Abstract
To understand the relationship between conservation measures and agricultural yields, we need to know the contributions of organisms to both ecosystem services and disservices. We studied the activity and contribution of birds and mammals to intermediate ecosystem services (predation of weed seeds or invertebrate pests) and disservices (predation of crop seeds or beneficial invertebrates) in southern Sweden between June and November 2016. We measured seed and invertebrate predation rates using trays placed in front of 32 wildlife cameras in 16 cereal fields with a local habitat contrast (8 fields adjacent to another crop field and 8 fields adjacent to a semi-natural grassland) and along a landscape heterogeneity gradient (amount of semi-natural grassland). Both activity and predation were dominated by small mammals (mainly rodents), yet only a few species contributed to predation services and disservices according to camera records. Small mammal activity and predation varied considerably over time. Small mammal activity was significantly higher at trays with crop seeds or beneficial invertebrate prey compared to trays with pest prey, and crop seed predation by small mammals was significantly higher than weed seed predation. In contrast, bird activity and predation did not differ significantly between resource types, but varied over time depending on the habitat contrast. Predation of animal prey by birds was highest after cereal harvest, independent of habitat contrast. Our study highlights that birds and in particular rodents provide important intermediate ecosystem services, but also disservices, which fluctuate strongly in intensity over time.
Highlights
Agricultural intensification and the resulting simplification of landscapes come at the cost of adverse effects on farmland biodiversity and changes in animal communityCommunicated by Mathew Samuel Crowther.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.University, Lund, Sweden 3 Department of Ecology, Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany 4 Present Address: Ecology Department, Swiss OrnithologicalInstitute, Sempach, Switzerland composition (Kleijn et al 2009; Gossner et al 2016)
With the exception of 17 pictures, all birds could be identified and hour by individual bird species and total number of pictures recorded per hour for the respective species for a crop seeds, b beneficial prey, c weed seeds and d pest prey to species level
Our results show that birds and mammals provide important pest control services in agricultural landscapes, and that rodents are important in this context
Summary
Sempach, Switzerland composition (Kleijn et al 2009; Gossner et al 2016) These outcomes may negatively affect agricultural production, if communities become dominated by species that do not provide ecosystem services or even generate disservices (e.g. pests), rather than by species providing ecosystem services (e.g. natural enemies of pests; Sala et al 2000; Sandbrook and Burgess 2015). Management options that aim at maximizing positive net effects between intermediate ecosystem services and disservices in agricultural landscapes need to identify service- and disservice-providing species in local communities and their habitat preferences and temporal dynamics. Complex agricultural landscapes often harbour a high density and diversity of service-providing animals due to the availability of complementary resources (Macdonald et al 2007; Kross et al 2016).
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