DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2280gb65t
title: Landscape composition shapes biological control by promoting off-season predator diversity

description: Landscape heterogeneity can enhance biodiversity, but its impacts are
 rarely disaggregated over time. Thus, off-season effects on ecosystem
 service providers, service delivery and underlying (ecological)
 determinants often remain occluded. We assessed how landscape structure
 affects predator biodiversity in subtropical rice systems during winter.
 Furthermore, we investigated the impact of resident predator populations
 on the adult abundance of the overwintering generation rice stem borer
 Chilo suppressalis. To study these dynamics, 32,396 insect predators
 belonging to 52 species (19 families) were systematically surveyed in 19
 fallow rice fields over a span of three years. Landscape composition and
 configuration jointly defined overwintering predator diversity, with the
 former exhibiting the strongest impacts. Rice fields with winter crop
 cover embedded in complex landscapes harbored the most diverse predator
 populations. Field size and forest proximity increased abundance and
 richness of specific natural enemy taxa, i.e., carabid beetles and hunting
 spiders. This, in turn, shaped biological control: across sites and years,
 overwintering pest abundance was negatively correlated with predator
 richness. Synthesis and applications: Our work demonstrates how
 off-season crop management and landscape structure jointly support
 overwintering predator populations and sustain their biological control
 potential. Specifically, by enhancing winter ground cover and preserving
 small fields, local rice growers can enjoy cost-free pest biological
 control and avoid crop protection expenditures in the next cropping cycle.
description: # Data from: Landscape composition shapes biological control by promoting
 off-season predator diversity This is the data from: Zhu, Y., Chong, H.,
 Zou, Y., Lai, Q., Yang, Q., Wyckhuys, KAG., van der Werf, W., & Xiao,
 H. (2025) Landscape composition shapes biological control by promoting
 off-season predator diversity. Journal of Applied Ecology. ## Creator
 Haijun Xiao, School of grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University,
 Beijing, China. email: [[hjxiao@bjfu.edu.cn](mailto:hjxiao@bjfu.edu.cn)]
 (mailto:[hjxiao@bjfu.edu.cn](mailto:hjxiao@bjfu.edu.cn)) ## Description
 The dataset contains 3 documents 1. "`landscape_data.csv`" is
 the landscape information of each study site; each of the column refers to
 the following: * Site: Study site * Scale(m): radius of landscape sector
 (500m and 1000m radii) * Dis_Forest: shortest distance of the center of
 each field to the edge of forest habitat * MFS (ha): The average area of
 all patches in the landscape type (mean field size) * SNH: proportion of
 semi-natural habitat at 500m and 1000m radius * Winter_crop: proportion of
 non-rice crops at 500m and 1000m radius * Edge: proportion of edge cover
 at 500m and 1000m radius * SHDI: landscape diversity (Shannon diversity
 index) at 500m and 1000m radius 2. "`Predator_data.csv`" is the
 predator diversity information of each study site; each of the column
 refers to the following: * Year: Sampling year * Site: Study site *
 Trap_day: total number of days for the trap was conducted * Spi_Abu:
 abundance of spiders * Spi_Ric: richness of spiders * Hunting_Abu:
 abundance of hunter spiders * Hunting_Ric: richness of hunter spiders *
 Web_Abu: abundance of web-builder spiders * Web_Ric: richness of
 web-builder spiders * Bee_Abu: abundance of overall carabids * Bee_Ric:
 richness of overall carabids * Non_Carn_Abu: abundance of non-carnivorous
 carabids * Carn_Abu: abundance of carnivorous carabids * Carn_Ric:
 richness of carnivorous carabids * Rove_Abu: abundance of rove beetles
 (Staphylinidae) 3. "`Rice_stem_borer_data.csv`" is the collected
 sample for rice stem borer; each of the column refers to the following: *
 Year: Sampling year * Site: Study site * Date: Sampling date * Round:
 Sampling round * RSB: number of rice stem borer Chilo suppressalis