Intra‐annual variation and landscape composition interactively affect aphid community composition

• Main Authors: Suzi B. Claflin, Natalie Hernandez, Russell Groves, Jennifer S. Thaler, Alison G. Power
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2019-05-01
• Series: Ecosphere
• Subjects: agroecology; insect‐vectored pathogen; landscape epidemiology; vector ecology
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2710

Abstract Agricultural intensification impacts local arthropod communities. The temporal and spatial variation of agricultural environments can have a significant impact on insect pest populations, yet little work has been done to date on the effect of intra‐annual variation (within season) or spatiotemporal effects on arthropod functional community composition. The aim of this research was to evaluate the effects of intra‐annual variation and landscape composition on the aphid community. To that end, we investigated the following research question: How do intra‐annual variation and landscape composition affect aphid abundance, species richness, and functional community composition? In this study, we quantified landscape composition as percent cropland, intra‐annual variation as sampling week measured throughout the growing season, and aphid functional community composition as crop virus transmission—or vectoring—ability. We collected data in two agricultural regions: a diversified agricultural region in New York State (NY) and an agriculturally intense potato‐growing region in Wisconsin (WI). We found that the interactive effect of landscape composition and intra‐annual variation significantly affected aphid abundance and species richness in both study regions, and functional community composition in NY. These results indicate that spatiotemporal shifts in agroecosystems have significant implications for aphid functional community composition.