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  4. Natural enemy diversity reduces temporal variability in wasp but not bee parasitism
 
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Natural enemy diversity reduces temporal variability in wasp but not bee parasitism
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Natural enemy diversity reduces temporal variability in wasp but not bee parasitism.pdf (248.28 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Veddeler, D
Tylianakis, J
Tscharntke, T
Klein, A-M
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Biodiversity may enhance and stabilise ecosystem functioning, but little evidence exists for diversity–function relationships involving multitrophic interactions in real landscapes. In multitrophic communities diversity may vary at different trophic levels, with either synergistic or antagonistic effects on ecosystem functioning. Intensification of land-use systems is often found to reduce diversity, which in turn may lead to reduced associated ecological functions in natural food webs, such as host-parasite interactions. In this study we investigated the relationship between the number of natural enemy and host species and the mean rate and temporal variability of parasitism (inverse of stability), along an intensification gradient of coffee agroforests in Ecuador. We used standardised trap nests for bees and wasps and their natural enemies in 14 agroforests, and evaluated these monthly over a period of 17 months. We found that parasitism rates of wasps and bees increased with increasing number of enemy species and decreased with increasing number of host species. Temporal variability in parasitism rates decreased with increasing number of enemy species and increased with temporal variability in enemy species richness; however, these effects were restricted to wasp hosts. Intensification of agroforests did not significantly affect species richness of hosts or enemies or their relation to parasitism and its temporal variability. We conclude that high enemy diversity may enhance parasitism rates and that high host diversity may provide resistance against consumption. Furthermore, we show that a diverse and stable enemy community may also have a stabilizing effect on parasitism rates. However, these effects may be host-guild specific, as these relations were restricted to wasps.
Date Issued
2009-11-19
Date Acceptance
2009-10-13
Citation
Oecologia, 2009, 162 (3), pp.755-762
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/39471
DOI
https://www.dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1491-x
ISSN
1432-1939
Publisher
Springer Verlag
Start Page
755
End Page
762
Journal / Book Title
Oecologia
Volume
162
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com.
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Ecology
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
ECOLOGY
Land use
Biodiversity
Management
Pollinator
Predator
TROPICAL HABITAT GRADIENT
COFFEE AGROECOSYSTEMS
TROPHIC INTERACTIONS
COMMUNITY STRUCTURE
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
BIOLOGICAL-CONTROL
BIODIVERSITY LOSS
SPECIES RICHNESS
EMERGENT IMPACTS
FOOD WEBS
Animals
Bees
Ecosystem
0602 Ecology
Publication Status
Published
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