Bund Refugia Alter Arthropod Functional Guild Structure in Lowland Rice (Oryza sativa L.): Evidence from Diversity, Evenness and Dominance Indices
Keywords:
conservation biological control, Cyrtorhinus lividipennis, ecological engineering, parasitoid guild, Sesamum indicum, Vigna radiataAbstract
Vegetation retained on earthen bunds of irrigated rice fields supplies shelter, pollen, nectar and alternative hosts, yet consequences for the arthropod community inside the crop remain unevenly documented. A randomised complete block design with three bund treatments and three replicates was used to quantify arthropod assemblages in transplanted lowland rice across nine weekly samplings (14–70 days after transplanting; DAT). Treatments were cleared bunds (T₀), bunds under spontaneous vegetation (Portulaca oleracea, Cyperus iria, Cyperus rotundus, Eleusine indica; T₁), and bunds sown with sesame (Sesamum indicum) and mungbean (Vigna radiata; T₂). Twenty-seven arthropod taxa in 20 families and 7 orders were recorded (232 individuals). Herbivore relative abundance declined from 11.90% (T₀) to 6.85% (T₁) and 5.33% (T₂), while parasitoid relative abundance rose from 14.29% to 20.55% and 30.67%, lifting the natural-enemy-to-herbivore ratio from 6.00 to 10.40 and 12.75. Shannon diversity peaked at the sixth sampling and fell to zero from 63 DAT onward; seasonal means were 0.93, 0.99 and 1.13. Because indices were computed from pooled catch, the analysis of variance is descriptive: sampling occasion dominated variability whereas bund vegetation explained little (partial η² = 0.09–0.20), with treatment confidence intervals overlapping for every index. Evenness and Simpson dominance remained low across all treatments. A composite decision-support heuristic ranked T₂ first (100.0), ahead of T₁ (49.9) and T₀ (2.3), identifying sesame–mungbean bund refugia as the most promising option for further testing.
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