Composition and Food Web Structure of Aphid-Parasitoid Populations on Plum Orchards in Chile

Autor: Jeniffer K. Alvarez-Baca, Xiomara Montealegre, Armando Alfaro-Tapia, Francisca Zepeda-Paulo, Joan Van Baaren, Blas Lavandero, Cécile Le Lann
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Insects, Vol 14, Iss 3, p 288 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2075-4450
DOI: 10.3390/insects14030288
Popis: By increasing plant diversity in agroecosystems, it has been proposed that one can enhance and stabilize ecosystem functioning by increasing natural enemies’ diversity. Food web structure determines ecosystem functioning as species at different trophic levels are linked in interacting networks. We compared the food web structure and composition of the aphid– parasitoid and aphid-hyperparasitoid networks in two differentially managed plum orchards: plums with inter-rows of oats as a cover crop (OCC) and plums with inter-rows of spontaneous vegetation (SV). We hypothesized that food web composition and structure vary between OCC and SV, with network specialization being higher in OCC and a more complex food web composition in SV treatment. We found a more complex food web composition with a higher species richness in SV compared to OCC. Quantitative food web metrics differed significantly among treatments showing a higher generality, vulnerability, interaction evenness, and linkage density in SV, while OCC presented a higher degree of specialization. Our results suggest that plant diversification can greatly influence the food web structure and composition, with bottom-up effects induced by plant and aphid hosts that might benefit parasitoids and provide a better understanding of the activity, abundance, and interactions between aphids, parasitoids, and hyperparasitoids in plum orchards.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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