The Community Ecology of Herbivore Regulation in an Agroecosystem: Lessons from Complex Systems. (11th December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vandermeer, John; Armbrecht, Inge; de la Mora, Aldo; Ennis, Katherine K; Fitch, Gordon; Gonthier, David J; Hajian-Forooshani, Zachary; Hsieh, Hsun-Yi; Iverson, Aaron; Jackson, Douglas; Jha, Shalene; Jiménez-Soto, Estelí; Lopez-Bautista, Gustavo; Larsen, Ashley; Li, Kevin; Liere, Heidi; MacDonald, Andrew; Marin, Linda; Mathis, Kaitlyn A; Monagan, Ivan; Morris, Jonathan R; Ong, Theresa; Pardee, Gabriella L; Rivera-Salinas, Iris Saraeny; Vaiyda, Chatura; Williams-Guillen, Kimberly; Yitbarek, Senay; Uno, Shinsuke; Zemenick, Ash; Philpott, Stacy M; Perfecto, Ivette;
• Is Part Of: BioScience. Volume 69:Number 12(2019:Dec.)
• Page Start: 974
• Page End: 996
• Publication Date: 2019-12-11
• Subjects: agroecosystems -- ecology -- complex systems; Life sciences -- Periodicals; Life sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; Life sciences -- United States -- Periodicals; Life sciences -- Government policy -- United States -- Periodicals; Biology -- Periodicals; Biotechnology industries -- Periodicals; 570
• DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biz127
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0006-3568

Abstract

Abstract: Whether an ecological community is controlled from above or below remains a popular framework that continues generating interesting research questions and takes on especially important meaning in agroecosystems. We describe the regulation from above of three coffee herbivores, a leaf herbivore (the green coffee scale, Coccus viridis), a seed predator (the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei), and a plant pathogen (the coffee rust disease, caused by Hemelia vastatrix) by various natural enemies, emphasizing the remarkable complexity involved. We emphasize the intersection of this classical question of ecology with the burgeoning field of complex systems, including references to chaos, critical transitions, hysteresis, basin or boundary collision, and spatial self-organization, all aimed at the applied question of pest control in the coffee agroecosystem.