History, current situation and challenges for conservation biological control

Shields, Morgan W.; Johnson, Anne C.; Pandey, Sunita; Cullen, Ross; González-Chang, Mauricio; Wratten, Steve D.; Gurr, Geoff M.

doi:10.1016/j.biocontrol.2018.12.010

Cited by 92 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 178 publications

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“…In New Zealand, establishing plants of Miscanthus x giganteus Greef et Deu, at the edge of pasture fields improved several ecosystem services, such as pollination, water conservation, biomass production, nitrogen supply, soil quality and conservation of endemic lizards (Littlejohn et al, 2019). That Miscanthus work, as well as successful examples presented in recent research (Gurr et al, 2016(Gurr et al, , 2017LaCanne and Lundgren, 2018;Nicholls and Altieri, 2018;González-Chang et al, 2019;Shields et al, 2019), could inspire Chilean agronomists, farmers, scientists and policy makers to promote biodiversity-based agricultural systems. However, such implementation is not just a matter of "copy and paste" of techniques but requires an understanding of the ecological dynamics and potential ecosystem dis-services that any agricultural management could have.…”

Section: Can Regenerative Agriculture Be Widely Adopted In Chile?mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Therefore, the lack of widespread adoption of biodiversitybased farming techniques in Chile and elsewhere is probably related to a lack of ecological protocols that farmers can easily apply. Thus, one of the impediments that affects the creation of these protocols is that locally tested scientific knowledge that farmers can easily apply is usually unavailable Shields et al, 2019). Once research is able to produce applied ecological protocols for conventionally managed farms, and when adequate channels that spread that knowledge amongst farmers exist, such as farmer field schools, farmer to farmer strategies and agroecological lighthouses, regenerative agriculture can truly help in producing a change in conventional Chilean agricultural systems, from monoculture to diversified agroecosystems.…”

Section: Can Regenerative Agriculture Be Widely Adopted In Chile?mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Prospects for regenerative agriculture in Chile

Wratten¹,

Shields²,

González-Chang³

2019

agrosur

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Section: Can Regenerative Agriculture Be Widely Adopted In Chile?mentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Can Regenerative Agriculture Be Widely Adopted In Chile?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for regenerative agriculture in Chile

Wratten¹,

Shields²,

González-Chang³

2019

agrosur

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“…Many principles and practices associated with CBC are thousands of years old (Shields et al, 2019). For example, there are records of farmers in fourth century China manipulating weaver ant nests in citrus orchards to protect the fruit from pests (Huang and Yang, 1987), and indigenous farmers across the tropics engage in various cultural practices to avoid pest outbreaks (Morales, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, there are records of farmers in fourth century China manipulating weaver ant nests in citrus orchards to protect the fruit from pests (Huang and Yang, 1987), and indigenous farmers across the tropics engage in various cultural practices to avoid pest outbreaks (Morales, 2002). However, formal scientific investigations by ecologists and entomologists are relatively young (Shields et al, 2019). A classic paper by Root (1973) sparked significant interest in the "enemies hypothesis, " which posits that predators and parasitoids should benefit more from plant diversity than their herbivore prey, increasing the ratio of natural enemies to pests and providing top-down control.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Resource (Dis)continuity for Conservation Biological Control: From Field to Landscape Scales

Iuliano

Gratton

2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Conservation biological control (CBC) seeks to promote the occurrence of natural enemies of agricultural pests by managing habitat to provide key resources in and around farm fields. In particular, vegetation diversity may help ensure temporal resource continuity such that natural enemies are less likely to experience detrimental gaps or bottlenecks as they move through and use different habitats. While the conceptual value of resource continuity has long been recognized by CBC researchers and practitioners, empirical studies have tended to focus on snapshots in space and time. Here we review how continuity of trophic (food) and structural (shelter) resources affect natural enemy conservation and pest control outcomes within farm fields and across agricultural landscapes. Key trophic resources include alternative prey and non-prey food (such as floral nectar and pollen), which can bolster natural enemy nutrition when pests are scarce. Vegetative and non-vegetative structural resources can protect enemies when crop fields are disturbed and provide important overwintering habitat in temperate regions. Within fields, non-crop plantings such as wildflower strips or beetle banks are the most popular habitat management strategies, but temporal intercropping, asynchronous planting/harvesting, and the construction of artificial shelters have high potential to contribute to resource continuity. Analogously, semi-natural habitat at the landscape scale may contribute to resource continuity in some cases, but crop diversity, asynchrony, and urban habitat can also be important. Simultaneous consideration of resource diversity and continuity could generate better predictions and more targeted management interventions for particular pest and enemy assemblages. Future research should strive to expand our understanding of natural enemy resource requirements in space and time.

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“…Promoting ecosystem services can be achieved through improving conservation practices that favor local biodiversity combined with reduction in broad spectrum insecticides (Shields et al, 2018;Snyder, 2019, Gurr et al, 2017Begg et al, 2017;Gurr et al, 2000, Landis et al, 2000. For example, managing the habitat in and around agricultural fields can mitigate some effects of intensive management to increase the effectiveness of natural enemies by promoting more abundant and diverse predator communities (Gurr et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cover crops improve early season natural enemy recruitment and pest management in cotton production

Bowers

Toews

Liu

et al. 2019

Preprint

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A shift to more ecologically based farming practices would improve the sustainability and economic stability of agricultural systems. Habitat management in and around agricultural fields can provide stable environments that aid in the proliferation of natural enemy communities that moderate pest populations and injury. Winter cover crops offer a potentially cost-effective approach to improving habitat that supports natural enemy communities early in the growing season. We investigated the effects of winter cover crops including cereal rye (Secale cereal L.) and crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum L.) on the abundance and diversity of natural enemies, key pest populations, biological control services, and cotton yield. Winter cover crops were established on 0.4 ha replicated field plots in the fall of 2017 and 2018. Suction sampling during each cotton development stage demonstrated that a rye cover crop promoted greater abundance and diversity of natural enemy communities in early cotton stages. Extensive leaf sampling of seedling cotton showed that cover crops significantly reduced thrips infestations. Furthermore, stink bug boll injury decreased on plots prepared with a rye cover compared to cotton lacking this additional habitat. Combining end of season yield results and management practices with an economic analysis of the costs of production, the value of cotton grown into a cover crop was cost competitive with conventional (no cover) cotton production. These results suggest that conventional growers utilizing cover crops could reduce insecticide inputs through natural reductions in pest pressure, and overall do not incur additional production costs.

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History, current situation and challenges for conservation biological control

Cited by 92 publications

References 178 publications

Prospects for regenerative agriculture in Chile

Prospects for regenerative agriculture in Chile

Temporal Resource (Dis)continuity for Conservation Biological Control: From Field to Landscape Scales

Cover crops improve early season natural enemy recruitment and pest management in cotton production

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