Incidence of prey DNA in predators from a cotton system utilizing winter cover crops

There is increasing interest in the use of winter cover crops in annual cropping systems to promote beneficial insects and the ecosystem services they provide. One such, biological control, is a result of predation on economically important pests within an agricultural system.  The presence of cover crop residue alongside growing cotton has the potential to bolster natural enemy communities and influence trophic relationships between predators and prey.  Arthropod predators were sampled from a Georgia cotton field at each major cotton development stage from cotton grown following rye and crimson clover cover crops compared to a no cover control. DNA extracted from collected predators was screened for the presence of common cotton pests and alternative prey.  Here we provide the data resulting from the molecular gut content analysis of predators collected during the 2017 and 2018 cotton growing season. The data provided includes predator identification and details, presence of DNA for ei...

当前，一年生种植体系中利用冬季覆盖作物（winter cover crop）以促进益虫及其所提供的生态系统服务的研究热度持续攀升。其中生物防治（biological control）便是此类生态系统服务之一，其核心是农业系统内对具有经济重要性的害虫的捕食调控作用。在种植中的棉田保留覆盖作物残体，有望强化天敌群落，并改变捕食者与猎物间的营养级关系。研究团队于美国佐治亚州的一块棉田中开展节肢动物捕食者采样：该棉田分别设置黑麦、绛三叶草覆盖作物后植棉的处理，并设置无覆盖对照（no cover control），采样覆盖棉花生长的各主要发育阶段。研究人员对采集到的捕食者体内提取的DNA进行筛查，以检测常见棉田害虫及替代猎物的DNA存在情况。本数据集提供2017与2018年棉季采集的捕食者的分子肠道内容物分析（molecular gut content analysis）结果，所包含的数据包括捕食者种类鉴定信息及详细参数，以及目标DNA的存在情况（原文表述截断至“ei”）。