Diversified Bund Vegetation Coupled With Flowering Plants Enhances Predator Population and Early-Season Pest Control. Issue 4 (14th April 2021)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Diversified Bund Vegetation Coupled With Flowering Plants Enhances Predator Population and Early-Season Pest Control. Issue 4 (14th April 2021)
- Main Title:
- Diversified Bund Vegetation Coupled With Flowering Plants Enhances Predator Population and Early-Season Pest Control
- Authors:
- Qian, Ping
Bai, Yueliang
Zhou, Wenwu
Yu, Hang
Zhu, Zijie
Wang, Guiyao
Quais, Md Khairul
Li, Feiqiang
Chen, Yue
Tan, Ye
Shi, Xiaoxiao
Wang, Xueqin
Zhong, Xueming
Zhu, Zeng-Rong - Editors:
- Gao, Yulin
- Abstract:
- Abstract: Insecticide overuse in crop production systems often results in detrimental effects on predators and parasitoids, which regulate important insect pests. The natural enemies are also unable to survive in monocrop landscapes with the absence of shelter or food sources. Diversified vegetation, especially with flowering plants, can enhance natural enemy abundance and diversity, thus strengthening biological control, enabling farmers to reduce insecticides. In this study, we conserved bund vegetation and manipulated the existing rice landscapes with flowering plants to provide food and shelter for the biological control agents. Our study revealed significant positive relationships between predator densities and bund plant diversity. The abundance of predators significantly increased in the eco-engineered plots, especially at the flowering peaks compared to the insecticide-treated and control plots, while parasitoids were more diverse in both the eco-engineered and control plots. There were no significant differences in planthopper and leafhopper densities among the treatments during the rice early and maximum tillering stages, suggesting effective natural control of these herbivore pests in the eco-engineered plots at the early rice-growing season. However, at the heading stage relatively higher planthopper and leafhopper populations in the control and eco-engineered plots than in the insecticide-sprayed plots were recorded, suggesting perhaps the need for insecticideAbstract: Insecticide overuse in crop production systems often results in detrimental effects on predators and parasitoids, which regulate important insect pests. The natural enemies are also unable to survive in monocrop landscapes with the absence of shelter or food sources. Diversified vegetation, especially with flowering plants, can enhance natural enemy abundance and diversity, thus strengthening biological control, enabling farmers to reduce insecticides. In this study, we conserved bund vegetation and manipulated the existing rice landscapes with flowering plants to provide food and shelter for the biological control agents. Our study revealed significant positive relationships between predator densities and bund plant diversity. The abundance of predators significantly increased in the eco-engineered plots, especially at the flowering peaks compared to the insecticide-treated and control plots, while parasitoids were more diverse in both the eco-engineered and control plots. There were no significant differences in planthopper and leafhopper densities among the treatments during the rice early and maximum tillering stages, suggesting effective natural control of these herbivore pests in the eco-engineered plots at the early rice-growing season. However, at the heading stage relatively higher planthopper and leafhopper populations in the control and eco-engineered plots than in the insecticide-sprayed plots were recorded, suggesting perhaps the need for insecticide interventions if exceeding the threshold at this time. Our study indicates that manipulating the habitats surrounding the rice fields to enhance natural enemies is a sustainable practice in rice production as it can enhance the natural suppression of pests and thus reducing the need for insecticide. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Environmental entomology. Volume 50:Issue 4(2021)
- Journal:
- Environmental entomology
- Issue:
- Volume 50:Issue 4(2021)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 50, Issue 4 (2021)
- Year:
- 2021
- Volume:
- 50
- Issue:
- 4
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2021-0050-0004-0000
- Page Start:
- 842
- Page End:
- 851
- Publication Date:
- 2021-04-14
- Subjects:
- flowering plant -- predator -- parasitoid -- natural control -- insecticides
Beneficial insects -- Periodicals
Beneficial insects -- United States -- Periodicals
Insect pests -- Control -- Periodicals
Entomology -- Periodicals
632.7 - Journal URLs:
- http://ee.oxfordjournals.org/content/ ↗
http://www.oxfordjournals.org ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1093/ee/nvab027 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0046-225X
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 3791.464000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library STI - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 19677.xml