Semi-natural habitat, but not aphid amount or continuity, predicts lady beetle abundance across agricultural landscapes

The amount of semi-natural habitat surrounding farm fields is a common but inconsistent predictor of natural enemy populations and predation services. Standard land cover metrics may not accurately capture the actual availability of limiting resources for natural enemies and can miss important dynamics across space and time. Theory from animal movement and landscape ecology predicts that regions with more, spatio-temporally continuous resources (i.e. food, shelter) should have larger predator populations and enhanced biological control. To test these predictions empirically, we designed a study measuring aphids, lady beetles, and predation services in agricultural landscapes in Wisconsin, USA. In two study years, we sampled lady beetles and aphids in 336 crop fields (corn, soybean, alfalfa, and small grains) and adjacent semi-natural habitat patches (grasslands and woodlands) across 24 1.5 km buffer landscapes at 4–7 time points each, and in one year we assessed predation rates with sen..., See \"Semi-natural habitat, but not aphid amount or continuity, predicts lady beetle abundance across agricultural landscapes\", Journal of Applied Ecology for detailed methods., , # Data from: Semi-natural habitat, but not aphid amount or continuity, predicts lady beetle abundance across agricultural landscapes

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2547d7wwt](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2547d7wwt)

## Description of the data and file structure

### **landscape.data.csv**

Landscape composition information derived from the USDA cropland data layer ([https://www.nass.usda.gov/Research_and_Science/Cropland/Release/](https://www.nass.usda.gov/Research_and_Science/Cropland/Release/) for 2019 and 2021 using the landscape metrics package (v2.0.0, [https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/landscapemetrics/index.html](https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/landscapemetrics/index.html)

| Variable name | Variable description | Variable class | Levels / measurement scale | Units  | DateTime format  |
| :------------ | :---------------------------------...