Predator-prey interactions in a ladybeetle-aphid system depend on spatial scale.

ABSTRACT: The outcome of species interactions may manifest differently at different spatial scales; therefore, our interpretation of observed interactions will depend on the scale at which observations are made. For example, in ladybeetle-aphid systems, the results from small-scale cage experiments usually cannot be extrapolated to landscape-scale field observations. To understand how ladybeetle-aphid interactions change across spatial scales, we evaluated predator-prey interactions in an experimental system. The experimental habitat consisted of 81 potted plants and was manipulated to facilitate analysis across four spatial scales. We also simulated a spatially explicit metacommunity model parallel to the experiment. In the experiment, we found that the negative effect of ladybeetles on aphids decr

SUBMITTER: Lin WT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6053568 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature