Abstract
Understanding the determinants of insect–plant interactions and pest population dynamics at multiple spatial scales is a pre-requisite for developing innovative crop protection strategies and increasing the sustainability of agroecosystems. In a two-year study, we investigated the relative influence of local crop management and landscape context on pollen beetle (Meligethes spp.) abundance and damage at 8 different spatial scales around 42 oilseed rape fields using a multi-model inference approach. We found that pest abundance was mainly determined by the proportion of grassland and woodland in the landscape at scales ranging from 1500m to 2000m. Pollen beetle damage was affected both by local management and landscape predictors at scales ranging from 1500m to 2000m. Indeed, damage was negatively correlated with the nitrogen nutrition index of the plants and positively correlated with the proportion of woodland in the landscape at a large scale. Our multi-scale approach revealed that landscape complexity determines pollen beetle abundance in the spring and that nitrogen nutrition of the plants influences crop ability to compensate bud abortions resulting from pest attacks. The results are discussed in relation to crop management, pest dispersal ability and landscape structure.
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