Hysteresis and critical transitions in a coffee agroecosystem.

ABSTRACT: Seeking to employ ecological principles in agricultural management, a classical ecological debate provides a useful framing. Whether ecosystems are controlled from above (predators are the limiting force over herbivores) or from below (overutilization of plant resources is the limiting force over herbivores) is a debate that has motivated much research. The dichotomous nature of the debate (above or below) has been criticized as too limiting, especially in light of contemporary appreciation of ecological complexity-control is more likely from a panoply of direct and indirect interactions. In the context of the agroecosystem, regulation is assumed to be from above and pests are controlled, a way of using ecological insights in service of an essential ecosystem service-pest control. However,

SUBMITTER: Vandermeer J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6660789 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature