Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Maintaining understory vegetation in oil palm plantations supports higher assassin bug numbers

Stone, Jake; Advento, Andreas Dwi; Pashkevich, Michael D.; Aryawan, Anak Agung Ketut; Caliman, Jean‐Pierre; Hood, Amelia S. C.; Foster, William A.; Naim, Mohammad; Pujianto, Pujianto; Purnomo, Dedi; Suhardi, Suhardi; Tarigan, Ribka Sionita; Rambe, Tuani Dzulfikar Siguga; Widodo, Rudy Harto; Luke, Sarah H.; Snaddon, Jake L.; Turner, Edgar C.

Maintaining understory vegetation in oil palm plantations supports higher assassin bug numbers Thumbnail


Authors

Jake Stone

Andreas Dwi Advento

Michael D. Pashkevich

Anak Agung Ketut Aryawan

Jean‐Pierre Caliman

Amelia S. C. Hood

William A. Foster

Mohammad Naim

Pujianto Pujianto

Dedi Purnomo

Suhardi Suhardi

Ribka Sionita Tarigan

Tuani Dzulfikar Siguga Rambe

Rudy Harto Widodo

Jake L. Snaddon

Edgar C. Turner



Abstract

The expansion of oil palm agriculture across Southeast Asia has caused significant biodiversity losses, with the reduction in habitat heterogeneity that accompanies the conversion of forest to oil palm being a major contributing factor. However, owing to their long commercial lifespan, oil palm plantations can support relatively high levels of vegetation complexity compared to annual crops. There is therefore potential for the implementation of management strategies to increase vegetation complexity and associated within-plantation habitat heterogeneity, enhancing species richness and associated ecosystem functioning within productive oil palm landscapes. This study focusses on two species of asassin bugs Cosmolestes picticeps and Sycanus dichotomus, which are important agents of pest control within oil palm systems. Using a Before-After Control-Impact experimental manipulation in Sumatra, Indonesia, we tested the effect of three alternative herbicide spraying regimes and associated vegetation complexity treatments on assassin bug numbers. Our treatments encompass a range of current understory vegetation management practices used in oil palm plantations and include removing vegetation only in areas key to harvesting (“Normal”), removing all understory vegetation (“Reduced”), and allowing native vegetation to regrow naturally (“Enhanced”). We assessed both the long-term (18 months) and short-term (within 2 weeks) effects of our treatments following herbicide spraying. Pre-treatment, we found high numbers of assassin bugs of both species in all plots. Long-term post-treatment, the abundance of both C. picticeps and S. dichotomus declined in reduced understory plots, although this decline was only significant for C. picticeps (98%). In contrast, there were no significant differences in the post-treatment abundance of either species in the short-term. These results suggest that the long-term decline in assassin bug abundance was likely to be caused by loss of vegetation, rather than any immediate effects of the herbicide spraying. Our findings have clear management implications as they demonstrate that maintaining vegetation in oil palm understories can benefit an important pest control agent.

Citation

Stone, J., Advento, A. D., Pashkevich, M. D., Aryawan, A. A. K., Caliman, J., Hood, A. S. C., Foster, W. A., Naim, M., Pujianto, P., Purnomo, D., Suhardi, S., Tarigan, R. S., Rambe, T. D. S., Widodo, R. H., Luke, S. H., Snaddon, J. L., & Turner, E. C. (2023). Maintaining understory vegetation in oil palm plantations supports higher assassin bug numbers. Ecological Solutions and Evidence, 4(4), Article e12293. https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12293

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 17, 2023
Online Publication Date Nov 15, 2023
Publication Date 2023-12
Deposit Date Nov 8, 2023
Publicly Available Date Nov 9, 2023
Journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence
Electronic ISSN 2688-8319
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 4
Issue 4
Article Number e12293
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12293
Keywords biological control agents, tropical agriculture, understory vegetation, oil palm agroecology, integrated pest management (IPM), habitat heterogeneity, assassin bugs (Reduviidae)
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/27079867

Files

Ecol Sol and Evidence - 2023 - Stone - Maintaining understory vegetation in oil palm plantations supports higher assassin (3.6 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2023 The Authors. Ecological Solutions and Evidence published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society


Supplementary Material Maintaining Understory Vegetation In Oil Palm Plantations Supports Higher Assassin Bug Numbers 2023 AE (1.2 Mb)
PDF





You might also like



Downloadable Citations