University of Worcester Worcester Research and Publications
 
  USER PANEL:
  ABOUT THE COLLECTION:
  CONTACT DETAILS:

Novel Management to Enhance Spider Biodiversity in Existing Grass Buffer Strips

Blake, R.J., Woodcock, B.A., Westbury, Duncan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7094-0362, Sutton, P. and Potts, S.G. (2013) Novel Management to Enhance Spider Biodiversity in Existing Grass Buffer Strips. Agricultural and Forest Entomology, 15 (1). pp. 77-85. ISSN Online: 1461-9563

[img] Text
Blake_et_al-2013-Agricultural_and_Forest_Entomology.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to Repository staff only

Download (575kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Grass buffer strips have been widely sown to mitigate against intensive agricultural management practices that have negatively impacted on invertebrate and plant biodiversity in arable farming systems. Typically, such strips are floristically species poor and are dominated by grasses. In the present study, we developed management practices to enhance the floristic and structural diversity of these existing strips for the benefit of spiders, a key provider of natural pest control in crops.

Across three UK arable farms, we investigated the benefits of: (i) scarification to create germination niches into which wildflower seeds were sown and (ii) the effect of graminicide applications to suppress grass dominance. Spiders were sampled twice per year (July and September) during 2008 and 2009.

The combination of scarification with wildflower seeds, as well as graminicide, resulted in the greatest wildflower cover and lowest grass cover, with a general trend of increased abundance of adult and juvenile spiders. The abundance of Pachygnatha degeeri, Bathyphantes gracilis and juvenile wolf spiders of the genus Pardosa was positively correlated with wildflower cover, probably reflecting increased prey availability. Sward structure was negatively correlated with Erigone atra, Oedothorax fuscus and juvenile Pardosa abundance.

Management that utilizes existing commonly adopted agri-environment options, such as grass buffer strips, represents a potentially important conservation tool for increasing the quantity and quality of invertebrate habitats. This can maximize opportunities for the provision of multiple ecosystem services, including pest regulation by predators such as spiders. These management practices have the potential to be incorporated into existing U.K. and European agri-environment schemes.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information:

Staff and students at the University of Worcester can access the full-text via Library Search. External users should check availability with their local library or Interlibrary Requests Service.

Uncontrolled Discrete Keywords: agri-environment scheme, Araneae, graminicide, wildflowers, SERG
Subjects: S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
Divisions: College of Health, Life and Environmental Sciences > School of Science and the Environment
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Janet Davidson
Date Deposited: 21 Jun 2013 12:41
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2020 13:53
URI: https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/id/eprint/2295

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item
 
     
Worcester Research and Publications is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.