Parasitoid Abundance and Community Composition in Desert Vineyards and Their Adjacent Natural Habitats.

ABSTRACT: Parasitoids are important natural enemies of many agricultural pests. Preserving natural habitats around agricultural fields may support parasitoid populations. However, the success of such an approach depends on the ability of parasitoids to utilize both crop and natural habitats. While these aspects have been studied extensively in temperate regions, very little is known about parasitoid communities in desert agroecosystems. We took one step in this direction by sampling parasitoids in six vineyards and their surrounding natural desert habitat in a hyper-arid region of the Negev Desert Highlands, Israel. We predicted that due to the high contrast in environmental conditions, parasitoid abundance and community composition would differ greatly between the crop and the natural desert habita

SUBMITTER: Segoli M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7565741 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature