Abstract
Predation of invertebrate pest by natural enemies is a critical contribution of nature to people, because invertebrate pests cause a vast amount of economic damage and pesticides use has many long-term costs. Veteran trees are keystone structures and hotspots for biodiversity, and are a potential source of natural enemies. To explore this, we used a balanced experimental design where we measured predatory beetle diversity and attack marks on three colors of artificial caterpillars placed around 20 veteran oaks and 20 nearby young oaks, in Southern Norway. We predicted that around the veteran oaks there would be a greater diversity of predatory beetles and more invertebrate attacks on artificial caterpillars. Sampling for predatory beetles was conducted in summer 2017 and 2018, and invertebrate attacks were measured in 2018. We found support for the predictions: diversity of predatory beetles was higher around veteran trees and there were more arthropod attack marks on artificial caterpillars placed around veteran trees. Our results indicated that veteran trees are a source of natural enemies. Valuing and protecting veteran trees and their communities is an essential step towards a more sustainable system of management that has the possibility of promoting both the wellbeing of people and biodiversity.
Highlights
Predation of invertebrate pest by natural enemies is a critical contribution of nature to people, because invertebrate pests cause a vast amount of economic damage and pesticides use has many long-term costs
In total we placed out 720 artificial caterpillars, we found that many (52%) of them were either missing or damaged to the point of obscuring other attack marks
We found that arthropods attacked 47% of the remaining artificial caterpillars (n = 345)
Summary
Predation of invertebrate pest by natural enemies is a critical contribution of nature to people, because invertebrate pests cause a vast amount of economic damage and pesticides use has many long-term costs. Veteran trees are keystone structures and hotspots for biodiversity, and are a potential source of natural enemies. We predicted that around the veteran oaks there would be a greater diversity of predatory beetles and more invertebrate attacks on artificial caterpillars. Large trees in agroforestry systems have been found to enhance functional biodiversity and promote beneficial NCP including invertebrate pest control[21]. Veteran oaks provide food resources and shelter for a diverse set of s pecies[19], including arthropod p redators[22,23] and may be a source of a natural enemies of invertebrate pests. It has been established that veteran trees increase the structural complexity of the landscape[15] and are a source of diverse predator[22], the link between biodiversity and ecosystem
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