IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i7p5978-d1111449.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Habitat Modification Alters Food Web Interactions with Focus on Biological Control of Aphids in Apple Orchards

Author

Listed:
  • Ammar Alhmedi

    (Research Station for Fruit (Pcfruit Npo), 3800 Sint-Truiden, Belgium)

  • Tim Belien

    (Research Station for Fruit (Pcfruit Npo), 3800 Sint-Truiden, Belgium)

  • Dany Bylemans

    (Research Station for Fruit (Pcfruit Npo), 3800 Sint-Truiden, Belgium
    Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium)

Abstract

To date, direct interactions between pests and natural enemies are often considered in biocontrol programs. Recently there has been an increase of evidence for the importance of third-party mediated indirect interactions in determining the population dynamics of insects. Predicting the strength of such interactions remains a central challenge in biocontrol assessments. Here, two field experiments were performed in two years to investigate to which extent Dysaphis plantaginea Passerini, Aphis pomi De Geer, and Myzus cerasi Fabricius might indirectly interact through shared natural enemies and ants. We first studied the population dynamics of target insects in isolated orchards of apples and cherries. Secondly, we investigated how the spatial coexistence of aphid-infested cherries can indirectly affect the population dynamics of apple aphids via natural enemies and ants. In the first experiment, nine parasitoid species were recorded on apple and cherry aphids, among them were three species in common. Six predatory families were found on cherry and apple aphids, while only one ant species, Lasius niger L., was found associating with these aphids. In the second experiment, temporal variation in the natural enemy-mediated apparent competition between M. cerasi and apple aphids was found. The cherry aphid is likely to be an important source of natural enemies that attack apple aphids early in the season. Significantly reduced numbers of ants associating with apple aphids in the intercropping habitat were found. Our results emphasize the importance of considering indirect interactions in the designing of pest management strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Ammar Alhmedi & Tim Belien & Dany Bylemans, 2023. "Habitat Modification Alters Food Web Interactions with Focus on Biological Control of Aphids in Apple Orchards," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-13, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:7:p:5978-:d:1111449
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/7/5978/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/7/5978/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rebecca J. Morris & Owen T. Lewis & H. Charles J. Godfray, 2004. "Experimental evidence for apparent competition in a tropical forest food web," Nature, Nature, vol. 428(6980), pages 310-313, March.
    2. Ugo Bastolla & Miguel A. Fortuna & Alberto Pascual-García & Antonio Ferrera & Bartolo Luque & Jordi Bascompte, 2009. "The architecture of mutualistic networks minimizes competition and increases biodiversity," Nature, Nature, vol. 458(7241), pages 1018-1020, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cristina Fiera & Jan Christian Habel & Werner Ulrich, 2018. "Neutral colonisations drive high beta-diversity in cavernicole springtails (Collembola)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, January.
    2. Colton Brehm & Astrid Layton, 2021. "Nestedness of eco‐industrial networks: Exploring linkage distribution to promote sustainable industrial growth," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(1), pages 205-218, February.
    3. Benadi, Gita & Blüthgen, Nico & Hovestadt, Thomas & Poethke, Hans-Joachim, 2013. "Contrasting specialization–stability relationships in plant–animal mutualistic systems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 258(C), pages 65-73.
    4. Leto Peel & Tiago P. Peixoto & Manlio De Domenico, 2022. "Statistical inference links data and theory in network science," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Fabio Saracco & Riccardo Di Clemente & Andrea Gabrielli & Tiziano Squartini, 2015. "Detecting early signs of the 2007-2008 crisis in the world trade," Papers 1508.03533, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2016.
    6. Timothée Poisot & Sonia Kéfi & Serge Morand & Michal Stanko & Pablo A Marquet & Michael E Hochberg, 2015. "A Continuum of Specialists and Generalists in Empirical Communities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(5), pages 1-12, May.
    7. Sabine Dritz & Rebecca A. Nelson & Fernanda S. Valdovinos, 2023. "The role of intra-guild indirect interactions in assembling plant-pollinator networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    8. Ammunét, Tea & Klemola, Tero & Parvinen, Kalle, 2014. "Consequences of asymmetric competition between resident and invasive defoliators: A novel empirically based modelling approach," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 107-117.
    9. Sebastián Bustos & Charles Gomez & Ricardo Hausmann & César A Hidalgo, 2012. "The Dynamics of Nestedness Predicts the Evolution of Industrial Ecosystems," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(11), pages 1-8, November.
    10. Singer, Alexander & Johst, Karin & Banitz, Thomas & Fowler, Mike S. & Groeneveld, Jürgen & Gutiérrez, Alvaro G. & Hartig, Florian & Krug, Rainer M. & Liess, Matthias & Matlack, Glenn & Meyer, Katrin M, 2016. "Community dynamics under environmental change: How can next generation mechanistic models improve projections of species distributions?," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 326(C), pages 63-74.
    11. Anderson, Taylor M. & Dragićević, Suzana, 2018. "Network-agent based model for simulating the dynamic spatial network structure of complex ecological systems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 389(C), pages 19-32.
    12. Mika J. Straka & Guido Caldarelli & Tiziano Squartini & Fabio Saracco, 2017. "From Ecology to Finance (and Back?): Recent Advancements in the Analysis of Bipartite Networks," Papers 1710.10143, arXiv.org.
    13. Roberto Cazzolla Gatti & Roger Koppl & Brian D. Fath & Stuart Kauffman & Wim Hordijk & Robert E. Ulanowicz, 2020. "On the emergence of ecological and economic niches," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 99-127, July.
    14. Tuomo Mäki-Marttunen & Juha Kesseli & Matti Nykter, 2013. "Balance between Noise and Information Flow Maximizes Set Complexity of Network Dynamics," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-10, March.
    15. , D. & Tessone, Claudio J. & ,, 2014. "Nestedness in networks: A theoretical model and some applications," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(3), September.
    16. Wanming Chen & Shengyuan Wang & Xiaolan Wu, 2022. "Growth Mechanism and Synchronization Effect of China’s New Energy Vehicle Enterprises: An Empirical Analysis Based on Moving Logistic and Kuramoto Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-17, December.
    17. Laura Hernandez & Annick Vignes & Stéphanie Saba, 2018. "Trust or robustness? An ecological approach to the study of auction and bilateral markets," Post-Print hal-02005040, HAL.
    18. Chengyi Tu & Joel Carr & Samir Suweis, 2016. "A data driven network approach to rank countries production diversity and food specialization," Papers 1606.01270, arXiv.org.
    19. Wang, Xiangrong & Peron, Thomas & Dubbeldam, Johan L.A. & Kéfi, Sonia & Moreno, Yamir, 2023. "Interspecific competition shapes the structural stability of mutualistic networks," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    20. Muhammad Awais Rasool & Muhammad Azher Hassan & Xiaobo Zhang & Qing Zeng & Yifei Jia & Li Wen & Guangchun Lei, 2021. "Habitat Quality and Social Behavioral Association Network in a Wintering Waterbirds Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:7:p:5978-:d:1111449. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.