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Agricultural intensification is a major driver of biodiversity loss, but the majority of studies highlighting these threats come from industrialised agriculture in temperate countries of the global North. However, more than 30% of global food production is produced by smallholder farmers, particularly in Africa. We know very little about the impact of these farming practices on arthropod communities and associated ecosystems in dryland agroecosystems. We investigated the trophic group composition of arthropod communities (detritivorous, herbivorous, predatory & mixed feeders) and levels of associated ecosystem functions in replicated maize fields, paired adjacent natural bushveld habitats and the edge habitats between them in north-eastern Namibia and central-eastern Botswana during the dry and wet seasons. Predator activity densities differed significantly between habitats depending on the season, with higher numbers in natural habitats in the wet season but lower numbers in the dry season compared to maize fields. In general, edge habitats had higher numbers of predators than the other habitats. Predator attack rates on artificial caterpillars in both seasons and dung removal in the wet season were higher in habitats with natural vegetation (natural and edge). However, dung removal in the dry season and herbivory in the wet season were highest in the maize fields, the latter due to high level of fall armyworm infestation. Wet season multifunctionality was higher in natural habitats in Botswana, and to a lesser extent in Namibia, than in maize fields. Smallholder agriculture is not detrimental to decomposers, herbivores and mixed feeders compared to adjacent natural habitats, but may be detrimental to the provision of some ecosystem services. These results highlight the challenge of sustainably managing dryland agricultural land that is marginal for crop production, while providing smallholders with an optimal environment to benefit from the ecosystem services associated with arthropod communities. New conservation agriculture practices need to support the production of higher and more stable yields over time, while maintaining the limited impact of smallholder agriculture on biotic communities.
AbstractThaumatotibia leucotreta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is a quarantine pest for certain export markets due to its phytosanitary status in affected crops in sub‐Saharan Africa, including citrus. Consequently, there is a zero‐tolerance policy for T. leucotreta in export markets. In South Africa, an integrated pest management strategy, incorporating a systems approach is used to achieve complete control of T. leucotreta. Preharvest management is multi‐faceted, including reliance on sex pheromone tools such as monitoring, attract‐and‐kill, mating disruptions, and sterile insect technique (SIT). Geographically isolated populations of T. leucotreta occur in South Africa, and there is speculation concerning the possible loss of sexual communication between these isolated populations, thereby compromising the efficiency of sex pheromone tools. To investigate this possibility, we collected samples from five geographically isolated populations of T. leucotreta and a population used for SIT in South Africa. These were subjected to sexual attraction trials under choice and no‐choice scenarios in a semi‐natural environment. Results of the choice tests revealed that males of each population preferred their corresponding population females, except irradiated males. However, when we deprived males of their preferred females, these preferences dissipated, and they were equally attracted to females from all populations. These results indicate that local adaptation and other selection forces in contrasting environments are important in sexual communication and selection in T. leucotreta but do not necessarily prevent recognition of sexual signals and attraction between geographically isolated populations. These findings are crucial for area‐wide IPM and precision control of T. leucotreta.
The sheet weaver Diplocephalus graecus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1873 is a common species in the holomediterranean region, but has been extending its northward distribution in the recent two decades. Our recording of the species marks the northernmost distribution of the species as of yet. With our recording, the number of species belonging to the Linyphiidae
family in the Netherlands has been raised to 238.
A slow-fast trait continuum at the whole community level in relation to land-use intensification
(2024)
AbstractOrganismal functional strategies form a continuum from slow- to fast-growing organisms, in response to common drivers such as resource availability and disturbance. However, whether there is synchronisation of these strategies at the entire community level is unclear. Here, we combine trait data for 2800 above- and belowground taxa from 14 trophic guilds spanning a disturbance and resource availability gradient in German grasslands. The results indicate that most guilds consistently respond to these drivers through both direct and trophically mediated effects, resulting in a ‘slow-fast’ axis at the level of the entire community. Using 15 indicators of carbon and nutrient fluxes, biomass production and decomposition, we also show that fast trait communities are associated with faster rates of ecosystem functioning. These findings demonstrate that ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ strategies can be manifested at the level of whole communities, opening new avenues of ecosystem-level functional classification.
AbstractProtophormia terraenovae is a colonizer of decomposing bodies and is known to cause pre-mortem myiasis as the female flies lay eggs in uncleaned wounds. In this study the effects of different concentrations of antibiotics levofloxacin and ceftriaxone on maggot development, weight, length, and mortality were examined. The maggot length and weight were significantly increased by therapeutical doses of levofloxacin and ceftriaxone. The maggot development time was significantly decreased in every levofloxacin treatment compared to the control. The time to start pupation was significantly increased in the control compared to the antibiotic treatments. Levofloxacin significantly increased the survivability of the maggots. Every levofloxacin treatment significantly improved the rearing conditions for the maggots. Reaching the third instar was delayed by 24 h in the control compared to the Levo 3.57 treatment. The Pupation in the control was delayed by an average of 48 h compared to the Levo 3.57 treatment. The significantly reduced development time of the maggots in the antibiotic treatments might lead to an overestimation of the post-mortem interval and therefore an incorrect time of death determination. The improved rearing conditions may be an indication of the potential of a combined application of antibiotics and maggot therapy.
This open access book about the sustainability of marine and terrestrial ecosystems in southern Africa provides a synthesis of the research program Science Partnerships for the Adaptation to Complex Earth System Processes (SPACES II, 2018-2022). It addresses the scientific, social, and economic issues related to climate change, its potential impacts on the various ecosystems, adaptations, and management interventions for enhancing systems resilience in Southern Africa.
It is written by numerous scientists from African states and Germany and summarizes the latest research findings, which are of great relevance for a better understanding of climate change impacts, adaptations, and vulnerabilities as well as for developing management options and policy options to reduce the associated risks. This is crucial considering that the projected African population increase is exceptional. Furthermore, climate change is assumed to hit southern Africa extremely hard with a significant increase in extreme events and the frequency of severe droughts, heat waves, and flooding. Southern Africa hosts a high variety of ecosystems, which belongs to important biodiversity hotspots for unique flora and fauna. The surrounding oceans form, in turn, a bottle neck within the ocean’s global thermohaline circulation, act as a still poorly understood carbon sink and source and play an important role for fisheries as they are highly productive. Considering these important aspects, the book is an important interdisciplinary contribution to the scientific literature and will find a wide readership.
The book is aimed at students, teachers, and scientists in the fields of terrestrial and marine ecology, environmental, nature and landscape planning, agriculture, environmental and resource management, biodiversity, and nature conservation, as well as scientists and representatives in specialised authorities and associations, nature conservationists, and policy makers of related disciplines.
Soil invertebrates are key to decomposition, a central ecosystem process related to soil health. In many temperate areas climate change will decrease soil water content, which strongly modulates biological activity. However, data are lacking on how shifts in rainfall patterns affect soil biota and the ecosystem processes they provide. Here, we used the bait-lamina test to experimentally assess how a severe drought event influenced detritivore feeding activity, during a wheat growing season, in soils under long-term organic or conventional farming. Additionally, biotic and abiotic soil parameters were measured. Feeding activity was reduced under extreme drought and conventional management, although no climate-management synergies were found. Vertical migrations of Collembola and Oribatida partially explained the unexpectedly higher bait consumption at shallower depths in response to drought. Exploratory mixed-effects longitudinal random forests (a novel machine learning technique) were used to explore whether the relative abundances of meso‑, microfauna and microbes of the decomposer food web, or abiotic soil parameters, affected the feeding activity of detritivores. The model including meso‑ and microfauna selected four Nematoda taxa and explained higher variance than the model with only microbiota, indicating that detritivore feeding is closely associated with nematodes but not with microbes. Additionally, the model combining fauna and microbiota explained less variance than the faunal model, suggesting that microbe-fauna synergies barely affected detritivore feeding. Moreover, soil water and mineral nitrogen contents were found to strongly determine detritivore feeding, in a positive and negative way, respectively. Hence, our results suggest that severe drought and conventional farming impair the feeding activity of soil detritivores and thus, probably, decomposition and nutrient mineralization in soils. Furthermore, machine learning algorithms arise as a powerful technique to explore the identity of potential key drivers relating biodiversity to ecosystem functioning.