Abstract
Demand for food, fuel, and fiber has been increasing, escalating the intensification of agriculture during the past fifty years. A more comprehensive understanding of the impact of landscapes on sustainable agriculture production is required to meet the continual increase in human demand. This not only includes how chemical inputs are used but also how cultivated and surrounding landscapes are managed for ecosystem services. This research explains how land cover on landscape and farm scales impact ant and spider-mediated pest suppression. I successfully developed and optimized molecular methods to test ant gut contents from both laboratory and field-caught specimens. A multi-year field study indicated that spatial scale played a significant role in both ant and pest abundance and diversity when land cover at the landscape scale was analyzed, where an increase in scale generally correlated with an increase in the intensity of the relationship between landscape fragmentation and community response. I found that ant and pest populations can potentially be managed at the landscape scale via specific cover types and habitat fragmentation. Farm scale field margin composition significantly influenced spider and pest within field abundances and spatial associations, particularly early in the season. In a field cage study, ants were found to interfere with reductions in pest-induced leaf damage caused by spiders within the soybean system despite the fact that the pest was non-honeydew producing. Finally, I found that chemical disturbance via imidacloprid and fungicide seed treatments did not impact pest populations or ant predation rates but did significantly increase ant diversity by decreasing the abundance of a dominant ant species. However, there were impacts found on ant individuals within a lab mesocosm where imidacloprid induced sub-lethal intoxication but fungicides were lethal to Tetramorium caespitum.
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Claims 11
Claim · model-written summary
Molecular methods were developed and optimized to test ant gut contents.
- Taxon
- SOYBEANS
Glycine maxt0 - Outcome
- test ant gut contentse0
Not reportedComparatorValue
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“I successfully developed and optimized molecular methods to test ant gut contents from both laboratory and field-caught specimens.”
t0“SOYBEANS”
Claim · model-written summary
Landscape spatial scale significantly shaped ant and pest abundance and diversity.
- Taxon
- SOYBEANSGlycine maxt0
- Outcome
- ant and pest abundance and diversitye0
- Setting
- landscape scalee0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“spatial scale played a significant role in both ant and pest abundance and diversity when land cover at the landscape scale was analyzed”
t0“SOYBEANS”
Claim · model-written summary
Larger scales strengthened the relationship between fragmentation and community response.
- Taxon
- SOYBEANSGlycine maxt0
- Outcome
- intensity of the relationship between landscape fragmentation and community responsee0
- Direction
- increasee0
- Setting
- landscapee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“an increase in scale generally correlated with an increase in the intensity of the relationship between landscape fragmentation and community response”
t0“SOYBEANS”
Claim · model-written summary
Field margin composition significantly influenced within-field spider and pest abundance.
- Taxon
- SOYBEANSGlycine maxt0
- Outcome
- spider and pest within field abundancese0
- Qualifier
- early in the seasone0
- Setting
- Farm scalee0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Farm scale field margin composition significantly influenced spider and pest within field abundances and spatial associations, particularly early in the season.”
t0“SOYBEANS”
Claim · model-written summary
Field margin composition significantly influenced spider and pest spatial associations.
- Taxon
- SOYBEANSGlycine maxt0
- Outcome
- spatial associationse0
- Setting
- Farm scalee0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Farm scale field margin composition significantly influenced spider and pest within field abundances and spatial associations, particularly early in the season.”
t0“SOYBEANS”
Claim · model-written summary
Ants interfered with spiders reducing pest damage to soybean leaves.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxe0
- Interactor
- peste0pest
- Second interactor
- antsFormicidaee0other
- Outcome
- pest-induced leaf damagee0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“ants were found to interfere with reductions in pest-induced leaf damage caused by spiders within the soybean system”
Claim · model-written summary
Imidacloprid seed treatment did not affect pest populations or ant predation.
- Taxon
- SOYBEANSGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- imidaclopride0
- Outcome
- pest populations or ant predation ratese0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“imidacloprid and fungicide seed treatments did not impact pest populations or ant predation rates”
t0“SOYBEANS”
Claim · model-written summary
Fungicide seed treatment did not affect pest populations or ant predation.
- Taxon
- SOYBEANSGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- fungicide seed treatmentse0
- Outcome
- pest populations or ant predation ratese0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“imidacloprid and fungicide seed treatments did not impact pest populations or ant predation rates”
t0“SOYBEANS”
Claim · model-written summary
Seed treatments increased ant diversity by lowering the dominant ant species abundance.
- Taxon
- SOYBEANSGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- imidacloprid and fungicide seed treatmentse1
- Outcome
- ant diversitye0
- Direction
- increasee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“did significantly increase ant diversity by decreasing the abundance of a dominant ant species”
t0“SOYBEANS”
e1“imidacloprid and fungicide seed treatments did not impact pest populations or ant predation rates”
Claim · model-written summary
Imidacloprid caused sublethal intoxication in ants in the lab mesocosm.
- Taxon
- SOYBEANSGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- imidaclopride0
- Outcome
- sub-lethal intoxicatione0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“imidacloprid induced sub-lethal intoxication”
t0“SOYBEANS”
Claim · model-written summary
Fungicides were lethal to Tetramorium caespitum in the lab mesocosm.
- Taxon
- SOYBEANSGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- fungicidese0
- Interactor
- Tetramorium caespitum
Tetramorium caespitume0other - Outcome
- lethal to Tetramorium caespitume0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“fungicides were lethal to Tetramorium caespitum”
t0“SOYBEANS”
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See all 24 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.