Data from: Crop-dominated landscapes have higher vector-borne plant virus prevalence

Claflin, Suzi B., Cornell University

Jones, Laura E., Cornell University

Thaler, Jennifer S., Cornell University

Power, Alison G., Cornell University

Published Oct 26, 2017 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n04pb

Cite this dataset

Claflin, Suzi B.; Jones, Laura E.; Thaler, Jennifer S.; Power, Alison G. (2017). Data from: Crop-dominated landscapes have higher vector-borne plant virus prevalence [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n04pb

Abstract

Landscape composition affects local arthropod biodiversity, including herbivorous insects and their predators, yet to date landscape effects on insect-vectored plant diseases have received little attention. Here, we examine how landscape composition affects the prevalence of a viral pathogen in host plants, and the role the arthropod vector assemblage plays in mediating landscape effects. We measured the effect of landscape composition (measured as percentage of cropland and unmanaged land) on the plant virus Potato virus Y (PVY), its aphid vectors, and their coccinellid predators during the 2012 and 2013 field seasons at 19–21 farms. In both years, we found a positive relationship between final virus prevalence and percentage of cropland within 500, 1000 and 1500 m surrounding study sites. Percentage of cropland also had a significant negative effect on aphid species richness, and the aphid community composition in turn affected PVY prevalence. By contrast, landscape composition had no measurable effect on coccinellid abundance or species richness in this study. Synthesis and applications. Our work demonstrates that landscape composition plays an important role in vector-borne pathogen spread, and that pathogen spread appears to be mediated by the effects of the landscape on the insect vector community. The small spatial scale (≤1500 m) of the effects seen in our study indicates that on-farm management practices have the potential to reduce virus prevalence on small-scale farms. Farmers may be able to reduce Potato virus Y prevalence by on-farm diversification, by isolating potato fields from other agricultural crops, and by not using saved potato seed.

Usage notes

Landscape and Insect Community Dataset

The dataset is arranged with rows separated by research site and year, with columns of data. The dataset consists of the following columns of data: research site ID (Farm ID), research year (Year; 1=2012, 2=2013), the area of the potato field sampled as a research site in square meters (FieldArea) initial number of plants infected (InitialInfected), the final number of plants infected (FinalInfected), the difference in the number of plants infected (Infected; FinalInfected-InitialInfected), the number of plants sampled (NPlants), the number of times the plants were sampled throughout the season (NSamples), the number of insect traps collected throughout the season (NTraps), the number of aphids collected throughout the season (Naphids), the number of aphids collected throughout the season that were identified to species or genera (NAphidsID), aphid species richness (NAphidSpp, meaning the count of aphid species collected throughout the season), the interpolated aphid species richness (AphidRichness), the Shannon diversity of the aphid community (ShannonDiversity), the number of coccinellids collected throughout the season (PredatorAbundance), the coccinellid species richness (Predator Richness, meaning the count of coccinellid species found throughout the season), the percentage of unmanaged land within a 500 m radius of the site (Nat500), the percentage of unmanaged land within a 1000 m radius of the site (Nat1000) the percentage of unmanaged land within a 1500 m radius of the site (Nat1500), the percentage of cropland within a 500 m radius of the site (Ag500), the percentage of cropland within a 1000 m radius of the site (Ag1000), and the percentage of cropland within a 1500m radius of the site (Ag1500).

Final Dataset.csv

Location

USA

New York State