Bird and Arthropods Predation in Mosaic Agricultural Landscapes: Implication of Habitat Heterogeneity for Ecosystem Services

AbstractAlthough predation is one of the key factors in determining the abundance and composition of predators, quantitative estimates of it in tropical rain forests remain patchy. We conducted an experiment in Kafa coffee agroecosystem, Southwestern Ethiopia to measure the predation rate of biocontrol on pest mimics and to assess the effect of habitat heterogeneity on these processes. We compared rates of attacks of birds and arthropods on 3000 plasticine caterpillars deployed in complex and tree simplified landscapes. We recorded a total of 33.9% incidences of predations; out of which, 46.90% was bird predation, 51.53% were gnawed by arthropods and 1.57% were unidentified. Predation rates of these natural enemies significantly differed (p < 0.05)among the landscapes. Nearly Twenty percent being in the complex and 14.2% in the tree simplified landscapes. Data were analyzed using a generalized linear mixed effect models of R program. We found higher predation rate of birds in the complex and more arthropods predation in tree simplified landscapes. We conclude that predation rates were positively related to the diversity of natural enemies and structurally complex natural habitats maintained a higher density of predators to control pests.