Linking coleopteran diversity with agricultural management of maize agroecosystems in Oaxaca, Mexico

González, Cecilia; García, Tania Lara; Barbolla, Lev Jardón; Benítez, Mariana

doi:10.1101/2020.01.07.897744

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 35 publications

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“…Raymundo Aguilar, Alexandre Beaupré, Maria de Guadalupe León, members of El Molote collective and the Regiduría de agricultura del Municipio de Villa de Zaachila helped in the field trips and recognition of the plots. This manuscript has been released as a pre-print at Biorxiv (González González et al, 2020).…”

Section: Data Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Coleopteran Diversity With Agricultural Management of Maize-Based Agroecosystems in Oaxaca, Mexico

González

García

Barbolla

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Biodiversity is known to be influenced by agricultural practices in many ways. However, it is necessary to understand how this relation takes place in particular agroecosystems, sociocultural contexts and for specific biological groups, especially in highly biodiverse places. Also, in order to systematically study and track how biodiversity responds or changes with agricultural practices, it is necessary to find groups that can be used as practical indicators. We conduct a study of beetle (Coleoptera) diversity in maize-based agricultural plots with heterogeneous management practices in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico, a region with outstanding biodiversity and a long agricultural history. We use a mixture of local knowledge and multivariate statistics to group the plots into two broad and contrasting management categories (traditional vs. industrialized). Then, we present an analysis of Coleopteran diversity for each category, showing higher levels across different diversity indexes for the traditional plots. Specifically, Coleopteran guilds associated with natural pest control and soil conservation are more common in traditional plots than in industrialized ones, while herbivorous beetles are more abundant in the second. Also, our results let us postulate the Curculionidae family as an indicator of both management type and overall Coleopteran diversity in the agricultural lands of the study site. We discuss our results in terms of the agricultural matrix quality and its role in strategies that favor the coexistence of culturally meaningful agricultural systems and local biodiversity.

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Section: Data Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Coleopteran Diversity With Agricultural Management of Maize-Based Agroecosystems in Oaxaca, Mexico

González

García

Barbolla

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Pertinence of exotic and local green manures for sustainable maize polyculture in Oaxaca, Mexico

Beaupré¹,

Vega²,

Castañeda³

et al. 2020

Renew. Agric. Food Syst.

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Green manures are a promising alternative for achieving the sustainable production of maize in the face of low soil fertility and increasingly long canicule periods, particularly in rainfed systems associated with the reproduction of local agrobiodiversity. However, it is necessary to investigate what are the advantages and disadvantages associated with different species of native and exotic pulse, as well as their overall contribution to the sustainable production of maize landraces. In order to do so, we followed the MESMIS method to assess five species of pulse (three native and two exotic) grown with maize in two plots with different soil conditions. This was done in the seasons of 2017 and 2018 the municipality of Villa de Zaachila, Oaxaca, a site with remarkable biological, agricultural and cultural diversity. A fully randomized complete block design was implemented with 11 treatments and three repetitions in the two plots. The output variables of the experiment were: land equivalence ratio, interspecific aggressiveness, content of soil organic matter, decomposition rate, plant survival rate and plant dry biomass. We also evaluated quantitative or qualitative indicators of cost, adaptability and contribution to food security. For all the possible maize-pulse combinations, except for one, polyculture outperformed maize and pulse monocultures. Exotic pulses (Crotalaria junscens spp. and Dolicho lablab) had a better performance in biomass, reincorporation of organic matter and possible nitrogen fixation, as well as greater resistance to drought in the second cycle. The native pulses (Phaseolus vulgaris and Phaseolus coccineus), however, had a greater acceptance and economic output and are important for the food security in our study site. Our results provide quantitative and qualitative elements to design combined schemes of green manures associated with maize that would help tackle current challenges regarding maize productivity, food security and response to climate change.

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Linking coleopteran diversity with agricultural management of maize agroecosystems in Oaxaca, Mexico

Cited by 2 publications

References 35 publications

Linking Coleopteran Diversity With Agricultural Management of Maize-Based Agroecosystems in Oaxaca, Mexico

Linking Coleopteran Diversity With Agricultural Management of Maize-Based Agroecosystems in Oaxaca, Mexico

Pertinence of exotic and local green manures for sustainable maize polyculture in Oaxaca, Mexico

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