The influence of landscape diversity and heterogeneity on spatial dynamics of agrobiont linyphiid spiders: An individual-based model
Authored by Christopher J Topping, P Thorbek
Date Published: 2005
DOI: 10.1007/s10526-004-1114-8
Sponsors:
Danish Research Agency
Danish Research Centre for Organic Farming
National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark
Platforms:
No platforms listed
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
Spiders are important generalist predators in natural pest control.
However, agricultural fields are highly disturbed and ephemeral
habitats, which present a number of challenges to the organisms living
there; likewise landscape diversity and heterogeneity are also thought
to be important factors in determining spider spatial dynamics. To
investigate the interactions between these factors, we present an
individual-based simulation model, which integrates life history
characteristics of a typical agrobiont linyphiid spider with a dynamic
spatially explicit landscape representation. The landscape contains
several habitat types of varying quality and varies in time and space.
Simulations showed that spatial landscape diversity (number of habitat
types available for the spiders) is crucial for the persistence of
spiders, but that spatial heterogeneity (spatial arrangement of patches)
only had little impact on spider abundance. The necessary landscape
diversity could either be provided by a diverse crop rotation or by
including refuges in the form of less frequently managed habitats in the
landscape. The presence of refuges greatly boosted numbers of spiders in
the landscape as a whole. The most important characteristics of refuge
were sanctuary from pesticides and extra prey availability, whereas
tillage frequency mattered less. The simulations indicated that
agrobiont linyphiids' combination of high dispersal abilities and high
reproductive rate enables it to exploit the transient resources of the
different habitats in the agricultural landscape.
Tags
Pest-control
Population-dynamics
Development rates
Erigone-atra
Meteorological aspects
Lepthyphantes-tenuis
Generalist
predators
Arthropod predators
Aerial dispersal
Cereal fields