ORCID Profile
0000-0003-0597-0121
Current Organisation
University of Reading
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-04-2023
DOI: 10.1002/EAP.2838
Abstract: Meta‐analyses have become a valuable tool with which to synthesize effects across studies, but in ecology and evolution, they are often characterized by high heterogeneity, where effect sizes vary between studies. Much of this heterogeneity can be attributed to species‐specific differences in responses to predictor variables. Here, we aimed to incorporate a novel trait‐based approach to explain species‐specific differences in a meta‐analysis by testing the ability of morphological traits to explain why the effectiveness of flight‐intercept trap design varies according to beetle species, a critical issue in forest pest management. An existing morphological trait database for forest beetles was supplemented, providing trait data for 97 species, while data from a previous meta‐analysis on capture rates of bark or woodboring beetles according to different trap designs were updated. We combined these sources by including nine morphological traits as moderators in meta‐analysis models, for five different components of trap design. Traits were selected based on theoretical hypotheses relating to beetle movement, maneuverability, and sensory perception. We compared the performance of morphological traits as moderators versus guild, taxonomic family, and null meta‐analysis models. Morphological traits for the effect of trap type (panel vs. multiple‐funnel) on beetle capture rates improved model fit (AIC c ), reduced within‐study variance (σ 2 ), and explained more variation (McFadden's pseudo‐ R 2 ) compared with null, guild, and taxonomic family models. For ex le, morphological trait models explained 10% more of the variance (pseudo‐ R 2 ) when compared with a null model. However, using traits was less informative to explain how detailed elements of trap design such as surface treatment and color influence capture rates. The reduction of within‐study variance when accounting for morphological traits demonstrates their potential value for explaining species‐specific differences. Morphological traits associated with flight efficiency, maneuverability, and eye size were particularly informative for explaining the effectiveness of trap type. This could lead to improved predictability of optimal trap design according to species. Therefore, morphological traits could be a valuable tool for understanding species‐specific differences in community ecology, but other causes of heterogeneity across studies, such as forest type and structure, require further investigation.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-02-2021
DOI: 10.1002/EAP.2294
Abstract: Diversified farming systems, for ex le those that incorporate agroforestry elements, have been proposed as a solution that could maintain and improve multiple ecosystem services. However, habitat ersification in and around arable fields has complex and inconsistent effects on invertebrate crop pests and their natural enemies. This hinders the development of policy recommendations to promote the adoption of such management strategies for the provision of natural pest control services. Here, for the first time, we conducted a trait‐based approach to investigate the effect of farming system on plant, invertebrate herbivore, and invertebrate natural enemy communities. We then evaluated this approach by comparing the results to those generated using a traditional taxonomic approach. At each of three working farms, we s led within an agroforestry field (a erse farming system comprising alleys of arable crops separated by tree rows), and within a paired non‐ ersified area of the farm (arable control field). Each of 96 s le points was s led between 8 and 10 times, yielding 393,318 invertebrate specimens from 344 taxonomic groups. Diet specialization or granivory, lack of a pupal stage, and wing traits in invertebrates, along with late flowering, short flowering duration, creeping habit, and perenniality in plants, were traits more strongly associated with agroforestry crop alleys than the arable control fields. We hypothesize that this is a result of reduced habitat disturbance and increased habitat complexity in the agroforestry system. Taxonomic richness and ersity were higher in the agroforestry crop alleys compared to the arable control fields, but these effects were stronger at lower trophic levels. However, functional trait ersity of natural enemies was significantly higher in the agroforestry crop alleys than the arable control fields, suggesting an improved level of biocontrol, which was not detected by traditional ersity metrics. Of eight key pest taxa, three were significantly suppressed in the agroforestry system, while two were more abundant, compared to the arable control fields. Trait‐based approaches can provide a better mechanistic understanding of farming system effects on pests and their natural enemies, therefore we recommend their application and testing in future studies of ersified farming systems.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2019
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 29-03-2021
Abstract: Agroforestry systems, where productive trees are integrated into agricultural land, can deliver benefits to bio ersity, natural pest control, and pollination, but the effects are highly variable. Recent advances in our understanding of flower strips in agricultural systems suggest that the management of the tree row understorey could be an important contributor to this variation. Here, we compare two cutting regimes for an understorey, originally seeded with the same flower mix, in the tree rows of an apple-arable agroforestry system: (i) uncut vegetation to promote a flowering understorey, and (ii) regularly mown vegetation. We recorded the effects of management on invertebrate pests, natural enemies, and pollinators, in both the apple and arable components. Apple trees above flowering understoreys supported significantly: (i) more natural enemies early in the season, (ii) fewer aphid colonies, (iii) fewer aphid-damaged fruits, and (iv) higher pollinator visitation, compared with those above mown understoreys. In the arable crop alleys, both the taxonomic richness and Shannon ersity of ground-based natural enemies were significantly higher adjacent to flowering understoreys, compared with those adjacent to mown understoreys, early in the season. Financial modelling based on aphid damage to apples, mowing costs, and income from Countryside Stewardship grants, indicated that flowering understoreys increased farm income by GBP 231.02 per ha of agroforestry compared with mown understoreys. Our results provide the first empirical evidence that management to promote flowering understoreys in agroforestry systems can be a win-win option to improve invertebrate ersity, associated ecosystem services, and farm income.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2022
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 11-03-2022
Abstract: There is growing evidence to demonstrate that air pollution is affecting invertebrates both directly (e.g., causing physiological stress responses) and indirectly (e.g., via changes in host plant chemistry and/or by disruption of communication by volatile odours). Many of the studies to-date have focused upon winged insects and disruption of in-flight foraging. Therefore, in this study we investigated how the community composition of predominantly ground-dwelling invertebrates in fields of winter wheat are affected by two of the most ubiquitous lower tropospheric air pollutants, diesel exhaust emissions (including nitrogen oxides–NO x ) and ozone (O 3 ), both in idually and in combination, over 2 years. Pitfall traps, located within the rings of a Free-Air Diesel and Ozone Enrichment (FADOE) facility, were used to s le invertebrates. The facility consisted of eight 8 m-diameter rings, which allowed elevation of the pollutants above ambient levels (ca 49–60 ppb NO x and 35–39 ppb O 3 ) but within levels currently defined as safe for the environment by the Environmental Protection Agency. The invertebrates collected were taxonomically identified and characterised by diet specialisation, mobility and functional group. Taxonomic richness and Shannon’s ersity index were calculated. Even under the relatively low levels of air pollution produced, there were adverse impacts on invertebrate community composition, with greater declines in the abundance and taxonomic richness of invertebrates in the diesel exhaust treatment compared with O 3 treatment. In the combined treatment, pollutant levels were lower, most likely because NO x and O 3 react with one another, and consequently a lesser negative effect was observed on invertebrate abundance and taxonomic richness. Specialist-feeding and winged invertebrate species appeared to be more sensitive to the impacts of the pollutants, responding more negatively to air pollution treatments than generalist feeders and wingless species, respectively. Therefore, these results suggest a more severe pollution-mediated decline in specialist- compared with generalist-feeding invertebrates, and in more mobile (winged) in iduals. Understanding how invertebrate communities respond to air pollutants alone and in combination will facilitate predictions of how terrestrial environments respond to changes in anthropogenic emissions, especially as we shift away from fossil fuel dependence and therefore manipulate the interactions between these two common pollutants.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2022
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Tom Staton.