Check out this new paper, led collaboratively by Rosy and Rebecca, now published in Bulletin of Entomological Research!
Arthropod predator nutrient content changes with crop sowing period with implications for biocontrol
The 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.
Amazing work, Rosy and Rebecca!
Foraging Ecology Research Group 