Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1016/j.biocontrol.2021.104761
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Models of natural pest control: Towards predictions across agricultural landscapes
Author Alexandridis, A.; Marion, G.; Chaplin-Kramer, R.; Dainese, M.; Ekroos, J.; Grab, H.; Jonsson, M.; Karp, D.S.; Meyer, C.; O'Rourke, M.E.; Pontarp, M.; Poveda, K.; Seppelt, R.; Smith, H.G.; Martin, E.A.; Clough, Y.
Source Titel Biological Control
Year 2021
Department CLE
Volume 163
Page From art. 104761
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Supplements https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1049964421002309-mmc1.docx
Keywords Crop; Ecological modelling; Land use; Landscape; Natural control; Pest
Abstract Natural control of invertebrate crop pests has the potential to complement or replace conventional insecticide-based practices, but its mainstream application is hampered by predictive unreliability across agroecosystems. Inconsistent responses of natural pest control to changes in landscape characteristics have been attributed to ecological complexity and system-specific conditions. Here, we review agroecological models and their potential to provide predictions of natural pest control across agricultural landscapes. Existing models have used a multitude of techniques to represent specific crop-pest-enemy systems at various spatiotemporal scales, but less wealthy regions of the world are underrepresented. A realistic representation of natural pest control across systems appears to be hindered by a practical trade-off between generality and realism. Nonetheless, observations of context-sensitive, trait-mediated responses of natural pest control to land-use gradients indicate the potential of ecological models that explicitly represent the underlying mechanisms. We conclude that modelling natural pest control across agroecosystems should exploit existing mechanistic techniques towards a framework of contextually bound generalizations. Observed similarities in causal relationships can inform the functional grouping of diverse agroecosystems worldwide and the development of the respective models based on general, but context-sensitive, ecological mechanisms. The combined use of qualitative and quantitative techniques should allow the flexible integration of empirical evidence and ecological theory for robust predictions of natural pest control across a wide range of agroecological contexts and levels of knowledge availability. We highlight challenges and promising directions towards developing such a general modelling framework.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=25111
Alexandridis, A., Marion, G., Chaplin-Kramer, R., Dainese, M., Ekroos, J., Grab, H., Jonsson, M., Karp, D.S., Meyer, C., O'Rourke, M.E., Pontarp, M., Poveda, K., Seppelt, R., Smith, H.G., Martin, E.A., Clough, Y. (2021):
Models of natural pest control: Towards predictions across agricultural landscapes
Biol. Control 163 , art. 104761 10.1016/j.biocontrol.2021.104761