Spillover edge effects: the dispersal of agriculturally subsidized insect natural enemies into adjacent natural habitats.

By T. Rand, J. Tylianakis, T. Tscharntke. Ecology Letters, 2006

644 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The cross-edge spillover of subsidized predators from anthropogenic to natural habitats is an important process affecting wildlife, especially bird, populations in fragmented landscapes. However, the importance of the spillover of insect natural enemies from agricultural to natural habitats is unknown, despite the abundance of studies examining movement in the opposite direction. Here, we synthesize studies from various ecological sub-disciplines to suggest that spillover of agriculturally subsidized insect natural enemies may be an important process affecting prey populations in natural habitat fragments. This contention is based on (1) the ubiquity of agricultural-natural edges in human dominated landscapes; (2) the substantial literature illustrating that crop and natural habitats share important insect predators; and (3) the clear importance of the landscape matrix, specifically distance to ecological edges, in influencing predator impacts in agroecosystems. Further support emerges from theory on the importance of cross-boundary subsidies for within site consumer-resource dynamics. In particular, high productivity and temporally variable resource abundance in agricultural systems are predicted to result in strong spillover effects. More empirical work examining the prevalence and significance of such natural enemy spillover will be critical to a broader understanding of fragmentation impacts on insect predator-prey interactions.

Subfields: Ecology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c1235930a35176e0fb16964b93257bcebeb687bd

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Citations in the corpus

Plant Herbivore Interactions at the Forest Edge (2008, background): “Cross-edge spillover of subsidized predators from the anthropogenic matrix to the natural forest habitat (Rand et al. 2006); 2.”
Biological Control of Insect Pests in Agroecosystems: Effects of Crop Management, Farming Systems, and Seminatural Habitats at the Landscape Scale: A Review (2010, background): “Rand et al. (2006) explained that spillover effects may also result from complementation between the resources in seminatural and cultivated areas.”
The cropping systems mosaic: How does the hidden heterogeneity of agricultural landscapes drive arthropod populations? (2013, background): “Vasseur et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment xxx (2012) xxx– xxx”
To close the yield-gap while saving biodiversity will require multiple locally relevant strategies (2013, background): “For example, the spillover of agricultural chemicals can dramatically affect neighbouring nonagricultural land or waterways, and non-native species that prosper on production lands can become competitive invaders in adjacent non-agricultural land (Rand et al., 2006).”
The effect of semi-natural habitats on aphids and their natural enemies across spatial and temporal scales (2014, background): “(2) According to the ‘‘winter refuge’’ (Corbett and Rosenheim, 1996; Sarthou et al., 2005) and the ‘‘spill over’’ hypotheses (Rand et al., 2006), natural enemies abundance should be greater in the early spring near semi-natural habitats than in the late spring.”
Local and landscape management drive trait‐mediated biodiversity of nine taxa on small grassland fragments (2015, background): “Small fragments as studied by us may also experience greater edge effects and higher spillover from adjacent arable land (Rand et al., 2006).”
Landscape composition and configuration differently affect trap-nesting bees, wasps and their antagonists (2014, background): “Semi-natural habitats may offer overwintering sites or host species for natural enemies in adjacent crop fields (Rand et al., 2006) and thus serve as refuge habitats in agricultural landscapes.”
Mitigating the effects of insecticides on arthropod biological control at field and landscape scales (2014, background): “IPM programs are typically deployed at the field or farm level, yet there is considerable linkage among adjacent farms and other land use types in terms of the exchange of pest and beneficial insects (Ekbom et al., 2000; Rand et al., 2006; Diekötter et al., 2008; Chisholm et al. 2014).”
Effects of ecological compensation meadows on arthropod diversity in adjacent intensively managed grassland (2010, background): “Nevertheless, intensively managed grasslands can provide ephemeral high quality resources for generalist arthropods (Symondson et al., 2002; Rand et al., 2006).”
Non-native plantation forests as alternative habitat for native forest beetles in a heavily modified landscape (2008, background): “Whether the native beetles in the pasture samples represent resident populations is unclear, as the dispersal of insects between managed and natural ecosystems is common (see review by Rand et al. 2006 ).”
ANDEAN LAND USE AND BIODIVERSITY: HUMANIZED LANDSCAPES IN A TIME OF CHANGE (2009, background): “Some insect pests of agricultural concern are kept controlled by native predators surviving in edge and matrix habitat (Rand et al., 2006).”
Spillover of functionally important organisms between managed and natural habitats (2012, background): “Spillover of generalist natural enemies, such as predators and herbivores, from managed to natural habitats is likely to be an important process affecting prey populations in adjacent natural systems (Tscharntke et al., 2005; Rand et al., 2006).”