BENEFITS AND COSTS OF SEMI-NATURAL PLANT COMMUNITIES IN DIFFERENT ECOLOGICAL CONTEXTS WITHIN AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1008529
• Project Start Date: Nov 1, 2015
• Project End Date: Oct 31, 2020
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIV
(N/A)
MISSISSIPPI STATE,MS 39762

Performing Department
Dept of Wildlife and Fisheries

Non Technical Summary
Agriculture is Mississippi's leading industry employing more than 15% of the population. Aside from economic activities fueling local, state, and national economies, agriculture in Mississippi produces foods and fibers valuable to society. However, the intensive land use in agricultural systems may come at the cost of degrading natural communities and ecological processes, and associated ecosystem services (Matson et al. 1997). Thus, a balance must be met between the intensive agricultural use of lands, natural resource conservation, and associated human-wildlife conflicts. A common approach to provisioning ecosystem services in agricultural systems is to establish semi-natural plant communities in areas formerly in agricultural production. Ecosystem services that are commonly targeted include improving water quality, reducing soil erosion and nutrient runoff (Dosskey 2001), and improving wildlife habitat (Burger 2006). Moreover, in many cases semi-natural plant communities are directly beneficial to agricultural producers because some programs provide financial incentives for establishment and maintenance, the semi-natural plant communities may encourage the pollination of crops by providing habitat to pollinators, and they may provide habitat for predatory insects that aid in reducing insect crop pests (Bianchi et al. 2006). However, these semi-natural plant communities may also have direct costs to the agricultural producer because they may promote human-wildlife conflicts by providing habitat for potential crop pests such as white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and feral hogs (Sus scrofa; Amici et al. 2012). Moreover, the very ecosystem services the semi-natural plant communities were meant to provide may be negated or reversed by their influence on the distribution of and intensity of area use by nonnative wildlife like feral hogs. For example, feral hogs have been demonstrated to degrade water quality (Kaller et al. 2007) and feral hogs or nonnative coyotes (Canis latrans) could cause an ecological trap to ground nesting birds and other wildlife by increasing their vulnerability to predation when using narrow corridors of semi-natural plant communities along field margins. With the new expansions of non-native species, such as feral hogs and coyotes into agricultural systems of the Southeast, we need to understand factors that influence non-native species invasion into new areas and how those species may affect the benefits and costs of semi-natural plant communities to both the agricultural producer and natural resource conservation in agricultural landscapes.

Animal Health Component

65%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

30%

Applied

65%

Developmental

5%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
135	0850	1070	50%
102	0830	1070	25%
214	0830	1070	25%

Knowledge Area
135 - Aquatic and Terrestrial Wildlife; 102 - Soil, Plant, Water, Nutrient Relationships; 214 - Vertebrates, Mollusks, and Other Pests Affecting Plants;

Subject Of Investigation
0850 - Wildlife habitats; 0830 - Wild animals;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology;

Keywords

agriculture

ecosystem services

invasive species

pollinators

wildlife habitat

wildlife damage

Goals / Objectives
The overall objectives of this research are to develop and evaluate strategies of integrating agricultural production with provisioning, regulating, and supporting ecosystem services. Proposed studies include evaluations of the effectiveness of current practices related to the use of semi-natural plant communities to provide ecosystem services, how they influence the distribution of destructive species, the ramifications of destructive species to the objectives of semi-natural plant communities, factors influencing the costs of crop pests to agricultural producers, and new strategies to mitigate herbivory losses to agricultural production. Results will be useful to guide managers as they attempt to balance ecosystem services with agricultural production, and human-wildlife conflicts in agricultural landscapes.Project 1: Evaluating the effectiveness of semi-natural plant communities to support ecosystem services in the presence of destructive species1) Evaluate the effects of semi-natural plant communities on the distribution, occupancy and intensity of area use, survival, and reproduction of feral hogs and coyotes (Potential Collaborators: Dr. Garrett Street, Dr. Bronson Strickland, Dr. Jessica Tegt, Dr. Kristine Evans)2) Use data to overlay layers in a GIS to identify areas with the highest probability of concern (Potential Collaborators: Dr. Garrett Street, Dr. Bronson Strickland, Dr. Jessica Tegt, Dr. Kristine Evans)3) Evaluate the effects of exotic species like feral hogs and coyotes on ecosystem services such as water quality services, pollinator services, and wildlife habitat in areas of highest concern (Potential Collaborators: Dr. Garrett Street, Dr. Bronson Strickland, Dr. Jessica Tegt, Dr. Kristine Evans)Project 2: Factors influencing human-wildlife conflicts in agricultural landscapes1) Identify the distributions of crop damage within and across agricultural fields(Potential Collaborators: Dr. Garrett Street, Dr. Bronson Strickland)2) Evaluate methods to reduce crop damage and human-wildlife conflicts(Potential Collaborators: Dr. Garrett Street, Dr. Bronson Strickland)3) Explore new strategies to increase herbivory resistance and tolerance within crop plants(Potential Collaborator: Dr. Te-Meng (Paul) Tseng)

Project Methods
Project 1: Evaluating the effectiveness of semi-natural plant communities to support ecosystem services in the presence of destructive speciesThis project will be heavily reliant on noninvasive camera trapping techniques, to determine the occupancy and intensity of use of feral hogs and coyotes in agricultural areas. Further, invasive sampling techniques such as trapping and radio-tagging, and genetic sampling may be used in combination with camera trapping to determine population sizes, reproduction, and survival of adults and offspring of feral hogs and coyotes. Also, plant community structural data related to habitat quality will be collected such as understory biomass, visual obstruction, plant diversity, and food availability as related to vegetation types. Using landscape data from satellite images to identify vegetation types along with animal and plant community data, the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks LCC conservation planning atlas will be parameterized to determine areas of greatest concern from the destructive wildlife species. That is, identify areas providing the greatest ecosystem services and highest probability of destructive animal occurrence (e.g., pinch points in semi-natural plant communities) or areas most sensitive to disturbance (e.g., areas with species of conservation concern). Finally, in areas of greatest concern, ecosystem services will be measured with metrics of water quality, pollinator services, and wildlife use and habitat quality and compared to similar areas where the destructive species are not as prevalent or in areas from which they have been excluded. Data will be evaluated with geospatial modeling techniques, and statistical techniques including analysis of variance, analysis of covariance, paired t-test, and a variety of linear and logistic modelling frameworks.Project 2: Factors influencing human-wildlife conflicts in agricultural landscapesThis project will rely on field sampling of agricultural crops to determine herbivory damage and resulting decreases in crop yields. Agricultural fields will be intensively sampled in different portion of individual fields relative to semi-natural vegetation as well as across fields with differing ecological contexts (i.e., different field sizes, densities of destructive wildlife, and landscape structures of semi-natural plant communities. A GIS will be used to determine the landscape context and camera trapping will be used to estimate population densities of agricultural pests. A GIS will be used to develop herbivory risks of agricultural crops across the landscape. After determining factors that influence human-wildlife conflict, strategies to mitigate herbivory damage to agricultural yields will be evaluated. Mitigation strategies may include precision planning of agricultural crop species arrangements, modified use of anti-herbivory spray-ables (e.g., mammal deterrents and pesticides), and incorporation of non-crop field borders. Because anti-herbivory synthetics and plant extracts have proven less effective and more environmentally deleterious than natural plant defenses, new strategies to mitigate herbivory will be explored through laboratory experiments. Dr. Paul Tseng manages a laboratory equipped to evaluate plant physiological pathways to natural resistance against biotic and abiotic agents. We will collaborate to develop agricultural plants that have improved natural defenses to herbivory in his laboratory, and then test those plants in field settings to determine their effectiveness in mitigating the negative effects of herbivory. This is a relatively new field of study and has not been explored to our knowledge in the context of herbivory. Data will be evaluated with geospatial modeling techniques, and statistical techniques including analysis of variance, analysis of covariance, paired t-test, and a variety of linear and logistic modelling frameworks.

Progress 11/01/15 to 10/31/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Work was presented at scientific conferences and manuscripts published targeting the scientific community. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The PIs and graduate students working on this project attended multiple national conferences to present the work.Two of the students completed their FAA certification to fly unmanned aerial vehicles.All students enrolled in several classes to develop analytical and technical writing skills and build ecological knowledge. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?By presenting the work at National Conferences and through peer-reviewed journal articles with an international audience. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have completed project 1 objectives 1, 2, and 3 and project 2 objectives 1,2, and 3 by securing external funding to support research activities to understand the role of feral hogs in agricultural system at disrupting ecosystem services and produciong agricultural damages. Moreover we have evaluated vegetation management techniques and how they influence invasion by nonnative plants and animals. Those results have been dissemenated widely through peer-reviewed journal articles and to researchers and practitioners at multiple National conferences. All of the relevant citations have been included herein and NIFA was acknowledged in all of these activities.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Westlake, S. M., Mason, D., L�zaro-Lobo, A., Burr, P., McCollum, J. R., Chance, D., & Lashley, M. A. (2020). The magnet effect of fire on herbivores affects plant community structure in a forested system. Forest Ecology and Management, 458, 117794.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Chance, D. P., McCollum, J. R., Street, G. M., Strickland, B. K., & Lashley, M. A. (2020). Vegetation characteristics influence fine-scale intensity of habitat use by wild turkey and white-tailed deer in a loblolly pine plantation. Basic and Applied Ecology, 43, 42-51.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ivey, M. R., Colvin, M., Strickland, B. K., & Lashley, M. A. (2019). Reduced vertebrate diversity independent of spatial scale following feral swine invasions. Ecology and evolution, 9(13), 7761-7767.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Chance, D. P., McCollum, J. R., Street, G. M., Strickland, B. K., & Lashley, M. A. (2019). Native Species Abundance Buffers Non-Native Plant Invasibility following Intermediate Forest Management Disturbances. Forest Science, 65(3), 336-343.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Yue, Z., Tseng, T. M., & Lashley, M. A. (2019, October). Protecting Soybean from Deer Browsing Using Sicklepod Extract: From Captive Facility to Field Testing. In American Fisheries Society & The Wildlife Society 2019 Joint Annual Conference. AFS.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Dykstra, A., Steakley, D. S., Street, G., Strickland, B. K., VerCauteren, K. C., Colvin, M., & Lashley, M. (2019, September). Biological Invasions Disrupt Activity Patterns of Native Wildlife: An Example from Invasive Wild Pigs. In American Fisheries Society & The Wildlife Society 2019 Joint Annual Conference. AFS.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Dykstra, A., Steakley, D. J., Street, G., Strickland, B., VerCauteren, K., & Lashley, M. (2019). Native Wildlife Adjust Activity Patterns to Temporally Avoid Wild Pigs. Wild Pig Conference
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Steakley, D. J., Dykstra, A., Street, G., Strickland, B., VerCauteren, K., Colvin, M., & Lashley, M. (2019). Vertebrate Community Response to Wild Pig Control in an Agroecosystem. Wild Pig Conference

Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Work was presented at scientific conferences and manuscripts are currently in review targeting the scientific community. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Each of the first two students attended the MS Wildlife Society meeting and presented their work. The student that finished his work also presented it at the National Wildlife Society meeting. Two of the students completed their FAA certification to fly unmanned aerial vehicles. Two of the students are scheduled to present their work at the Wildlife Damage Management conference in the coming year. All students enrolled in several classes to develop analytical and technical writing skills and build ecological knowledge. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?By presenting at international conferences and through peer-reviewed publications. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals??In the next reporting period I plan to collect the data necessary to accomplish objective 2 of project 1 and build a landscape model that allows us to predict how the establishment of seminatural plant communities will affect the spatial distribution of feral swine. Also, I plan to continue to develop technology on objective three of project two. Additional screening of soybean germplasms and field testing is underway to refine the effectiveness of herbivore repellent sprayables.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We were able to accomplish and dissemenate results on objectives 1 and 3 in project 1 and objective 3 in project 2. To address Objectives 1 and 3 of project 1, I secured external funding from the USDA NWRC and hired 3 graduate students. The first student monitored how the occupancy of feral swine was influenced by the establishment of seminatural plant communities in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley agroecosystem for two years via camera trapping. He also modelled the effects of feral swine occupancy on native wildlife species in those patches. He completed his thesis and submitted two manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed international journals. A second student followed up on his study and monitored feral swine populations via camera trapping and will determine how seminatural plant communities affect agriculture by affecting swine populations. One season of field data was collected on 36 patches of seminatural plant communities. The third student was recently hired and has begun addressing objective 2 in project 1. Thus, 3 years of field data were collected, 2 years of datga have been analyzed and submitted for publication, and the 4th and final field season of the project has been planned for the next fiscal year. I obtained external funding to support objective 3 of project two. Over the past two field seasons, collaborator Paul Tseng and I isolated a secondary plant compound in sicklepod and evaluated its effectiveness in repelling deer and insect herbivores from soybean plants. A sprayable product is currently in development and a peer-reviewed publication was produced.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Coppola, G.*, Hatcher, H.*, Lashley, M. A., Colvin, M., Miranda, L., 2018. Persistence of flooded agricultural plants as potential fish habitat. Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, Oxford, MS.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Yue, Z., Tseng, T. M., Lashley, M. A. (2018). Characterization and deer-repellent property of chrysophanol and emodin from sicklepod weed. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 9(2), 266-280.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Baruzzi, C.*, Mason, D.*, Barton, B. T., Lashley, M. A. (2018) Effects of increasing biomass on carrion food webs. Food Webs. Invited Paper: Special Issue: Ecology of the Living Dead. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fooweb.2018.e00096.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2018 Citation: Ivey, M. R.*, Colvin, M., Strickland, B. K., Lashley, M. A. (in review) Modified double observer technique to estimate animal abundance with camera traps. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2018 Citation: Ivey, M. R.*, Colvin, M., Strickland, B. K., Lashley, M. A. (in review). Feral swine suppress native vertebrate species richness regardless of spatial scale in agroecosystems. Biological Conservation.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Hatcher, H.*, Coppola, G.*, Lashley, M. A., Colvin, M., Miranda, L., 2018. Assessing Growth and Establishment of Agricultural Plantings on Reservoir Mudflats. Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, Oxford, MS.

Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:This research was dissemenated to private landowners, state and federal agency employees, and to employees at non profit organizations through presentations at state and international conference presentations. Two manuscripts have been developed for submission to peer-reviewed journals in the coming year. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?I was able to train a M.Sc. student and two student workers during this research. Also, we attended two conferences for professional development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through scientific presentations at state and international conferences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I have successfully obtained external funding and hired another graduate student to continue to evaluate objectives under project 1. I will continue ongoing research under project 2.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? An m.sc. student collected and analyzed data on feral hog and coyote occurence in semi-natural plant communities in the Mississippi Delta and determined that the presence of hogs decreased native vertebrate richness by almost 20%. He successfully defended this research as partial fullfillment of his thesis and has developed two related manuscripts that wil be submitted in the next fiscal year. That research addressed objectives 1 and 3 under project 1 and also objective 1 in project 2. I also successfully obtained external funding with Dr. Tseng to develop a sprayable product that can be applied to soybeans to reduce herbivory damage to address objective 3 in project 2. One manuscript has been devoloped for submission to a peer-reviewed journal and experimental test are ongoing.

Publications

Progress 11/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:We reached private land owners thorough direct interactions and sampling on properties. Also, we reached natural resource professionals through a poster presentation at the Mississippi Chapter of the Wildlife Society annual meeting. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This funding allowed me an a graduate student to attend the Mississippi Chapter of the Wildlife Society and learn from other professionals studying similar topics in the same region of the state. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Ivey, M.R. and M. A. Lashley. 2016. Feral swine, patch biogeography, and associated damages in the Mississippi delta. Contributed poster to the Mississippi Chapter of the Wildlife Society, Starkville, MS. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue sampling incentive program forest patches to gather enough data to begin addressing parts 2 and 3 of project 1. Continue to collect spatially explicit data on crop damage and human wildlife conflict to address begine addressing parts 2 and 3 of project 2.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? With grant funds from the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station special research initiative in 2016, a graduate student was hired to evaluate the effects of semi-natural plant communities on the distribution, occupancy and intensity of area use, survival, and reproduction of feral hogs. We used trail cameras to monitor population size and vital rates of feral swine and 21 other wildlife species in 16 forest patches varying in size from 8 to 1800ha. In 2200 camera trap nights, we collected over 8000 detections of wildlife with about 10% being feral swine. With a paired externally funded projects led by other researcherssupporting 2 other graduate students, we captured and marked 40 swine from those forest patches and fitted 25 of them with GPS radiotags to monitor movements. Also, we sampled 50 agricultural fields adjacent to the same forest patches throughout the growing season (summer) to estimate crop damage from feral swine. With these data, we will be able to explicitly link feral swine population size to the configuration of forest patches and crop damage surrounding those patches.

Publications