Postdispersal weed seed predation is a significant source of weed mortality
in agroecosystems. The magnitude of seed predation, however, is variable.
Understanding the relative importance of factors driving variability in seed
predation rates will increase the potential utility of seed predation to
farmers. We conducted landscape-scale field experiments to quantify and
compare the effects of space, time of sampling, and habitat on weed seed
predation. Seed predation assays, with and without vertebrate exclosures,
measured seed predation rates at spatially explicit sample sites across 8.5
ha of crop and noncrop habitats on a diversified organic vegetable farm in
Maine. Total and invertebrate seed predation averaged 8% and 3%
d−1, respectively. Vertebrate seed predators detected by
motion-sensing cameras included small mammals and birds. A ground beetle,
Harpalus rufipes, was highly dominant in pitfall traps,
comprising 66% of invertebrate seed predators captured within crop fields.
Seed predation was randomly distributed in space. However, time of sampling
and habitat were highly significant predictors of seed predation. Variance
partitioning indicated that habitat factors explained more variation than
did time of sampling. Total seed predation was greater in crop and riparian
forest habitats than in mowed grass, meadow, or softwood forest. Generally,
invertebrate seed predation was greatest at sites with an intermediate
degree of vegetative cover, whereas habitat type was the chief biotic
determinant of vertebrate seed predation rates. These results suggest cover
cropping and wetland conservation as practices that may bolster seed
predation rates.