Abstract
Evaluating the structure of enemy biodiversity effects on prey in agroecosystems can provide insights into biological pest control functioning. With this aim, theoretical models that describe biological mechanisms underlying prey suppression can be developed and confronted with experimental data by means of model selection. Here, we confront multiplicative risk models to evaluate the structure of multiple predator effects on the whitefly Trialeurodes vaporariorum provided in tomatoes by two spiders (Oxyopes lineatus and Pityohyphantes phrygianus) and two mirids (Nesidiocoris tenuis and Macrolophus melanotoma). Biologically meaningful parameters retained in the best models showed that several predator traits differently affected pest control: species-specific per capita predation rates, prey use extent, different type of interactions between predators, and the response of predator species to prey density and environmental temperature. Even from a limited perspective of single-pest control and short term experiment, this study suggests that assembly of the four predator species results in predator complementarity across prey life stages and density, interactions of prey and predators with environmental conditions, and interactions between predators that do not result in whitefly control disruption. Such information about enemy biodiversity and whitefly control functioning can drive hypotheses about sustainable pest management options in local agroecosystems.
Highlights
A key challenge in ecology is to determine how changes in biodiversity affect ecosystem functioning and ecosystem service provision [1,2,3]
Even from a limited perspective of single-pest control and short term experiment, this study suggests that assembly of the four predator species results in predator complementarity across prey life stages and density, interactions of prey and predators with environmental conditions, and interactions between predators that do not result in whitefly control disruption
What Do Raw Data Suggest? Table 5 shows how counts of the 3 data series analysed varied among experimental units and between blocks: number of whitefly nymphs (NNy)(O) = 238 ± 81 (SD) and 121 ± 69 for blocks A and B, respectively; Emerged = 110 ± 35 and 39 ± 17 for A and B; NAd(O) = 263 ± 142 and 60 ± 42 for A and B
Summary
A key challenge in ecology is to determine how changes in biodiversity affect ecosystem functioning and ecosystem service provision [1,2,3]. Intrinsic features of living systems and experimental limitations make it difficult and often impossible to fully disentangle the simultaneous aspects of biological diversity underlying enemy biodiversity effects, resulting in multiple working hypotheses regarding experimental outcomes. To address this problem of multiple mechanisms, theoretical models that structurally attempt to describe the suite of possible processes involved can be developed, and relative support for hypotheses can be evaluated by confronting models with data [30,31,32,33].
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