Dataset for: Multi-scale approach to biodiversity proxies of biological control service in European farmlands

Dataset for the BiodivERsA COFUND Woodned project. Information on which spatio-temporal factors are simultaneously affecting crop pests and their natural enemies is required to improve conservation biological control practices. The study was conducted in 80 winter wheat crop fields distributed in three regions of North-western Europe (Brittany, Hauts-de-France and Wallonia), along intra-regional gradients of landscape complexity. Five taxa : aphids, slugs, spiders, carabids, and parasitoids were sampled for two consecutive years. We analysed the influence of regional, landscape and local factors on the abundance and species richness of crop-dwelling organisms, as proxies of the service/disservice they provide. Firstly, there was higher biocontrol potential in areas with mild winter climatic conditions. Secondly, natural enemy communities were less diverse and had lower abundances in landscapes with high crop and wooded continuities, contrary to slugs and aphids. Finally, field boundaries with grass strips were more favourable to spiders and carabids than boundaries formed by hedges, while the opposite was found for crop pests, with the latter being less abundant towards the centre of the fields. These results are quite unexpected because they show that hedgerows and woodlots should not be the unique cornerstones of agro-ecological landscape design strategies. We point out that combining woody and grassy habitats to take full advantage of the features and ecosystem services they both provide may promote sustainable agricultural ecosystems. It may be possible to both reduce pest pressure and promote natural enemies by accounting for taxa-specific antagonistic responses to multi-scale environmental characteristics.