Diversity and specificity of host-natural enemy interactions in an urban-rural interface

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Maria Helena Pereira-Peixoto
  • Gesine Pufal
  • Michael Staab
  • Celso Feitosa Martins
  • Alexandra Maria Klein

Urbanisation and agricultural intensification cause the replacement of natural ecosystems but might also create novel habitats in urban and rural ecosystems promoting some insect communities by providing food and nesting resources. This study investigated how host-natural enemy communities change in urban and rural landscapes and their transitional zone, the urban-rural interface, by using trap nests for cavity-nesting Hymenoptera in gardens and rapeseed fields that were either isolated or paired in the urban-rural interface. Host dynamics were important for natural enemy occurrence, species richness and parasitism rates, and landscape effects were evident for natural enemy variables except for the richness of bee natural enemies. The number of parasitised brood cells was at its highest in the urban-rural interface, but the highest parasitism rates of bees were observed in isolated gardens. Parasitism rates of bees were negatively affected by host abundance, while parasitism rates of wasps were positively affected. Higher specialisation and lower connectivity of host-natural enemy interactions were found in paired habitats than in isolated habitats. This indicates that paired habitats comprise more specific natural enemies and vulnerable interactions, while isolated habitats comprise more generalist natural enemies, and thus interactions appear more stable. These results confirm that host dynamics play an essential role in the abundance and richness of natural enemies and drive parasitism. However, high habitat heterogeneity found in the urban-rural interface can also have an effect on host-natural enemy communities. This highlights that the provisioning of resources in the urban-rural interface can benefit insect communities in these areas.

Original languageEnglish
JournalEcological Entomology
Volume41
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)241-252
Number of pages12
ISSN0307-6946
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.06.2016

    Research areas

  • Bees, Biodiversity, Gardens, Networks, Parasitism, Specialisation, Trophic levels, Wasps
  • Ecosystems Research

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. CSR communication on corporate websites compared across continents
  2. Learning in the "Third Space"
  3. Predicting recurrent chat contact in a psychological intervention for the youth using natural language processing
  4. Learning to collaborate from diverse interactions in project-based sustainability courses
  5. Managing sustainable development with management control systems
  6. The promise and Pitfalls of a blended, video- and coaching-based professional development program in Germany
  7. Leaf trait variation within individuals mediates the relationship between tree species richness and productivity
  8. Structuring and advancing solution-oriented research for sustainability
  9. Identification of Parameters and States in PMSMs
  10. Functions of Constitutions
  11. Peter's positions: a diffractive analysis of authority in a year one classroom
  12. Performance Saga: Interview 06
  13. Time-varying persistence in real oil prices and its determinant
  14. On the Relation of Boredom and Sadistic Aggression
  15. Guest editorial
  16. Second International Workshop on Linked Data-driven Resilience Research 2023
  17. Citizen relationship management
  18. Diverse values and a common utopia
  19. Independence without control
  20. Injection of CO2 for the inhibition of scaling in ATES systems
  21. Telecoupling as a framework to support a more nuanced understanding of causality in land system science
  22. Crack propagation in as-extruded and heat-treated mg-dy-nd-zn-zr alloy explained by the effect of lpso structures and their micro-and nanohardness
  23. Correction to
  24. Vibration Converter with Passive Energy Management for Battery‐Less Wireless Sensor Nodes in Predictive Maintenance
  25. Effects of season and man-made changes on baseflow and flow recession