Invertebrate Biodiversity as Bioindicators of Sustainable Landscapes

Practical Use of Invertebrates to Assess Sustainable Land Use

Maurizio G. Paoletti

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780444599681
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Reducing environmental hazard and human impact on different ecosystems, with special emphasis on rural landscapes is the main topic of different environmental policies designed in developed countries and needed in most developing countries.

This book covers the bioindication approach of rural landscapes and man managed ecosystems including both urbanised and industrialised ones. The main techniques and taxa used for bioindication are considered in detail. Remediation and contamination is faced with diversity, abundance and dominance of biota, mostly invertebrates.

Invertebrate Biodiversity as Bioindicators of Sustainable Landscapes provides a basic tool for students and scientists involved in landscape ecology and planning, environmental sciences, landscape remediation and pollution.

Diversity of Heteroptera in agroecosystems: role of sustainability and bioindication

Guy Fauvel¹[email protected] I.N.R.A., U.F.R. d’Ecologie animale et de Zoologie, ENSA-M, Place Viala, F-34060 Montpellier Cedex 01, France
¹ Tel.: + 33-04-99-61-23-49; fax: + 33-04-67-52-15-54

Abstract

Heteroptera represent an important part of the global insect fauna in many crops, more on the basis of their numbers than biomass. From 50 to 100 species have been recorded in the most exhaustive censuses of fruit trees or low growing crops, about half of which are really important. Most Heteroptera are small in size and exhibit all food regimes from strict phytophagy to zoophagy. They are rarely host-specific but often show clear preferences for definite strata. The Miridae are usually the main family in undisturbed fauna of fruit trees and cereals, and are rather diverse in these habitats. Mirinae are particularly numerous and diverse on graminous plants but most species complexes are identical on various low-growing plants. Although maize and sunflowers do not appear to be favoured by Heteroptera, they may become attractive while in bloom. Fruit trees, especially apple, show a rich complex of species in which Deraeocorinae and Orthotylinae are well represented. Miridae are very susceptible to chemical sprays and are more easily eliminated from orchards than Anthocoridae. The influence of the environment on the recolonization of cultivated plots by these families has been shown for fruit trees (apple and pear) and some low growing crops (potatoes). Their sensitivity to ecological factors and to the secondary effects of phytosanitary sprays are features that make Heteroptera, especially Miridae, potentially good indicators of ecological change.

Keywords

Heteroptera

Diversity

Fruit trees

Vineyards

Annual crops

1 Introduction

Heteroptera are commonly called ‘true bugs’. They appear as a rather diverse suborder of the Hemiptera and present numerous adaptations to aquatic and terrestrial habitats. This review is restricted to the terrestrial species, i.e. Geocorisae (Fig. 1). Many are common and easy to see so that some rather well known families have received typical common names, especially in Great Britain and North America: for example, damsel bugs (Nabidae), lacebugs (Tingidae), leaf footed plant bugs (Coreidae), pirate or assassin bugs (Reduviidae) and minute pirate bugs or flower bugs (Anthocoridae), plant bugs (Miridae), seed bugs or ground bugs (Lygaeidae), stilt bugs (Berytidae) and shield or stink bugs (Pentatomidae). Although Heteroptera include useful predators, they have long been known as plant-damaging insects, e.g., the European tarnished plant bug (Lygus rugulipennis) is particularly noxious to a number of crops. For these reasons, many heteropteran families have been a favoured subject of study for entomologists, leading to a substantial fund of knowledge dealing with their biology and ecology. The development of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) concept in the 1960s and 1970s led to a reconsideration of their role in the biocenoses of orchards and in other situations (in greenhouses for example). Although the active participation of some Heteroptera (e.g., anthocorids, nabids and some mirids) in the biological control of pests has been demonstrated, their real status as useful insects or pests is still as vigorously debated as it was some years ago (Carayon, 1961). A major reason for this ambiguity is that errors and confusion between useful and noxious species may arise from difficulties in identification requiring the use of minute characters in families such as mirids or lygaeids. Problems in ascertaining their usefulness also result from the heterogeneity of their food regime, including a propensity to shift from one ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright page
• Foreword
• Using bioindicators based on biodiversity to assess landscape sustainability
• The ecological role of biodiversity in agroecosystems
• Biodiversity evaluation in agricultural landscapes: above-ground insects
• Bacterial diversity in agroecosystems
• Biodiversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in agroecosystems
• Soil protozoa as bioindicators: pros and cons, methods, diversity, representative examples
• Nematode diversity in agroecosystems
• The role of earthworms for assessment of sustainability and as bioindicators
• Woodlice (Isopoda: Oniscidea): their potential for assessing sustainability and use as bioindicators
• Use of soil dwelling Diptera (Insecta, Diptera) as bioindicators: a review of ecological requirements and response to disturbance
• Carabid beetles in sustainable agriculture: a review on pest control efficacy, cultivation impacts and enhancement
• Spiders (Araneae) useful for pest limitation and bioindication
• Diversity of Heteroptera in agroecosystems: role of sustainability and bioindication
• Neuroptera in agricultural ecosystems
• Biodiversity of predaceous coccinellidae in relation to bioindication and economic importance
• Syrphidae: can they be used as environmental bioindicators?
• Staphylinid beetles as bioindicators
• Pollinators as bioindicators of the state of the environment: species, activity and diversity
• Predatory mites (Gamasina, Mesostigmata)
• Oribatid mite biodiversity in agroecosystems: role for bioindication
• Ants as bioindicators of soil function in rural environments
• Subject Index, Volume 74
• Author Index, Volumes 74