Landscape composition influences on coccinellid diversity and dominant species in rice and orchard systems: implications for biological control
Journal
BIOLOGICAL CONTROL
Journal Volume
220
Start Page
106122
ISSN
1049-9644
Date Issued
2026-09
Author(s)
Cheng-En Song
農業部農業試驗所
農業部農業試驗所
Hsuan-I Lin
農業部農業試驗所
Chung-Chi Lin
Abstract
Landscape structure plays a critical role in shaping natural enemy communities and biological control, yet its effects vary across agroecosystems and spatial scales. This study examined how landscape composition influences ladybird beetle (Coccinellidae) communities across rice and orchard systems in subtropical Taiwan, using survey data from 85 plots in thirteen production areas. Coverage-standardized rarefaction indicated comparable species richness in the two systems, but orchards supported significantly higher Shannon and Simpson diversity, showing that the systems differ in evenness rather than in the number of species present; in both, however, a small subset of species accounted for most individuals. Landscape effects on richness were strongly scale-dependent, with paddy communities responding to local extents of 50-100 m and orchard communities to broader contexts of 750-1000 m, and landscape variables explained approximately twice as much variation in orchards as in paddies. Redundancy analysis and two-way PERMANOVA showed that dominant species assemblages differed primarily by cropping system and secondarily by geographic region. Rather than being purely species-specific, these associations fell into three functional strategies: disturbance-tolerant generalists of managed habitats, refugedependent secondary species, and woody-habitat fidelity specialists. In paddies, the configuration of ditch networks and the spacing of low-vegetation patches mattered more than the total amount of non-crop habitat. These results reveal a management trade-off: simplified paddy landscapes call for local interventions that augment dominant predators, whereas structurally stable orchard systems are better suited to broad-scale configuration strategies that conserve natural enemy diversity.
Subjects
Coccinellidae
Landscape management
Scale-dependent effects
Biological control
Agroecosystems
Publisher
Elsevier
Type
journal article