A5039074489- Plant and animal studies
- Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
- Insect and Pesticide Research
- Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Plant Parasitism and Resistance
- Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis
- Crustacean biology and ecology
- Insect-Plant Interactions and Control
- Genetic and Environmental Crop Studies
- Agricultural pest management studies
- Forest Insect Ecology and Management
- Animal and Plant Science Education
- Insect Pest Control Strategies
- Entomological Studies and Ecology
- Legume Nitrogen Fixing Symbiosis
- Agricultural Innovations and Practices
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
2020-2024
University of Würzburg
2022
Australian National University
2011-2016
Agricultural intensification has led to the conversion of natural habitats into agricultural fields, increased field sizes and simplified crop rotations. The resulting homogenisation landscape a decline in bees, which provide an essential ecosystem service agriculture. It been suggested that increase diversity supports higher biodiversity by providing more diverse continuous resources without taking land out production. We selected 14 faba bean (Vicia minor L.) fields southern Sweden along...
SUMMARY Habituation is an active process that allows animals to learn identify repeated, harmless events, and so could help individuals deal with the trade-off between reducing risk of predation minimizing escape costs. Safe habituation requires accurate distinction dangerous but in natural environments such assessment challenging because sensory information often noisy limited. What, then, comprises use recognize objects they have previously learned be harmless? We tested whether fiddler...
Insects face the challenge of navigating to specific goals in both bright sun-lit and dim-lit environments. Both diurnal nocturnal insects use quite similar navigation strategies. This is despite signal-to-noise ratio navigational cues being poor at low light conditions. To better understand evolution life, we investigated efficiency a ant, Myrmecia pyriformis, different levels. Workers M. pyriformis leave nest individually narrow light-window evening twilight forage on nest-specific...
The Australian intertidal ant, Polyrhachis sokolova lives in mudflat habitats and nests at the base of mangroves. They are solitary foraging ants that rely on visual cues. active during low tides both day night thus experience a wide range light intensities. We here ask extent to which compound eyes P. reflect fact they operate night. have typical apposition with 596 ommatidia per eye an interommatidial angle 6.0°. find developed large lenses (33 µm diameter) rhabdoms (5 make their highly...
Abstract Climate change is predicted to hamper crop production due precipitation deficits and warmer temperatures inducing both water stress increasing herbivory more abundant insect pests. Consequently, yields will be impacted simultaneously by abiotic biotic stressors. Extensive yield losses such climate stressors might, however, mitigated ecosystem services as pollination. We examined the single combined effects of stress, pollination on faba bean components above‐ belowground plant...
Wild bee declines in agricultural landscapes have led farmers to supplement crops with honey bees. Simultaneously, environmental subsidy and conservation programmes incentivized establish flower strips support wild managed pollinators. To find out if enhance, competition from bees suppresses, the landscape across seasons, we surveyed bumble abundances 16 sites Sweden summer 2018. The centre of each site (2 km radius) was or without an annual strip, added hives. We strip linear habitats...
Abstract Pollinators benefit from increasing floral resources in agricultural landscapes, which could be an underexplored co‐benefit of mass‐flowering crop cultivation. However, the impacts crops on pollinator communities are complex and appear to context‐dependent, mediated by factors such as flowering time availability other flower landscape. A synthesis research is needed develop management recommendations for effective conservation agroecosystems. By combining 22 datasets 13 publications...
Abstract In addition to foraging individually several species of ants guide nestmates a goal by tandem running. We found that the Australian ant, Camponotus consobrinus , forages both and running head same goal, nest-specific native trees on which they forage. While paths solitary foragers initial followers showed no differences in heading directions or straightness, moved at about half speed runs. When leaders were experimentally removed, follower initially engaged systematic search around...
Ant foragers are known to memorise visual scenes that allow them repeatedly travel along idiosyncratic routes and return specific places. Guidance is provided by a comparison between memories current views, which critically depends on how well the attitude of system controlled. Here we show nocturnal bull ants stabilise their head varying degrees against locomotion-induced body roll movements this ability decreases as light levels fall. There always un-compensated oscillations match...
It is well understood that agricultural expansion and associated loss of semi-natural habitat in the landscape are major drivers for marked decline biodiversity. While conserving remaining patches essential to reverse ongoing biodiversity declines, increasing focus has also been put on diversifying cropland itself by crop diversity as a measure compositional heterogeneity, reducing field sizes configurational heterogeneity. Both these diversification approaches have shown promise enhance...
Faba bean (Vicia faba minor L.) is partially dependent on insects for pollination, but the degree of pollinator-dependency and whether crop productivity limited by insufficient insect pollination remain unknown. We monitored pollinators their foraging behaviors (i. e., legitimate flower visitation, nectar robbing extra-floral nectary visitation) in a total 20 fields single cultivar (Tiffany) 2018–2019. Focal were situated along gradient landscape complexity. In each field, experiment was...
Intensively managed agricultural landscapes have degraded the provisioning of diverse and continuous forage shelter habitats for arthropods weakened delivery ecosystem services such as insect crop pollination biological pest control. In response, farmers are incentivised to sow flower strips along field margins counteract resource bottlenecks. Yet, it is poorly understood how effective this diversification practice when combined with supplementation honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) hives, which...
Abstract Identifying and quantifying crop stressors interactions in agroecosystems is necessary to guide sustainable management strategies. Over the last 50 years, faba bean cropping area has been declining, partly due yield instabilities associated with uneven insect pollination herbivory. Yet, effect of between pollinators a key pest, broad beetle Bruchus rufimanus (florivorous seed predating herbivore) on not investigated. Using factorial cage experiment field, we investigated how two...
Summary Predator avoidance behaviour costs time, energy and opportunities, prey animals need to balance these with the risk of predation. The necessary decisions strike this are often based on information that is inherently imperfect incomplete due limited sensory capabilities animals. Our knowledge, however, about how solve challenging task restricting their responses most dangerous stimuli in environment, very limited. Using dummy predators, we examined contribution visual flicker predator...
Summary The pressure of returning and locating the nest after a successful foraging trip is immense in ants. To find their way back home, ants use number different strategies (e.g., path integration, trail-following) rely on range cues pattern polarised skylight, landmark panorama) available environment. How weigh has been question great interest primarily addressed desert from Africa Australia. We here identify navigational abilities an intertidal ant, Polyrhachis sokolova that lives...
Event Abstract Back to Learning forage: the learning walks of Australian jack jumper ants Piyankarie Jayatilaka1*, Chloé Raderschall1, Jochen Zeil1 and Ajay Narendra1 1 The National University, ARC Centre Excellence in Vision Science, Research School Biology, Australia ‘jack jumper’ ants, Myrmecia croslandi travel as far 15m from nest find food. Being solitary highly visual foragers, these navigate remarkably well without help recruitment pheromone trails, relying solely on their individual...
Insect pollinators provide important crop pollination services but are declining in response to lack of diverse flower resources and exposure pesticides. Despite increasing evidence that the benefits insect for production depend on other ecosystem management practices, investigations have mostly been limited how affected by pest control soil fertility levels. Here we used a factorial cage experiment field test bumble bees, manual weed removal fungicide application interactively shape faba...