Check out our new preprint on bioRxiv, led collaboratively by Rosy and Rebecca, titled “Arthropod predator nutrient content changes with crop sowing period with implications for biocontrol“!
This paper shows that the sowing time of crops can have important nutritional consequences for their arthropod communities, with the macronutrient contents of arthropod predators differing significantly between transects in winter- and spring-sown wheat just 4 m apart! Whilst the invertebrate communities differed between the transects, this doesn’t explain the observed differences in predator nutrient content. This might imply that these differences relate to impacts to prey quality cascading from crops at different developmental stages, or some complex differences in density-independent foraging between these adjacent populations of predators.
Look out for the paper emerging in a peer-reviewed journal in the coming months! Amazing work, Rosy and Rebecca!
Foraging Ecology Research Group 
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