2. Biotic interactions and facilitation for long-term resilience

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While the plant composition of an agroecosystem may act as a first environmental filter for species presence, antagonistic interactions (+/-), such as predation and herbivory, are critical to the long-term persistence of species and a system's ecological state. Furthermore, facilitative interactions (+/0) between arthropods and their acquired gut microbiota may be an underlying factor that shapes diet preference. Altogether, these interactions have large impacts on economic outcomes for farmers. My work investigates the cascading effects of single-level trophic interactions (arthropod-arthropod) to complex multi-trophic interactions (microbe-arthropod-plant) on species diet preferences and persistence within agroforests and across agricultural landscapes.