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1.
Ecol Evol ; 3(8): 2634-46, 2013 Aug.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-24567828

RESUMEN

Herbivore populations are regulated by bottom-up control through food availability and quality and by top-down control through natural enemies. Intensive agricultural monocultures provide abundant food to specialized herbivores and at the same time negatively impact natural enemies because monocultures are depauperate in carbohydrate food sources required by many natural enemies. As a consequence, herbivores are released from both types of control. Diversifying intensive cropping systems with flowering plants that provide nutritional resources to natural enemies may enhance top-down control and contribute to natural herbivore regulation. We analyzed how noncrop flowering plants planted as "companion plants" inside cabbage (Brassica oleracea) fields and as margins along the fields affect the plant-herbivore-parasitoid-predator food web. We combined molecular analyses quantifying parasitism of herbivore eggs and larvae with molecular predator gut content analysis and a comprehensive predator community assessment. Planting cornflowers (Centaurea cynanus), which have been shown to attract and selectively benefit Microplitis mediator, a larval parasitoid of the cabbage moth Mamestra brassicae, between the cabbage heads shifted the balance between trophic levels. Companion plants significantly increased parasitism of herbivores by larval parasitoids and predation on herbivore eggs. They furthermore significantly affected predator species richness. These effects were present despite the different treatments being close relative to the parasitoids' mobility. These findings demonstrate that habitat manipulation can restore top-down herbivore control in intensive crops if the right resources are added. This is important because increased natural control reduces the need for pesticide input in intensive agricultural settings, with cascading positive effects on general biodiversity and the environment. Companion plants thus increase biodiversity both directly, by introducing new habitats and resources for other species, and indirectly by reducing mortality of nontarget species due to pesticides. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of how habitat manipulation affects biocontrol services of a natural enemy community including both parasitoids and generalist predators. The trophic interactions between pests, parasitoids and predators were determined to achieve a better systemic understanding of top-down herbivore control, which can be strengthened when natural enemies complement each other or dampened by intraguild interactions. Our approach to selectively enhance the third trophic level to counteract specific herbivores was successful for both predators and parasitoids. Our results show significant positive effects of companion plants on predation of pest eggs and parasitism of pest larvae. Importantly, our data also suggest that carabids, staphylinids and spiders do not substantially interfere with parasitoid biocontrol as parasitoid DNA was rarely detected in predator guts.

2.
Aquat Toxicol ; 96(4): 256-63, 2010 Mar 01.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-20004984

RESUMEN

Natural variability in sensitivity and pollution induced community tolerance (PICT) to atrazine, isoproturon and diuron and a mixture of these three herbicides to natural algal assemblages in mesocosms was determined. The specificity of PICT was examined by evaluating co-tolerance pattern for these photosystem-II (PSII) inhibitors. Phytoplankton communities were constantly exposed to equipotent concentrations of atrazine, isoproturon, diuron namely the 30% hazard concentration (HC(30)) obtained from species sensitivity distributions and an equitoxic mixture (Sigma3 x 1/3 x HC(30) of each herbicide) for five weeks in outdoor mesocosms. Induction of tolerance to the various herbicides was investigated by photosynthetic efficiency measurements of the algal assemblages in short-term laboratory tests. The composition of the algal communities in the various treatments was determined and ordination techniques such as the principal component analysis (PCA) were applied to log-transformed data to compare the seasonal community structure development. Temporal variation in sensitivity of the control algal assemblage to atrazine and isoproturon, but less to diuron was observed. The results further demonstrated that the control communities were in general more sensitive than the treated ones over the whole period tested indicating an enhanced tolerance of pre-exposed phytoplankton in the mesocosms. Co-tolerance was also observed for atrazine pre-exposed algal community to isoproturon, however, not vise versa. A pre-exposure to diuron induced similar tolerance to all three herbicides. A pre-exposure to the mixture treatment also lead to tolerance to isoproturon and diuron, less to atrazine. Overall, the observed co-tolerance pattern indicates that co-tolerance was not comparable between the herbicides with strong similarity in their biochemical mode of action.


Asunto(s)
Atrazina/toxicidad , Diurona/toxicidad , Herbicidas/toxicidad , Compuestos de Fenilurea/toxicidad , Fotosíntesis/efectos de los fármacos , Fitoplancton/efectos de los fármacos , Contaminantes Químicos del Agua/toxicidad , Complejo de Proteína del Fotosistema II/antagonistas & inhibidores , Complejo de Proteína del Fotosistema II/efectos de los fármacos , Fitoplancton/clasificación , Fitoplancton/enzimología , Pruebas de Toxicidad Crónica
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