2017, Lichtenberg, Elinor M, Kennedy, Christina M, Winfree, Rachel, Klatt, Bjorn K, Astrom, Sandra, Benjamin, Faye, Brittain, Claire, Chaplin-Kramer, Rebecca, Clough, Yann, Danforth, Bryan N, Diekotter, Tim, Eigenbrode, Sanford D, Kremen, Claire, Ekroos, Johan, Elle, Elizabeth, Freitas, Breno M, Fukuda, Yuki, Gaines-Day, Hannah R, Grab, Heather, Gratton, Claudio, Holzschuh, Andrea, Isaacs, Rufus, Isaia, Marco, Batary, Peter, Jha, Shalene, Jonason, Dennis, Jones, Vincent P, Klein, Alexandra-Maria, Krauss, Jochen, Letourneau, Deborah K, Macfadyen, Sarina, Mallinger, Rachel E, Martin, Emily A, Martinez, Eliana, Berendse, Frank, Memmott, Jane, Morandin, Lora, Neame, Lisa, Otieno, Mark, Park, Mia G, Pfiffner, Lukas, Pocock, Michael J O, Ponce, Carlos, Potts, Simon G, Poveda, Katja, Bommarco, Riccardo, Ramos, Mariangie, Rosenheim, Jay A, Rundlof, Maj, Sardinas, Hilary S, Saunders, Manu, Schon, Nicole L, Sciligo, Amber R, Sidhu, C Sheena, Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf, Tscharntke, Teja, Bosque-Perez, Nilsa A, Vesely, Milan, Weisser, Wolfgang, Wilson, Julianna K, Crowder, David W, Carvalheiro, Luisa G, Snyder, William E, Williams, Neal M

Agricultural intensification is a leading cause of global biodiversity loss, which can reduce the provisioning of ecosystem services in managed ecosystems. Organic farming and plant diversification are farm management schemes that may mitigate potential ecological harm by increasing species richness and boosting related ecosystem services to agroecosystems. What remains unclear is the extent to which farm management schemes affect biodiversity components other than species richness, and whether impacts differ across spatial scales and landscape contexts. Using a global metadataset, we quantified the effects of organic farming and plant diversification on abundance, local diversity (communities within fields), and regional diversity (communities across fields) of arthropod pollinators, predators, herbivores, and detritivores. Both organic farming and higher in-field plant diversity enhanced arthropod abundance, particularly for rare taxa. This resulted in increased richness but decreased evenness. While these responses were stronger at local relative to regional scales, richness and abundance increased at both scales, and richness on farms embedded in complex relative to simple landscapes. Overall, both organic farming and in-field plant diversification exerted the strongest effects on pollinators and predators, suggesting these management schemes can facilitate ecosystem service providers without augmenting herbivore (pest) populations. Our results suggest that organic farming and plant diversification promote diverse arthropod metacommunities that may provide temporal and spatial stability of ecosystem service provisioning. Conserving diverse plant and arthropod communities in farming systems therefore requires sustainable practices that operate both within fields and across landscapes.

2018, Saunders, Manu, Luck, Gary W

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.

2015, Saunders, Manu, Luck, Gary W, Gurr, Geoff M

1 Homogeneous tree crop plantations can adversely impact wild pollinator communities by limiting the temporal continuity of food and the availability of nesting sites. Identifying how structural differences between plantations and natural vegetation influence pollinator communities is necessary for ecological management of agroecosystems. 2 Communities of potential wild pollinators (native bees, wasps, flies) were compared between monoculture almond plantations and native vegetation in a semi-arid region of southern Australia, before, during and after the late winter almond flowering period. Abundance and richness of each insect group were related to site heterogeneity and keystone structural resources at each site, focusing on food and nesting resources. 3 Relationships with site heterogeneity varied between taxa and across months. Native bee abundance and richness were strongly associated with specific keystone resources, despite showing no association with site heterogeneity. 4 The present study highlights the value of focusing on biologically meaningful resources when investigating relationships between insects and habitat, rather than on generalized heterogeneity metrics. The results suggest that maintaining keystone resources in agroecosystems can support the conservation of insects and ecosystem services, especially in areas where homogeneous agricultural systems overlap dynamic natural ecosystems.

2014, Luck, Gary W, Spooner, Peter G, Watson, David M, Watson, Simon J, Saunders, Manu

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.

2013, Saunders, Manu, Luck, Gary W, Mayfield, Margaret M

Wild pollinators are becoming more valuable to global agriculture as the commercial honeybee industry is increasingly affected by disease and other stressors. Perennial tree crops are particularly reliant on insect pollination, and are often pollen limited. Research on how different tree crop production systems influence the richness and abundance of wild pollinators is, however, limited. We investigated, for the first time, the richness and abundance of potential wild pollinators in commercial temperate almond orchards in Australia, and compared them to potential pollinator communities in proximate native vegetation. We quantified ground cover variables at each site and assessed the value of ground cover on the richness and abundance of potential wild pollinators in commercial almond systems focussing on three common taxa: bees, wasps and flies. More insects were caught in orchards with living ground cover than in native vegetation or orchards without ground cover, although overall species richness was highest in native vegetation. Percent ground cover was positively associated with wasp richness and abundance, and native bee richness, but flies showed no association with ground cover. The strongest positive relationship was between native bee abundance and the richness of ground cover plants. Our results suggest that maintaining living ground cover within commercial almond orchards could provide habitat and resources for potential wild pollinators, particularly native bees. These insects have the potential to provide a valuable ecosystem service to pollinator-dependent crops such as almond.

2016, Saunders, Manu

Homogenization of agricultural landscapes affects ecological processes and biodiversity and can affect the community composition of ecosystem service providers. These effects can have particular impact in landscapes dominated by monocultures of pollinator-dependent tree crop plantations, which create both spatial and temporal homogeneity at the landscape scale. I looked for associations between the proportion of nearby unmanaged vegetation and potential wild pollinator groups collected within flowering almond orchards in two types of landscape. In the Complex landscape, characterized by a heterogeneous mosaic of multiple crops, semi-natural grassland and natural woodland, insect pollinator groups were not associated with unmanaged vegetation. In the Simple landscape, dominated by monoculture almond plantations, most pollinator groups showed positive relationships with the two unmanaged vegetation types (grassland and woodland). In particular, all wild bee and all but one hoverfly individual were found in remnant native vegetation patches within almond plantations, rather than within rows of almond trees. More research is necessary to identify how structural differences created in monoculture landscapes, between crops and the native vegetation they encroach on, influence ecological communities and the provision of ecosystem services.