Data from: Land cover diversity increases predator aggregation and consumption of prey

A lower diversity of land cover types is purported to decrease arthropod diversity in agroecosystems and is dependent on patterns of land use and fragmentation. Ants, important providers of ecosystem services such as biological control, are susceptible to landscape-level changes. We determined the relationships between land cover diversity and fragmentation on the within-field spatial associations of ants to pests and resulting predation events by combining mapping and molecular tools. Increased land cover diversity and decreased fragmentation increased ant abundance, spatial association to pests and predation. Land cover diversity and fragmentation were more explanatory than land cover types. Even so, specific land cover types, such as deciduous forest, influenced ant and pest diversity more so than abundance. These results indicate that geospatial techniques and molecular gut content analysis can be combined to determine the role of land use in influencing predator–prey interactions and resulting predation events in agroecosystems.

有研究指出，土地覆被类型多样性不足会降低农业生态系统的节肢动物多样性，且该效应受土地利用格局与景观破碎化程度的调控。蚂蚁作为生物防治等关键生态系统服务的提供者，极易受到景观尺度环境变化的影响。本研究通过结合制图技术与分子生物学工具，解析了土地覆被多样性与破碎化程度对农田内蚂蚁-害虫空间关联及由此引发的捕食事件的调控关系。提升土地覆被多样性、降低景观破碎化程度，均可提高蚂蚁种群丰度、蚂蚁与害虫的空间关联度以及捕食发生概率。土地覆被多样性与破碎化程度对生物交互过程的解释力优于单一土地覆被类型。尽管如此，特定土地覆被类型（如落叶林）对蚂蚁与害虫多样性的影响强度仍大于其对种群丰度的影响。本研究结果证实，可通过结合地理空间技术与分子肠道内容物分析，厘清土地利用格局对农业生态系统中捕食者-猎物交互作用及其介导的捕食事件的调控作用。