Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Community Structure of Saskatchewan's Agroecosystems and Seeded Grasslands

Ground-dwelling arthropods hold a critical role in maintaining the health and function of agroecosystems in the Canadian prairie landscape. However, the distribution of many groups is often limited to non-crop habitats, such as roadside ditches or distantly spaced grassland refuges. The high prevalence of prairie pothole wetlands in this region may be working to mitigate this stress by providing non-crop habitat within cultivated field interiors. This study aims to investigate the distribution of ground-dwelling arthropod families in prairie agroecosystems by understanding the impact of key prairie landscape features (including canola, cereal, and seeded grassland fields) on arthropod communities. To assess the influence of prairie potholes, two transects were established per sampled field, with one starting at the field margin while the other originated from a prairie pothole edge. Principal coordinate analysis and generalized linear models were employed to characterize ground-dwelling arthropod richness, abundance, and community structure. Prairie pothole and field edge margins contained higher levels of ground dwelling arthropod richness and abundance relative to field interiors, regardless of sampled field identity. Traps located in the middle of grassland transects held comparable levels of richness and abundance to crop fields, however, trap contents from the distal end of transects mirrored the elevated counts observed in margins. This suggests that microhabitat features may be exerting a push-pull dynamic on arthropod distribution. Despite differences in richness and abundance, there was a substantial overlap in arthropod community composition between all sampled variables, implying a widespread use of most landscape features by arthropod families. These results suggest that prairie pothole margins hold tremendous conservation and agroeconomic value as they facilitate the presence of large and diverse ground-dwelling arthropod communities in an otherwise habitat limited landscape.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (M.Sc.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Plant Sciences

Grantor

University of Saskatchewan

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Antochi-Crihan, Georgiana Alexandra

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Prager, Sean

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Willenborg, Christian
• Bennett, Jonathan
• Lamb, Eric
• Costamagna, Alejandro

• ground-dwelling arthropod
• epigeal
• insect
• prairie pothole
• kettle lake
• agroecosystem
• tame grassland
• margins
• edge effects

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10388/16562

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:harvest.usask.ca:10388/16562