in predator species, detected the highest proportion of aphid-consuming individuals in two cursorial spiders: the foliage-dwelling Xysticus cristatus (Thomisidae) and the ground-active Pardosa palustris (Lycosidae). The results suggest that manipulating the community composition in favour of pest-consuming functional groups may be more important for improving biological control than fostering predator biodiversity per se. Agricultural management practices that specifically foster effective species or functional groups (e.g. mulching for cursorial spiders) should receive more attention in low-pesticide farming systems.
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Birkhofer K, Wise DH, Scheu S. Subsidy from the detrital food web, but not microhabitat complexity, affects the role of generalist predators in an aboveground herbivore food web. OIKOS 2008. [DOI: 10.1111/j.0030-1299.2008.16361.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 75] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Bilde T, Coates KS, Birkhofer K, Bird T, Maklakov AA, Lubin Y, Avilés L. Survival benefits select for group living in a social spider despite reproductive costs. J Evol Biol 2007; 20:2412-26. [PMID: 17956402 DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2007.01407.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
The evolution of cooperation requires benefits of group living to exceed costs. Hence, some components of fitness are expected to increase with increasing group size, whereas others may decrease because of competition among group members. The social spiders provide an excellent system to investigate the costs and benefits of group living: they occur in groups of various sizes and individuals are relatively short-lived, therefore life history traits and Lifetime Reproductive Success (LRS) can be estimated as a function of group size. Sociality in spiders has originated repeatedly in phylogenetically distant families and appears to be accompanied by a transition to a system of continuous intra-colony mating and extreme inbreeding. The benefits of group living in such systems should therefore be substantial. We investigated the effect of group size on fitness components of reproduction and survival in the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola in two populations in Namibia. In both populations, the major benefit of group living was improved survival of colonies and late-instar juveniles with increasing colony size. By contrast, female fecundity, female body size and early juvenile survival decreased with increasing group size. Mean individual fitness, estimated as LRS and calculated from five components of reproduction and survival, was maximized for intermediate- to large-sized colonies. Group living in these spiders thus entails a net reproductive cost, presumably because of an increase in intra-colony competition with group size. This cost is traded off against survival benefits at the colony level, which appear to be the major factor favouring group living. In the field, many colonies occur at smaller size than expected from the fitness curve, suggesting ecological or life history constraints on colony persistence which results in a transient population of relatively small colonies.
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Birkhofer K, Scheu S, Wise DH. Small-scale spatial pattern of web-building spiders (Araneae) in alfalfa: relationship to disturbance from cutting, prey availability, and intraguild interactions. ENVIRONMENTAL ENTOMOLOGY 2007; 36:801-10. [PMID: 17716470 DOI: 10.1603/0046-225x(2007)36[801:sspows]2.0.co;2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the development of spatial patterns in generalist predators will improve our ability to incorporate them into biological control programs. We studied the small-scale spatial patterns of spider webs in alfalfa by analyzing the relationship between web locations over distances ranging from 4 to 66 cm. Using a coordinate-based spatial statistic (O-ring) and assuming a heterogeneous distribution of suitable web sites, we analyzed the impact of cutting and changes in spider abundance on web distribution. We analyzed the influence of small-scale variation in prey availability by comparing web distributions to the pattern of sticky-trap captures of Aphididae and Diptera described by a count-based spatial statistic (SADIE). Cutting of alfalfa reduced the overall density of web-building spiders but had no immediate impact on the spatial distribution of their webs. Availability of aphids was highest before the alfalfa was cut and was clumped at a scale of 66 cm. Spider webs, however, were not clumped at any scale or date. In contrast, webs were regularly distributed at smaller distances (<20 cm) immediately before and after cutting. Because cursorial and web-building spiders were most active during this period, we hypothesize that the development of small-scale regularity in web locations was driven by intraguild interactions. Our results suggest that intraguild interactions contribute to the development of small-scale spatial patterns of spider webs in alfalfa. Variation in prey availability may have more of an influence on web distribution in crops with a different vegetation structure or if patterns are studied at larger spatial scales.
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