Effects of groundcover management on ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in an apple orchard

By M. Miñarro, E. Dapena. 2003

100 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A field experiment was conducted in a cider-apple orchard to evaluate the effect of six groundcover management systems (pine-bark, plastic and straw mulches, tillage, herbicide and natural soil) on the occurrence of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Eight species of carabids were collected in pitfall traps. The three most common beetles, Steropus gallegaFairmaire (65.8%), Pseudophonus rufipes (DeGeer) (18.2%) and Poecilus cupreus L. (14.6%), represented more than 98% of the total catches. The specific dominance depended on the sampling date. The soil management treatment significantly affected the following parameters. (1) The overall carabid catch: the plastic mulch (5.6% of the total catches) negatively affected total carabid collection, which was higher in the tilled (24.3%) and herbicide-treated (21.4%) plots, although not significantly different from the natural soil (16.5%), straw mulch (16.3%) and pine-bark mulch (15.9%) treatments. (2) The specific preferences of the three most common carabids: the plastic cover adversely affected the catches of S. gallega whilst P. rufipes was collected in greater numbers in tilled areas and P. cupreus in the herbicide treatments. (3) The structure of the carabid community: based on species richness, diversity and evenness indices, herbicide and tillage provided the most diverse carabid community and the straw mulch the poorest. It was concluded that groundcover management in apple orchards may affect the activity density of epigeic predators which may contribute to the natural control of pests. © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Subfields: Ecology, Insect Science, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/12dc1eab514c7d9dfdbda5cb453651eb1c437047

How researchers see this paper

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In Ecology

1. Linda J. Thomson
2. A. Hoffmann
3. B. Sauphanor
4. J. Bouvier
5. L. Lacey
6. S. Simon
7. J. Debras
8. Steven L. Chown

In Insect Science

1. A. Hoffmann
2. Linda J. Thomson
3. L. Lacey
4. Charles Vincent

In Plant Science

1. A. Hoffmann
2. L. Lacey
3. Linda J. Thomson
4. Charles Vincent

Citations in the corpus

• Biodiversity and pest management in orchard systems. A review (2011, background): “The manipulation of the habitat of ground-dwelling arthropods, for instance, by mulching the groundcover (Miñarro and Dapena, 2003; Mathews et al., 2004) was not reviewed.”
• Codling moth granulovirus: a comprehensive review (2008, background): “…and other pest insects and mites in orchards include environmental manipulation such as ground cover management (Dickler 1978; Horton et al. 2003; Miñarro and Dapena 2003; Brown and Tworkiski 2004; Mathews, Bottrell, and Brown 2004) and provision of plants that provide nectar and harborage for…”
• Effects of ground cover (straw and compost) on the abundance of natural enemies and soil macro invertebrates in vineyards (2007, methodology): “Single invertebrate taxa often show differences under management practices ( Holland & Luff, 2000; Minarro & Dapena, 2003; Steffan-Dewenter & Leschke, 2003; Bolduc et al. , 2005 ), but they do not indicate the potential overall effects of management practices on the crop.”