There were a number of articles on plant and arthropod biomasses and abundances in sugar beet in the UK (both in conventional and GM crops) that were published from the Farmscale Evaluations (Special Issue in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society from 2003 (Issue 358)). Two people you might contact about the work and the factors affecting biodiversity in beet are Alan Dewar (Alan Dewar Crop Protection) and David R Brooks (Rothamsted Research), both of whom are on ResearchGate. Data on abundances and food webs from these trials is also available (see Bohan, D.A., et al. (2011) PloS one, 6, e29028), and these were used to make predictions about effects on birds (Gibbons, D.W., et al. (2006) Proceedings of The Royal Society of London Series B, Biological Sciences, 273, 1921–1928.).

Dear Norbert,

Most of arthropods at a sugar beet field are pests. Many growers use pesticides in order to decrease their abundance. Generally, abundance of natural enemies and neutral arthropods should be increased however their biomass cannot be too high. I am not an ornithologist but In Hungary Vanellus vanellus prefers cereals, alfalfa, grassland and the neighbourhood of surface waters. It would be good to know which arthropod taxa are preferred by lapwing. Have you got any data on the rate of arthropods in their ingested food?

Dear András,

In Germany up to my knowledge, literature, the reports from the farmers and consultants insecticides are only used in exceptional circumstances in beet. Plant protection in beet largely focusses on herbicides.

Lapwings formerly bred mainly in grasslands in Germany. However, with the improved management in recent decades grassland but also cereals get to dense to early in the year. In addition, grassland is cut too frequently. Today, in some areas as Northrhine-Westphalia more than 90% of the Lapwings breed on arable land. And Lapwings prefer late developing crops (i.e. frequently maize and in some cases sugar beet).

The abundance of arthropods might be lower compared to wet grassland. However, due to the open vegetation structure the accessibility of the forage is extremely high.

We have no idea on what Lapwings feed in sugar beet. But generally, Lapwings are pretty opportunistic feeders taking everything they can get on or near the surface. Normally, earthworms are particularly important with respect to the quantity.

Dear Norbert,

Thanks for your reply. It is right that herbicides are the dominant pesticides in Germany as everywhere however even herbicides may be, and some are toxic to birds

I think there are some important pest of sugar beet even in Germany like Agriotes spp., Aphis fabae, Authographa gamma, Atomaria linearis, Chaetocnema tibialis, Pegomya betae etc. I feel growers must use neonicotinoide insecticides in form of seed dressing against Agriotes spp., Aphis fabae, Atomaria linearis and Chaetocnema tibialis that means in the time of sowing before some pests like aphids cannot even forecasted.

Here you are some relevant information:

http://www.pflanzenkrankheiten.ch/index.php/de/krankheiten-an-kulturpflanzen/zuckerrueben/289-aphis-fabae-zr

http://www.proplanta.de/web/themen.php?Fu1=1180715657&Fu1Ba=1140269039

http://bisz.suedzucker.de/Pflanzenschutz/Bekaempfungsschwellen/

http://bisz.suedzucker.de/Pflanzenschutz/Auflauf-Schaedlinge/Moosknopfkaefer/

http://bisz.suedzucker.de/Pflanzenschutz/Auflauf-Schaedlinge/Drahtwurm/

http://www.lksh.de/fileadmin/dokumente/Landwirtschaft/Pflanze/Pflanzenschutz/Insektizide/Rueben_I_Abstandsauflagen.pdf

http://www.raiffeisen.com/pflanzen/psm-manager/splitParams/17/I/f/0

http://www.proplanta.de/Zuckerruebe/Insektizide-Zuckerruebe_Pflanze1181808846.html

If you are looking for info on diet, then you could also try contacting Jeremy Wilson (RSPB). He has updated the work 'published' as : Wilson, J.D., Arroyo, B.E. & Clark, S.C. 1996. The Diet of Bird Species of Lowland Farmland: a Literature Review. Report to the Department of the Environment. London: Defra. There is also Sheldon et al. (2004)  IBIS 146, 41–49., which details some of associations between Vanellus and crops (landscape features).

Dear Norbert, have you also considered the possibility to leave some permanent fallow areas in the field and/or widening field margins? I think this would be the best (perhaps the most cost efficient) way to increase arthropod diversity and abundance, especially regarding aboveground insects.

Dear Rocco,

permanent or better annual fallow (Lapwings prefer open soils or very short turfs) will  be an option of choice for the more stationary breeding pairs (i.e. the ones being on nearly the same spot year after year).

However, we 've got quite a lot of pairs that follow the beet through the landscape changing their nest site up to 1 - 2 km. Up to know we couldn't figure out why certain spots (beet fields) are selected and others not.

As cropping is quite profitable and therefore compensatory payments high in sugar beet areas, we want to keep the number of "useless" fallows (at least with respect to the breeding success of Lapwings to the absolute minimum). Therefore, an option that could be implemenented after a Lapwing selected its breeding site would be optimal.

Changing the management of field margin is an ambivalent options. Linear strutures  are ntensively controlled by carnivores (esp. foxes and mustelids). In addition external field margins (i.e. the ones next to pathes, tracks, etc.)  are often heavily disturbed by pedestrians or cyclists with dogs.

Best

Norbert

I was recently thinking back to feeding behaviour of stone curlew (for what I observed both for breeding and wintering individuals), which seems to be strongly attracted by dung heaps because of their huge prey (larvae, worms) availability.

In this regard, I was wondering if extra addition of manure in the field could increase arthropod abundance and improve the quality of nutritional intake for lapwings as well.