Ecological interactions between crops and wild animals frequently result in increases or declines in crop yield. Yet, positive and negative interactions have mostly been treated independently, owing partly to disciplinary silos in ecological and agricultural sciences. We advocate a new integrated research paradigm that explicitly recognizes cost-benefit trade-offs among animal activities and acknowledges that these activities occur within social-ecological contexts. Support for this paradigm is presented in an evidence-based conceptual model structured around five evidence statements highlighting emerging trends applicable to sustainable agriculture. The full range of benefits and costs associated with animal activities in agroecosystems cannot be quantified by focusing on single species groups, crops, or systems. Management of productive agroecosystems should sustain cycles of ecological interactions between crops and wild animals, not isolate these cycles from the system. Advancing this paradigm will therefore require integrated studies that determine net returns of animal activity in agroecosystems.

1 Local and landscape factors interact to influence animal populations and, ultimately, crop yields in agroecosystems. Yet few studies have considered interactions and trade-offs between these factors within a single agroecosystem. 2 We sampled insect communities (fruit-damaging pests and Diptera and Hymenoptera pollinator and natural enemy taxa) associated with focal apple trees in south-eastern Australian orchards across a single growing season.We also measured marketable fruit yields on netted (preventing access to vertebrates) and open branches on each focal tree. We focused on relationships with local (ground cover attributes) and landscape (proximity to natural woodland) factors. 3 Importantly, we found that local flower richness in orchard understoreys may buffer the negative effects that isolation from natural woodland has on wild bee and natural enemy communities and the ecosystem services they provide. 4 The results of the present study suggest that floral diversity may be more effective in supporting beneficial insects in crop interiors, rather than at edges near natural vegetation. 5 More studies are needed that identify how local and landscape vegetation structure interact to influence communities of pest and beneficial taxa, and relevant ecosystem functions, in agroecosystems.

Five years of research on interrelationships between fauna use of almond plantations and native vegetation in north-western Victoria shows that almond plantations have a strong influence on fauna dynamics and in some cases may provide important habitat for threatened species.

Coloured pan trapping is a simple and efficient method for collecting flying insects, yet there is still discussion over the most effective bowl colour to use for particular target groups (e.g. pollinator insects). The success of particular colours can vary across bioregions and habitats. Most published pan trap studies have been conducted in the northern hemisphere, and very few investigated the effects of habitat on pan trap catches. Our study is one of the first to (1) sample for potential pollinators in Australian mallee vegetation and almond orchards and (2) investigate whether habitat interacts with trap colour to influence pan trap catches. We sampled Hymenoptera and Diptera using yellow, white and blue pan traps in native mallee vegetation and two types of managed almond orchards (monoculture and plant-diverse) in the Murray Mallee bioregion of north-western Victoria, Australia. Yellow traps caught the most insects across all habitats, although catches in each colour trap varied with habitat. For all insect groups combined, blue traps caught more individuals in mallee habitats than in almond orchards. For native hymenopterans, yellow traps caught more individuals in plant-diverse orchards than in native sites, while blue traps caught more individuals in native sites. Our results highlight the importance of considering the habitat of individual pan trapping surveys, as no one trap colour is likely to be suitable for trapping target insects across all habitats.