A multi-taxa approach reveals contrasting responses of arthropod communities and related ecosystem services to field margin proximity and crop type

Description

Here can be found the raw data from arthropod and ecosystem services sampled during the study´and the species list sampled with their red list status.

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Twelve conventionally managed medium-sized field were selected in this study (between 3 and 30 ha.) Three different crops were planted on the investigated arable fields: cereals (five fields with winter wheat and one with winter barley), sugar beet (three fields), and oilseed rape (three fields). Within each field, two margins distant at least 75 m from each other were selected for arthropod and ecosystem service sampling. Three sampling transects at 12, 36, and 60 m from the field edge towards the interior were established within each sampling site. Each transect was twenty meters long and parallel to the field margins. Nine taxa of common arthropods in arable fields were sampled: bees and wasps, butterflies, carabids, hoverflies, leaf beetles, myriapods (dominated by saprophagous millipedes), spiders, true bugs, and weevils. Three pitfall traps per transect were exposed for 30 days to collect ground-dwelling arthropods. One white and one yellow pan trap per sampling transect was used to collect flying arthropods. Pan traps were exposed for 48 hours during sunny and warm days. Vegetation sweeping (50 sweeps per transect) was used to sample arthropods on vegetation during sunny days with no precipitation or strong winds between 9 am and 5 pm. Finally, butterflies were sampled visually using a standardized sampling effort. For each arthropod taxa, specialists identified specimens to the species level, and species richness and abundance were calculated for each transect. Artificial caterpillars were used as sentinel prey to measure pest predation rates. Caterpillars were cylinders (25 mm long, 3 mm in diameter) glued on a small piece of reed. Twenty caterpillars were placed on the soil surface along each transect, separated by 1 m and exposed for 48 hours. We employed the seed card method to measure the weed seed predation rate. Seed cards consisted of a rectangular piece of sandpaper (5 x 10 cm) where 30 seeds of Taraxacum spp. were glued using a tasteless and odourless glue. Six seed cards per transect were fixed with two nails on the soil surface and exposed for ten days. All the abovementioned samplings were performed in two periods, at the beginning of May and mid-June 2020, with the exception of pitfalls, which were collected only once at the end of the period in mid-June 2020.

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