Introduction: Agricultural intensification results in biodiversity loss through land conversion and management practices which negatively impact arthropods. The abundance and diversity of ground-dwelling predators, e.g. ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) and spiders (Araneae), are negatively affected by soil disturbances such as tillage. Reducing soil disturbances can potentially conserve arthropod populations in the field and reduce the use of chemical pest controls. The present study investigated the ground-dwelling predatory community using pitfall traps in cereal fields with three different levels of soil disturbance: conventional tillage, reduced tillage and no tillage under Conservation Agriculture management, in 2018 and 2019. Pitfall traps were placed in transects from the field margins. Overall, the activity-density of ground-dwelling predators was higher in fields with minimum soil disturbance and generally declined with increased distance to semi-natural habitats. Functional diversity, expressed by the body size of ground beetles, was also affected by soil disturbances; large ground beetles more consistently occurred in CA, while few or none of the largest ground beetles were found in RT and CT. A higher sample-heterogeneity in less disturbed fields was indicated by a more variable median and higher skewness in the number of predators in those fields. In 2019 only, species diversity was higher along field edges bordering semi-natural habitats when compared to the cropped area. Our results show that reduced tillage supports predator arthropod communities at a local scale: It also bolsters agro-ecosystem resilience by promoting a higher activity-density and by increasing the heterogeneity and functional diversity of ground-dwelling predators.Implications for insect conservation: The results obtained in the present study show that soil disturbances significantly influence arthropod abundance and diversity. Conservation of epigeic natural enemies in the agricultural landscape is improved by reducing soil-disturbing events such as tillage.

Thrips are a major pest in protected strawberry production. Knowledge of thrips species composition could be instrumental for improved thrips management, but very little is known about which species are present in strawberries grown in high-tunnels in Denmark. Thrips (adults and larvae) were sampled in two strawberry tunnels of the cultivars Murano and Furore from May to August 2018, in the middle and in the edges of the tunnels. The most abundant thrips species found in the tunnels were Frankliniella intonsa and Thrips tabaci adults. Frankliniella intonsa were also the most frequently found species of the immatures sampled, followed by T. tabaci larvae, and other species. The number of thrips differed between the two cultivars, sampling times and location in the tunnel. Frankliniella intonsa was more abundant in the middle of the tunnels, while T. tabaci was more abundant in the edge of the tunnels adjacent to the field margins. The number of thrips peaked by the end of July. Both chemical and biological control should consider species composition and occurrence; hence, a fundamental first step for thrips management is to identify the species present on the target crop.