Eight years of ant‐exclusion from citrus canopies: effects on the arthropod assemblage and on fruit yield
Eight years of ant‐exclusion from citrus canopies: effects on the arthropod assemblage and on fruit yield
复制标题
柑橘冠层将蚂蚁排除在外八年：对节肢动物组合和果实产量的影响
DOI：
10.1111/j.1461-9563.2011.00542.x
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发表时间：
2012
影响因子：
1.6
通讯作者：
N. Cañellas
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
J. Piñol;X. Espadaler;N. Cañellas
在大多数陆地生态系统中，蚂蚁是重要的多面手捕食者。然而，由于许多蚂蚁物种也是半纲互惠主义者，它们在农业中的作用通常被认为对植物是负面的。在本研究中，我们报告了一个有机柑橘林树冠上排除蚂蚁的实验，主要有两个目的：(i)研究没有蚂蚁是否增加了一些有益节肢动物的丰度，并减少了一些害虫（如蚜虫）的袭击；（ii）研究排除蚂蚁是否增加了柑橘树的果实产量。3树冠层排除蚂蚁对节肢动物群落和果实产量有积极影响。然而，8年的实验时间可以分为两个阶段，结果截然不同。在第一个时期，节肢动物群落只受到轻微的影响，除了在排除蚂蚁的树木中蚜虫密度更高；此外，除蚁树的果实产量高于对照树。在第二个时期，拒除蚂蚁增加了大多数节肢动物种群的丰度，尽管先前对果实产量的积极影响不再被观察到。本研究有两个主要结论。首先，从应用的角度来看，在地中海的柑橘种植园，树冠上排除蚂蚁并不是一种良好的管理选择。其次，8年的实验持续时间突出了长期实验在群落生态学和生物控制方面的重要性，因为在实验的前4年观察到的效果与随后发生的效果非常不同。
1 Ants are important generalist predators in most terrestrial ecosystems. However, because many ant species are also hemipteran mutualists, their role in agriculture has generally been considered to be negative for plants. 2 In the present study, we report an experiment in ant‐exclusion from tree canopies in an organic citrus grove with two main objectives: (i) to examine whether the absence of ants increased the abundance of some beneficial arthropods and reduced the attack of some pests such as aphids and (ii) to examine whether ant‐exclusion increased the fruit yield of citrus trees. 3 The exclusion of ants from tree canopies had positive effects on the arthropod assemblage and on fruit yield. However, the 8‐year duration of the experiment can be divided into two periods with contrasting results. In the first period, the arthropod assemblage was only slightly affected, except for a greater density of aphids in ant‐excluded trees; in addition, fruit yield was higher in ant‐excluded trees than in the control ones. In the second period, ant‐exclusion increased the abundance of most arthropod groups, although the previous positive effect on fruit yield was no longer observed. 4 There are two main conclusions of the present study. First, from an applied perspective, ant‐exclusion from tree canopies is not a sound management alternative in citrus plantations in the Mediterranean. Second, the 8‐year duration of the experiment highlighted the importance of long‐term experiments in community ecology and biological control because the effects observed in the first 4 years of the experiment were very different from what occurred subsequently.