Farming practices change food web structures in cereal aphid-parasitoid-hyperparasitoid communities.

ABSTRACT: Agricultural intensification has been shown to result in a decline in biodiversity across many taxa, but the changes in community structure and species interactions remain little understood. We have analysed and compared the structure of feeding interactions for cereal aphids and their primary and secondary parasitoids in organically and conventionally managed winter wheat fields using quantitative food web metrics (interaction evenness, generality, vulnerability, link density). Despite little variation in the richness of each trophic group, food web structures between the two farming systems differed remarkably. In contrast to common expectations, aphids and primary parasitoids were characterized by (1) a higher evenness of interaction frequencies (interaction evenness) in conventional fi

SUBMITTER: Lohaus K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3538122 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature