Effects of Ground Cover Management on Insect Predators and Pests in a Mediterranean Vineyard.

ABSTRACT: Conservative techniques, such as ground cover management, could help promote viticulture sustainability, which is a goal of conservation biological control, by providing shelter and food sources for predatory insects. A field experiment was conducted in a Mediterranean vineyard to evaluate ground cover management impacts on predatory insect and potential grapevine pest abundance and diversity, both on the ground and in the grapevine canopy. Three different ground cover management techniques (tillage, spontaneous cover and flower-driven cover) were tested for two years (2016 and 2017). Overall, the ground cover management significantly affected the abundance of important epigeal predators, of which carabids, forficulids and staphylinids were the most captured. The carabid abundances under b

SUBMITTER: Saenz-Romo MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6956331 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature