TY - GEN A1 - Aguilera, Guillermo A1 - Roslin, Tomas A1 - Miller, Kirsten A1 - Tamburini, Giovanni A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Caballero-Lopez, Berta A1 - Lindström, Sandra Ann-Marie A1 - Öckinger, Erik A1 - Rundlöf, Maj A1 - Rusch, Adrien A1 - Smith, Henrik G. A1 - Bommarco, Riccardo T1 - Crop diversity benefits carabid and pollinator communities in landscapes with semi‐natural habitats T2 - Journal of Applied Ecology N2 - 1.In agricultural landscapes, arthropods provide essential ecosystem services such as biological pest control and pollination. Intensified crop management practices and homogenization of landscapes have led to declines among such organisms. Semi‐natural habitats, associated with high numbers of these organisms, are increasingly lost from agricultural landscapes but diversification by increasing crop diversity has been proposed as a way to reverse observed arthropod declines and thus restore ecosystem services. However, whether or not an increase in the diversity of crop types within a landscape promotes diversity and abundances of pollinating and predaceous arthropods, and how semi‐natural habitats might modify this relationship, are not well understood. 2. To test how crop diversity and the proportion of semi‐natural habitats within a landscape are related to the diversity and abundance of beneficial arthropod communities, we collected primary data from seven studies focusing on natural enemies (carabids and spiders) and pollinators (bees and hoverflies) from 154 crop fields in Southern Sweden between 2007 and 2017. 3. Crop diversity within a 1‐km radius around each field was positively related to the Shannon diversity index of carabid and pollinator communities in landscapes rich in semi‐natural habitats. Abundances were mainly affected by the proportion of semi‐natural habitats in the landscape, with decreasing carabid and increasing pollinator numbers as the proportion of this habitat type increased. Spiders showed no response to either crop diversity or the proportion of semi‐natural habitats. 4. Synthesis and applications. We show that the joint effort of preserving semi‐natural habitats and promoting crop diversity in agricultural landscapes is necessary to enhance communities of natural enemies and pollinators. Our results suggest that increasing the diversity of crop types can contribute to the conservation of service‐providing arthropod communities, particularly if the diversification of crops targets complex landscapes with a high proportion of semi‐natural habitats. KW - ecosystem services KW - predation KW - agricultural intensification KW - arable land KW - crop diversity KW - diversification KW - pollination KW - landscape composition Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13712 SN - 1365-2664 SN - 0021-8901 VL - 57 IS - 11 SP - 2170 EP - 2179 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Bucher, Roman A1 - Batary, Péter A1 - Baudry, Julia A1 - Beaumelle, Léa A1 - Čerevková, Andrea A1 - Garcia de la Riva, Enrique A1 - Dirilgen, Tara A1 - Gallé, Robert A1 - Kesse-Guyot, Emmanuelle A1 - Rembiałkowska, Ewa A1 - Rusch, Adrien A1 - Stanley, Dara A. A1 - Ulrich, Werner A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus T1 - Functional diversity of ground beetles improved aphid control but did not increase crop yields on European farms T2 - Ecological Applications N2 - Land-use intensification is often associated with a decline in functional diversity, potentially undermining the provision of ecosystem services. However, how changes in traits affect ecosystem processes remains poorly understood. Variation in trait values among species in a community may drive ecosystem processes. Alternatively, the mass ratio hypothesis proposes that trait values of the dominant species in a local community are related to ecosystem processes. Using data from 159 farms in six European countries, we quantified the impact of local and landscape-level land-use intensity on ground beetles as pest control agents. We then assessed the extent to which functional diversity and community-weighted mean trait values relate to pest control and cereal yield. In addition, we assessed how the responses to land use and the effects of different species on pest control and yield varied with their traits to compare the relative impact of the traits studied. Functional diversity of ground beetles improved aphid removal, but did not translate into higher crop yields. Pest control of aphids was enhanced by a higher proportion of smaller, mobile ground beetles with a preference for the vegetation layer. Smaller, predatory ground beetles in communities improved crop yield. The magnitude of responses to land-use intensification and the effects on pest control and yield were more strongly influenced by body size than other traits. Our study provides evidence that reduced management intensity can improve pest control by supporting small-sized, macropterous ground beetles. In contrast to the claims of ecological intensification, our joint analysis of the direct effects of land use on yield and indirect effects via functional diversity of ground beetles and pest control suggests that ecosystem services by ground beetles cannot compensate for the yield gap due to a reduction in land-use intensity. KW - predation KW - ecological intensification KW - landscape composition KW - land-use intensity KW - pest control KW - traits Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.3035 SN - 1051-0761 SN - 1939-5582 VL - 2024 ER -