Data from: Avian pest control in vineyards is driven by interactions between bird functional diversity and landscape heterogeneity

Insectivorous birds are increasingly recognized for the crucial pest control services they provide to agroecosystems. While both the foraging activity and functional diversity of birds are enhanced by multiscale habitat heterogeneity, little is known about how these relationships may influence avian top-down control of insects. Specifically, interactive effects of bird community structure and habitat heterogeneity on pest control across spatial scales have rarely been explored. We sampled bird communities and measured avian predation on plasticine model prey, as a proxy for lepidopteran pest control, in 20 vineyards of south-western France. Vineyards differed both in sward heterogeneity at the local scale and amount of surrounding semi-natural habitats at the landscape scale. Functional diversity metrics and community-weighted mean traits were computed for bird communities based on a species–trait table including diet, foraging method, nesting site, migration strategy, laying date, home range size, clutch size and body mass. We used mixed models to test for the interacting effects of habitat heterogeneity and bird functional diversity on avian predation rates of plasticine prey. Contrary to expectations, bird functional diversity decreased with landscape-scale heterogeneity, but was higher in vineyards managed with heterogeneous sward structures. In contrast, foliage-gleaning insectivores were more abundant in landscapes supporting more semi-natural habitats, suggesting an increase in their contribution to pest control along the landscape heterogeneity gradient. Accordingly, we found that avian predation on plasticine prey increased with bird functional evenness both in more heterogeneous vineyards at the local scale and in landscape mosaics supporting more semi-natural habitats. Synthesis and applications. Our study demonstrates that habitat heterogeneity at both local and landscape scales influenced avian insectivory in vineyard agroecosystems by interacting with bird community structure. It provides important insights for ecological intensification in vineyards, pointing out that management options need to be adapted to both the functional composition of local bird communities and landscape context. We suggest that both on-field and off-field management can be used to enhance natural pest control services provided by birds in vineyards, especially by favouring sward heterogeneity and patches of semi-natural habitats within large vineyard stands at the landscape scale.食虫鸟类 (Insectivorous birds) 为农业生态系统 (agroecosystems) 提供的关键害虫防控服务 (pest control services)，正日益受到学界的广泛认可。尽管鸟类的觅食活动 (foraging activity) 与功能多样性 (functional diversity) 均可通过多尺度生境异质性 (multiscale habitat heterogeneity) 得到提升，但目前学界对这些关系如何影响鸟类对昆虫的下行调控 (avian top-down control) 仍知之甚少。具体而言，鸟类群落结构与生境异质性在不同空间尺度下对害虫防控的交互效应，极少得到研究探索。 我们在法国西南部的20个葡萄园中开展了鸟类群落采样，并以橡皮泥模拟猎物 (plasticine model prey) 作为鳞翅目害虫防控 (lepidopteran pest control) 的替代指标，测量了鸟类的捕食强度。这些葡萄园在局域尺度 (local scale) 的草被异质性与景观尺度 (landscape scale) 的周边半自然生境 (semi-natural habitats) 占比上均存在差异。我们基于包含食性、觅食方式 (foraging method)、筑巢位点 (nesting site)、迁徙策略 (migration strategy)、产卵日期 (laying date)、家域大小 (home range size)、窝卵数 (clutch size) 与体重 (body mass) 的物种-性状表 (species–trait table)，计算了鸟类群落的功能多样性指数与群落加权平均性状 (community-weighted mean traits)。我们采用混合模型 (mixed models)，检验了生境异质性与鸟类功能多样性对橡皮泥模拟猎物捕食率的交互效应。 与预期相悖的是，鸟类功能多样性随景观尺度生境异质性的提升而降低，但在草被结构异质性较高的葡萄园中更高。与之相反，叶面觅食食虫鸟类 (foliage-gleaning insectivores) 在周边半自然生境更多的景观中丰度更高，这表明其对害虫防控的贡献随景观异质性梯度升高而增强。据此我们发现，无论是在局域尺度草被异质性更高的葡萄园，还是在周边半自然生境更丰富的景观中，鸟类对橡皮泥模拟猎物的捕食率均随鸟类功能均匀度 (functional evenness) 的提升而升高。 总结与应用。本研究表明，局域与景观尺度的生境异质性，均可通过与鸟类群落结构的交互作用，影响葡萄园农业生态系统中的食虫鸟类取食活动。本研究为葡萄园的生态集约化 (ecological intensification) 管理提供了重要见解，指出管理方案需同时适配局域鸟类群落的功能组成与景观背景。我们建议，可通过田内管理 (on-field management) 与田外管理 (off-field management) 两种手段，提升葡萄园中鸟类提供的自然害虫防控服务，尤其是在景观尺度上，通过优化大型葡萄园斑块内的草被异质性与半自然生境斑块配置来实现这一目标。