Natural pest and weed regulation are essential for agricultural production, but the spatial distribution of natural enemies within crop fields and its drivers are mostly unknown. Using 28 datasets comprising 1204 study sites across eight Western and Central European countries, we performed a quantitative synthesis of carabid richness, activity densities and functional traits in relation to field edges (i.e. distance functions). We show that distance functions of carabids strongly depend on carabid functional traits, crop type and, to a lesser extent, adjacent non-crop habitats. Richness of both carnivores and granivores, and activity densities of small and granivorous species decreased towards field interiors, whereas the densities of large species increased. We found strong distance decays in maize and vegetables whereas richness and densities remained more stable in cereals, oilseed crops and legumes. We conclude that carabid assemblages in agricultural landscapes are driven by the complex interplay of crop types, adjacent non-crop habitats and further landscape parameters with great potential for targeted agroecological management. In particular, our synthesis indicates that a higher edge-interior ratio can counter the distance decay of carabid richness per field and thus likely benefits natural pest and weed regulation, hence contributing to agricultural sustainability.

'Lendület' Landscape and Conservation Ecology Institute of Ecology and Botany HUN REN Centre for Ecological Research 2163 Vácrátót Alkotmány út 2 4 Hungary

Agroecology and Environment Agroscope Reckenholzstrasse 191 Zurich 8046 Switzerland

Agroecology Department of Crop Science University of Göttingen Göttingen Germany

British Trust for Ornithology The Nunnery Thetford Norfolk IP24 2PU UK

CEBC UMR 7372 CNRS and La Rochelle Université 79360 Villiers en Bois France

CREAF Cerdanyola del Vallès 08193 Spain

CSIC Cerdanyola del Vallès 08193 Spain

Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology Biocenter University of Würzburg Am Hubland Würzburg 97074 Germany

Department of Animal Ecology Justus Liebig University Giessen Heinrich Buff Ring 26 32 35392 Giessen Germany

Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research Division of Biodiversity Dynamics and Conservation University of Vienna Rennweg 14 1030 Vienna Austria

Department of Ecology Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus Senftenberg Cottbus 03046 Germany

Department of Ecology Environment and Evolution School of Life Science La Trobe University Bundoora Victoria 3086 Australia

Department of Ecology Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala SE 750 07 Sweden

Department of Zoology and Biology Faculty of Sciences Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi Rawalpindi Pakistan

Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés Université de Picardie Jules Verne Amiens France

Faculty of Bioscience Engineering Department of Forest and Water Management Forest and Nature Lab Ghent University Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267 9090 Gontrode Belgium

Faculty of Environmental Sciences Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Kamýcká 129 Praha Suchdol 165 00 Czech Republic

Fenner School of Environment and Society The Australian National University Canberra Australia

iES Landau Institute for Environmental Sciences Ecosystem Analysis University of Kaiserslautern Landau Fortstrasse 7 Landau 76829 Germany

INRAE Institut Agro ESA UMR BAGAP 35042 Rennes France

Institut Agro Univ Rennes1 INRAE IGEPP 35000 Rennes France

Institute of Zoology University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna 1180 Austria

Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal Av Velez Sarsfield 1611 5000 Córdoba Argentina

Landscape Dynamics and Biodiversity Program Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia Crtra Sant Llorenç de Morunys km 2 25280 Solsona Spain

LTSER 'Zone Atelier Plaine and Val de Sèvre' CNRS 79360 Villiers en Bois France

LTSER Zone Atelier « PYRÉNÉES GARONNE » 31320 Auzeville Tolosane France

Plant Production Systems Agroscope Route des Eterpys 18 1964 Conthey Switzerland

Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Ackerstrasse 113 Postfach Frick 5070 Switzerland

Swiss Ornithological Institute Seerose 1 CH 6204 Sempach Switzerland

Tour du Valat Research Institute for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands Le Sambuc 13200 Arles France

UMR Dynafor INRAE Toulouse University 31326 Castanet Tolosan France

Université Paris Saclay INRAE AgroParisTech UMR EcoSys 91120 Palaiseau France

Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group Wageningen University Droevendaalsesteeg 3 6708 PB Wageningen the Netherlands

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Wildflower strip establishment supports beneficial ground-dwelling arthropods and pest control but has limited effects on weed seed control and spillover to adjacent fields

Distance functions of carabids in crop fields depend on functional traits, crop type and adjacent habitat: a synthesis