Abstract
The strength and prevalence of trophic cascades, defined as positive, indirect effects of natural enemies (predatory and parasitic arthropods) on plants, is highly variable in agroecosystems. This variation may in part be due to the spatial or landscape context in which hese trophic cascades occur. In 2011 and 2012, we conducted a natural enemy exclusion experiment in soybean fields along a gradient of landscape composition across southern Wisconsin and Michigan, USA. We used structural equation modeling to ask (1) whether natural enemies influence biocontrol of soybean aphids (SBA) and soybean yield and (2) whether landscape effects on natural enemies influence the strength of the trophic cascades. We found that natural enemies (NE) suppressed aphid populations in both years of our study, and, in 2011, the yield of soybean plants exposed to natural enemies was 37% higher than the yield of plants with aphid populations protected from natural enemies. The strength of the :rophic cascade was also influenced by landscape context. We found that landscapes with a higher proportion of soybean and higher diversity habitats resulted in more NE, fewer aphids, and, in some cases, a trend toward greater soybean yield. These results indicate that landscape context is important for understanding spatial variability in biocontrol and yield, but other factors, such as environmental variability and compensatory growth, might overwhelm the beneficial effects of biocontrol on crop yield.
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Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
Natural enemies suppressed soybean aphid populations in both study years.
- Taxon
- soybean
Glycine maxe2 - Interactor
- soybean aphids
.jpg?width=60)
Aphis glycinese1pest - Second interactor
- natural enemiese0biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- aphid populationse0
- Direction
- suppressede0
- Setting
- southern Wisconsin and Michigan, USAe2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“natural enemies (NE) suppressed aphid populations in both years of our study”
e1“soybean aphids (SBA)”
e2“soybean fields along a gradient of landscape composition across southern Wisconsin and Michigan, USA”
Claim · model-written summary
In 2011 soybean exposed to natural enemies yielded 37% more than soybean with aphids shielded from natural enemies.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxe0
- Treatment
- exposed to natural enemiese0
- Interactor
- aphide0pest
- Second interactor
- natural enemiese0biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- yielde0
- Direction
- highere0
- Value
- 37%e0
- Comparator
- plants with aphid populations protected from natural enemiese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“in 2011, the yield of soybean plants exposed to natural enemies was 37% higher than the yield of plants with aphid populations protected from natural enemies”
Claim · model-written summary
Landscapes with more soybean had more natural enemies.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxe0
- Outcome
- natural enemiese1
- Direction
- moree0
- Setting
- landscapes with a higher proportion of soybeane0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“landscapes with a higher proportion of soybean and higher diversity habitats resulted in more NE, fewer aphids, and, in some cases, a trend toward greater soybean yield”
e1“natural enemies (NE)”
Claim · model-written summary
Landscapes with more diverse habitats had more natural enemies.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxe0
- Outcome
- natural enemiese1
- Direction
- moree0
- Setting
- higher diversity habitatse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“landscapes with a higher proportion of soybean and higher diversity habitats resulted in more NE, fewer aphids, and, in some cases, a trend toward greater soybean yield”
e1“natural enemies (NE)”
Claim · model-written summary
The same landscape features were associated with fewer aphids.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxe0
- Interactor
- aphidsAphidomorphae0pest
- Outcome
- aphidse0
- Direction
- fewere0
- Setting
- landscapes with a higher proportion of soybean and higher diversity habitatse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“landscapes with a higher proportion of soybean and higher diversity habitats resulted in more NE, fewer aphids, and, in some cases, a trend toward greater soybean yield”
Claim · model-written summary
The same landscape features showed a trend to greater soybean yield in some cases.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxe0
- Outcome
- soybean yielde0
- Direction
- greatere0
- Qualifier
- in some casese0
- Setting
- landscapes with a higher proportion of soybean and higher diversity habitatse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“landscapes with a higher proportion of soybean and higher diversity habitats resulted in more NE, fewer aphids, and, in some cases, a trend toward greater soybean yield”
The same questions in other papers
biocontrol · yield · Glycine max (soybean)Results agree
8 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
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See all 9 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.