Browsing by Author "Saqib, Hafiz Sohaib Ahmed"
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- Contrasting roles of landscape compositions on shaping functional traits of arthropod community in subtropical vegetable fieldsPublication . Zhang, Jie; Saqib, Hafiz Sohaib Ahmed; Niu, Dongsheng; Guaman, Karla Giovana Gavilanez; Wang, Ao; Yu, Deyi; You, Minsheng; Pozsgai, Gabor; You, ShijunAgricultural intensification and land use transformation are among the main driving forces of the unprecedented decline of biodiversity and ecosystem services in croplands. Trait-based approaches provide a unique framework to detect the potential mechanisms of how this intensification affects biodiversity and alter ecosystem services. However, the potential relationship between arthropod traits and various types of habitats is still poorly understood, especially in subtropical vegetable agroecosystems. Here, we conducted a trait-based approach to evaluate the variable roles of different habitats on functional trait diversity and the structure of the arthropod community in brassica vegetable crops. Twenty-three conventional cruciferous vegetables fields were sampled over two years in three regions in Fujian, China. We found that the increasing proportion of non-brassica vegetable plantations and water bodies negatively affected the functional diversity of arthropods, whereas forest and grassland habitats showed a positive correlation, indicating habitat filtering for certain traits or trait combinations. This study demonstrates the importance of landscape composition as an ecological filter for vegetable arthropod community, and identifies how the proportion of different habitats selected for or against specific functional traits. Our findings support that increasing forest and grassland areas adjacent to vegetable fields can play a vital role in promoting the functional diversity of arthropod communities. Since the natural enemy assemblages supported by these habitats bear combinations of diverse traits adapted to disturbance, they have the potential to enhance pest suppression in the highly variable environment of vegetable crops.
- DNA metabarcoding of gut contents reveals key habitat and seasonal drivers of trophic networks involving generalist predators in agricultural landscapesPublication . Saqib, Hafiz Sohaib Ahmed; Sun, Linyang; Pozsgai, Gabor; Liang, Pingping; You, Minsheng; Gurr, Geoff M.; You, ShijunBACKGROUND: Understanding the networks of trophic interactions into which generalist predators are embedded is key to assessing their ecological role of in trophic networks and the biological control services they provide. The advent of affordable DNA metabarcoding approaches greatly facilitates quantitative understanding of trophic networks and their response to environmental drivers. Here, we examine how key environmental gradients interact to shape predation by Lycosidae in highly dynamic vegetable growing systems in China. RESULTS: For the sampled Lycosidae, crop identity, pesticide use and seasons shape the abundance of prey detected in spider guts. For the taxonomic richness of prey, local- and landscape-scale factors gradients were more influential. Multivariate ordinations confirm that these crop-abundant spiders dynamically adjust their diet to reflect environmental constraints and seasonal availability to prey. CONCLUSION: Plasticity in diet composition is likely to account for the persistence of spiders in relatively ephemeral brassica crops. Our findings provide further insights into the optimization of habitatmanagement for predator-based biological control practices.
- Gut microbiota assemblages of generalist predators are driven by local- and landscape-scale factorsPublication . Saqib, Hafiz Sohaib Ahmed; Sun, Linyang; Pozsgai, Gabor; Liang, Pingping; Goraya, Mohsan Ullah; Akutse, Komivi Senyo; You, Minsheng; Gurr, Geoff M.; You, ShijunABSTRACT: The gut microbiomes of arthropods have significant impact on key physiological functions such as nutrition, reproduction, behavior, and health. Spiders are diverse and numerically dominant predators in crop fields where they are potentially important regulators of pests. Harnessing spiders to control agricultural pests is likely to be supported by an understanding of their gut microbiomes, and the environmental drivers shaping microbiome assemblages. This study aimed to deciphering the gut microbiome assembly of these invertebrate predators and elucidating potential implications of key environmental constraints in this process. Here, we used high-throughput sequencing to examine for the first time how the assemblages of bacteria in the gut of spiders are shaped by environmental variables. Local drivers of microbiome composition were globally-relevant input use system (organic production vs. conventional practice), and crop identity (Chinese cabbage vs. cauliflower). Landscape-scale factors, proportion of forest and grassland, compositional diversity, and habitat edge density, also strongly affected gut microbiota. Specific bacterial taxa were enriched in gut of spiders sampled from different settings and seasons. These findings provide a comprehensive insight into composition and plasticity of spider gut microbiota. Understanding the temporal responses of specific microbiota could lead to innovative strategies development for boosting biological control services of predators.