Jake Stone
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.
Authors
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
Dr SARAH LUKE SARAH.LUKE@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
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 |
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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
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