Shelterbelts in agricultural landscapes suppress invertebrate pests
A. Tsitsilas B , S. Stuckey A , A. A. Hoffmann A , A. R. Weeks B and L. J. Thomson A CA Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Vic. 3086, Australia.
B Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research, Zoology Department, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic. 3010, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: lthom@unimelb.edu.au.
Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 46(10) 1379-1388 https://doi.org/10.1071/EA05137
Submitted: 16 May 2005 Accepted: 15 March 2006 Published: 13 September 2006
Abstract
The homogenous nature of agricultural landscapes generally reduces biodiversity of invertebrate species, but this can be partly offset by developing refuges at field margins. In Australia, shelterbelts are widely planted to provide protection for livestock and to counter salinity problems associated with rising water tables. Shelterbelts may also play a role in acting as reservoirs for organisms that are beneficial to pastures, although this has rarely been directly evaluated. We sampled invertebrates along transects running from replicated shelterbelts into pastures, and in glasshouse trials we tested the impact of the beneficial organisms from the shelterbelts on the collected pests. Contrary to popular views, numbers of pest mites and lucerne fleas were low within shelterbelts. Moreover, numbers were typically lower adjacent to shelterbelts compared with >30 m into the pasture, an effect that was much more apparent when shelterbelts carried a groundcover of high (>30 cm) grass. Numbers of predatory mites and spiders were higher in shelterbelts and in adjacent pasture when there was taller grass and higher grass cover in the shelterbelts. Samples of potential predators collected from a shelterbelt were more effective at suppressing pest mite numbers than those collected in pasture. Shelterbelts with ground cover appear to harbour a diversity of beneficial organisms that suppress pest numbers in adjacent pastures.
Additional keywords: field margins, natural enemies, pasture mites, predatory mites, spiders.
Acknowledgments
We thank farmers who participated in this study (M. Roberts, R. Stevenson, W. Weatherly, J. Napier and R. Weatherly),Victoria Mack of Landcare for assistance in finding interested land managers, Peter Codd of the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority and the Australian Research Council (ARC) for support via their Special Research Centre Program. This work was undertaken while ARW was the recipient of an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship.
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