Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment ( IF 6.6 ) Pub Date : 2021-11-17 , DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2021.107749 Eva Kinnebrew 1, 2 , Deborah A. Neher 1, 3 , Taylor H. Ricketts 1, 2 , Kimberly F. Wallin 4 , Heather Darby 1, 3, 5 , Sara E. Ziegler 5 , Samantha A. Alger 3, 6 , Gillian L. Galford 1, 2
New land uses can drive complex changes to local biodiversity. In the Northeastern U.S., cultivated milkweed has arisen as a new crop with potentially promising outcomes for monarch butterflies, but has unknown effects on surface-active and soil-dwelling arthropods. We assessed differences in arthropod communities among nearby sites containing milkweed and three common regional land uses: conventional corn, conventional hay, and forest, representing a spectrum of high to low land use intensity. In each land use, we sampled surface-active and soil-dwelling arthropods, and we classified organisms at the taxonomic order level for all collected arthropods and at the taxonomic genus level for surface-active beetles. To address differences in functional traits between sites, we measured organisms’ body sizes and calculated average body mass, total biomass, and abundance of arthropods in small, medium, and large size classes. In almost all analyses, taxonomic diversity values were significantly higher in the milkweed site than in corn and similar between the milkweed and hay sites. Milkweed had significantly higher diversity of surface-active arthropods than forest (for both orders and beetle genera), but did not have higher diversity of soil-dwelling arthropods, indicating possible different mechanisms driving aboveground versus belowground trends. Community composition differed significantly among land uses (demonstrated in NMDS ordination plots), with milkweed most similar to hay. Body size analyses demonstrated high total biomass and generally higher abundance of larger individuals in milkweed than in other land uses, with the exception of corn, which was dominated by large carabid beetles. We discuss the implications of our findings to land use properties and ecological function. Our case study indicates promising benefits of milkweed cultivation for soil biodiversity and soil health, with more research needed to validate and build from our results.
中文翻译:
在新英格兰案例研究中,栽培的马利筋拥有高度多样性的表面活性和土壤栖息节肢动物
新的土地用途可以推动当地生物多样性的复杂变化。在美国东北部,栽培马利筋已成为一种新作物,对帝王蝶具有潜在的前景,但对表面活性和土壤栖息的节肢动物有未知的影响。我们评估了附近含有马利筋和三种常见区域土地用途的地点之间节肢动物群落的差异:传统玉米、传统干草和森林,代表了从高到低的土地利用强度范围。在每个土地利用中,我们对表面活性节肢动物和土壤栖息节肢动物进行采样,并在所有收集的节肢动物的分类学目级别和表面活性甲虫的分类学属级别对生物进行分类。为了解决不同部位功能特征的差异,我们测量了生物体的体型并计算了平均体重,总生物量,以及小、中、大尺寸类节肢动物的丰度。在几乎所有的分析中,马利筋地点的分类多样性值显着高于玉米,马利筋地点和干草地点之间的分类多样性值相似。乳草的表面活性节肢动物多样性显着高于森林(对于目和甲虫属),但土栖节肢动物的多样性没有更高,这表明驱动地上与地下趋势的可能不同机制。群落组成因土地用途而异(在 NMDS 排序地块中得到证明),马利筋与干草最相似。体型分析表明,与其他土地用途相比,马利筋中较大的个体的总生物量较高,而且通常丰度较高,但玉米除外,主要是大型甲虫。我们讨论了我们的发现对土地利用特性和生态功能的影响。我们的案例研究表明,马利筋种植对土壤生物多样性和土壤健康有很大的好处,需要更多的研究来验证和建立我们的结果。