Data from: Crop identity and memory effects on aboveground arthropods in a long-term crop rotation experiment

Agricultural landscapes are globally dominated by monocultures under
intensive management. This is one of the main reasons for biodiversity
loss and insect population decline in many regions all over the world.
Agroecosystem biodiversity in these areas can be enhanced by cropping
system diversification, such as crop rotations. Yet, long-term studies on
effects of crop rotations on aboveground agrobiodiversity are lacking. We
set up a 10-year long-term crop-rotation experiment in Central Germany and
monitored the temporal dynamics of aboveground arthropods over a full
cultivation period to investigate influence of current and preceding crop
identity and cropping system diversification on activity density, species
richness and community structure. We found that species composition was
strongly influenced by currently grown crop although effect on arthropods
varied between species groups. Especially winter oilseed rape strongly
affects arthropod community structure. Interestingly, we were also able to
show an influence of the preceding crops, indicating an ecological memory
effect in aboveground arthropod community. Our results show that crop
identity of both currently and previously grown crops in crop rotations
may lead to an increase of arthropod activity density and changes in
species composition. Diversified crop rotations including appropriate
crops can be an easily implemented tool to increase arthropod biodiversity
and biomass at large spatial and temporal scales, particularly in areas
dominated by a single crop (e.g. wheat, maize). Our results may help to
design optimized crop rotations for large-scale enhancement of insect
biodiversity in agroecosystems.