Distribution of ground-dwelling arthropods across landscapes with intensive agriculture in temperate areas

TY - JOUR

T1 - Distribution of ground-dwelling arthropods across landscapes with intensive agriculture in temperate areas

AU - Musters, C.J.M.

AU - Wiggers, J.M.R.

AU - de Snoo, G.R.

N1 - 7453

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - The idea that land use in the surroundings may affect the abundance of arthropods on a location plays an important role in the argument that agriculture is the prime cause of the recently discovered general decline of insects. We studied the abundance of ground-dwelling arthropods in agricultural fields along a gradient of increasing distance from (semi)natural areas and in relation to landscape complexity in both the North America (Illinois, USA) and Europe (The Netherlands) using pitfalls. Our results showed that the total abundance did not change with distance when we controlled for vegetation height and landscape complexity around the sample locations. Vegetation height affected abundance positively in crop land and negatively in grassland. Landscape complexity only affected abundance when it was measured in a 6000 m radius around sample location, not at lower levels of scale. We conclude that an effect of increasing landscape complexity may be expected when that is done on a large enough scale.

AB - The idea that land use in the surroundings may affect the abundance of arthropods on a location plays an important role in the argument that agriculture is the prime cause of the recently discovered general decline of insects. We studied the abundance of ground-dwelling arthropods in agricultural fields along a gradient of increasing distance from (semi)natural areas and in relation to landscape complexity in both the North America (Illinois, USA) and Europe (The Netherlands) using pitfalls. Our results showed that the total abundance did not change with distance when we controlled for vegetation height and landscape complexity around the sample locations. Vegetation height affected abundance positively in crop land and negatively in grassland. Landscape complexity only affected abundance when it was measured in a 6000 m radius around sample location, not at lower levels of scale. We conclude that an effect of increasing landscape complexity may be expected when that is done on a large enough scale.

KW - Pitfalls

KW - Insects

KW - Spiders

KW - Spatial distribution

KW - Body size

KW - Illinois

KW - the Netherlands

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109042

DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109042

M3 - Article

SN - 1470-160X

VL - 140

JO - Ecological Indicators

JF - Ecological Indicators

M1 - 109042

ER -