Responses to environmental variability by herbivorous insects and their natural enemies within a bioenergy crop, Miscanthus x giganteus.

ABSTRACT: Precision agriculture (PA) is the application of management decisions based on identifying, quantifying, and responding to space-time variability. However, knowledge of crop pest responses to within-field environmental variability, and the spatial distribution of their natural enemies, is limited. Quantitative methods providing insights on how pest-predator relationships vary within fields are potentially important tools. In this study, phloem feeders and their natural enemies, were observed over two years across 81 locations within a field of the perennial feedstock grass in Georgia, USA. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) was used to spatially correlate their abundance with environmental factors. Variables included distance to forest edge, Normalized Difference of Vegetation Index

SUBMITTER: Coffin AW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7886118 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature