# Data from: Land consolidation impacts the abundance and richness of natural enemies but not pests in small-holder rice systems [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.73n5tb34m](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.73n5tb34m) This is the data from: Gong, S., Zhu, Y., Fu, D., Bianchi, FJJA., van der Werf, W., Hodgson, J., Xiao, H., & Zou, Y. (2024) Land consolidation impacts the abundance and richness of natural enemies but not pests in small-holder rice systems. Accepted for publication in Journal of Applied Ecology. ## Creator Yi Zou, Department of Health Environmental Sciences, School of Science, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China. email: [yi.zou.1@hotmail.com](mailto:yi.zou.1@hotmail.com) ## Description The dataset contains 4 documents 1\. "`Arthropod data.csv`" is the collected sample for each family; each of the column refers to the following: Year: Sampling year Date: Sampling date Round: Sampling round Site: Study site Treatment: insecticide treatment (S for sprayed and U for unsprayed) Sample: name of each sample Delphacidae...Oniscidae: abundance of each arthropod family in one sample 2\. "`Crop damage data.csv`" is the collected sample for two crop damage; each of the column refers to the following: Year: Sampling year Round: Sampling round Site: Study site Treatment: insecticide treatment (S for sprayed and U for unsprayed) tillerD: number of total tillers for samples of dead hearts dead: number of dead hearts tillerR: number of total tillers for samples of rolled leaves roll: number of rolled leaves 3\. "`Rice yield data.csv`" is the collected sample for rice yield; each of the column refers to the following: Year: Sampling year Site: Study site Treatment: insecticide treatment (S for sprayed and U for unsprayed) Sample: order of samples of one sampling Yield(t/ha): calculated dry weight per hectare from one sample 4\. "`Landscape data.csv`" is the landscape information of each study site; each of the column refers to the following: Year: Sampling year Site: Study site Field type: land consolidation status of study site SNH05: proportion of semi-natural habitat at 0.5 km radius SNH1: proportion of semi-natural habitat proportion at 1 km radius SNH2: proportion of semi-natural habitat proportion at 2 km radius

Traditional small-holder agricultural landscapes in southern China are being consolidated to increase mechanization levels in agriculture, but it is unclear how this influences rice arthropod communities in these landscapes. Here, based on a six-year study in 20 rice fields, we evaluated the impact of land consolidation on arthropod communities, crop damage, and rice yield. We also analyzed how effects of land consolidation were moderated by the proportion of large semi-natural habitat patches and insecticide use. We found that, compared to consolidated fields, rice fields in traditional farmlands had a higher abundance and family richness of natural enemies, but a similar abundance of rice pests. Land consolidation did not significantly interact with the proportion of large semi-natural habitat patches or insecticide application, in terms of affecting arthropods. The proportion of semi-natural habitat reduced the negative effect of insecticide application on key rice pests, but no equivalent interaction occurred for natural enemies. Syntheses and Applications: Land consolidation can have negative impacts on the abundance and richness of natural enemies, but not pests in small-holder rice systems, and these impacts are independent from insecticide application and proportion of semi-natural habitat in the landscape. We recommend the implementation of agri-environmental measures or re-establishing field margin vegetation during the consolidation process to mitigate these potential negative effects, although trade-off between enhancing crop yields and preserving rice arthropod biodiversity should be considered. We encourage future research to focus on the detailed assessment of the function of linear habitats for a better understanding of the impact of land consolidation.