Multivariate ordination identifies vegetation types associated with spider conservation in brassica crops

PeerJ

article

Hafiz Sohaib Ahmed Saqib¹  Minsheng You¹  Geoff M. Gurr¹ 

[1] State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University;Institute of Applied Ecology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University;Fujian-Taiwan Joint Centre for Ecological Control of Crop Pests, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University;Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Charles Sturt University

关键词: Ecological engineering;    Conservation biological control;    Ecosystem service;    Spatial autocorrelation;    Variance partitioning;    Hierarchical clustering;    Principle coordinates of neighbor matrices (PCNM);    Distance based Moran’s Eigenvector Maps (dbMEM);   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.3795

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Conservation biological control emphasizes natural and other non-crop vegetation as a source of natural enemies to focal crops. There is an unmet need for better methods to identify the types of vegetation that are optimal to support specific natural enemies that may colonize the crops. Here we explore the commonality of the spider assemblage—considering abundance and diversity (H)—in brassica crops with that of adjacent non-crop and non-brassica crop vegetation. We employ spatial-based multivariate ordination approaches, hierarchical clustering and spatial eigenvector analysis. The small-scale mixed cropping and high disturbance frequency of southern Chinese vegetation farming offered a setting to test the role of alternate vegetation for spider conservation. Our findings indicate that spider families differ markedly in occurrence with respect to vegetation type. Grassy field margins, non-crop vegetation, taro and sweetpotato harbour spider morphospecies and functional groups that are also present in brassica crops. In contrast, pumpkin and litchi contain spiders not found in brassicas, and so may have little benefit for conservation biological control services for brassicas. Our findings also illustrate the utility of advanced statistical approaches for identifying spatial relationships between natural enemies and the land uses most likely to offer alternative habitats for conservation biological control efforts that generates testable hypotheses for future studies.

【 授权许可】

CC BY