Pest control of aphids depends on landscape complexity and natural enemy interactions.

ABSTRACT: Aphids are a major concern in agricultural crops worldwide, and control by natural enemies is an essential component of the ecological intensification of agriculture. Although the complexity of agricultural landscapes is known to influence natural enemies of pests, few studies have measured the degree of pest control by different enemy guilds across gradients in landscape complexity. Here, we use multiple natural-enemy exclosures replicated in 18 fields across a gradient in landscape complexity to investigate (1) the strength of natural pest control across landscapes, measured as the difference between pest pressure in the presence and in the absence of natural enemies; (2) the differential contributions of natural enemy guilds to pest control, and the nature of their interactions across l

SUBMITTER: Martin EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4699780 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature