Predators do not spill over from forest fragments to maize fields in a landscape mosaic in central Argentina.

ABSTRACT: South America is undergoing a rapid and large-scale conversion of natural habitats to cultivated land. Ecosystem services still remain important but their level and sustainability are not known. We quantified predation intensity in an Argentinian agricultural landscape containing remnants of the original chaco serrano forest using artificial sentinel prey. We sought to identify the main predators and the effect of landscape configuration and maize phenology on predation pressure by invertebrate and vertebrate predators in this landscape. The most common predators were chewing insects (50.4% predation events), birds (22.7%), and ants (17.5%). Overall predation rates in forest fragments (41.6% per day) were significantly higher than in the surrounding maize fields (21.5% per day). Invertebra

SUBMITTER: Ferrante M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5632606 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature