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

1. Insectivorous birds are increasingly recognised for the crucial pest control services they provide to agroecosystems. While both the foraging activity and functional diversity of birds are enhanced by multi-scale 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

1. 食虫鸟类（Insectivorous birds）为农业生态系统提供的关键有害生物防治服务正日益受到学界重视。尽管多尺度生境异质性（multi-scale habitat heterogeneity）可提升鸟类的觅食活动与功能多样性，但目前学界对上述关联如何影响鸟类自上而下的昆虫调控机制仍知之甚少。其中，鸟类群落结构与生境异质性在不同空间尺度下对有害生物防治的交互效应，更是极少被探索。
2. 本研究在法国西南部的20个葡萄园内开展鸟类群落采样，并以橡皮泥（plasticine）模拟猎物作为鳞翅目（Lepidoptera）害虫防治的替代指标，测定了鸟类的捕食强度。这些葡萄园在本地尺度的草本植被异质性与景观尺度的周边半自然生境占比上均存在差异。研究基于包含食性、觅食方式、营巢位点、迁徙策略、产卵日期、家域大小、窝卵数与体重的物种-性状表，计算了鸟类群落的功能多样性指数与群落加权平均性状。本研究采用混合模型（mixed models），以检验生境异质性与鸟类功能多样性对橡皮泥模拟猎物捕食速率的交互效应。
3. 与预期相悖的是，鸟类功能多样性随景观尺度异质性升高而降低，但在草本植被结构异质性管理的葡萄园中则更高。与之相反，周边半自然生境更多的景观中，叶面取食食虫鸟类的丰富度更高，这表明随着景观异质性梯度升高，这类鸟类对有害生物防治的贡献也会提升。据此，本研究发现，无论是本地尺度草本植被异质性更高的葡萄园，还是周边半自然生境占比更高的景观镶嵌体，鸟类对橡皮泥模拟猎物的捕食速率均随鸟类功能均匀度（functional evenness）升高而提升。
4. 总结与应用。本研究证明，本地与景观尺度的生境异质性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鸟类食虫功能。本研究为葡萄园的生态集约化管理提供了重要见解，指出管理策略需同时适配本地鸟类群落的功能组成与景观背景。我们建议，可通过田间与田间外的双重管理措施提升葡萄园鸟类提供的自然有害生物防治服务，尤其是在景观尺度上，通过优化大型葡萄园斑块内的草本植被异质性与半自然生境斑块来实现。