Plant-Rich Field Margins Influence Natural Predators of Aphids More Than Intercropping in Common Bean.
Name
insects-13-00569.pdf
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2.21 MB
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Resource type
Journal article
Date published
June 23, 2022
Abstract
Field margins support important ecosystem services including natural pest regulation. We investigated the influence of field margins on the spatial and temporal distribution of natural enemies (NEs) of bean pests in smallholder farming systems. We sampled NEs from high and low plant diversity bean fields using sweep netting and coloured sticky traps, comparing monocropped and intercropped farms. NEs collected from within crops included predatory bugs, lacewings, predatory flies, parasitic flies, parasitic wasps, lady beetles, and a range of other predatory beetles; with the most dominant group being parasitic wasps. Overall, high plant diversity fields had a higher number of NEs than low-diversity fields, regardless of sampling methods. The field margin had a significantly higher number of lacewings, parasitic wasps, predatory bugs, syrphid flies, and other predatory beetles relative to the crop, but beneficial insects were collected throughout the fields. However, we observed marginally higher populations of NEs in intercropping than in monocropping although the effect was not significant in both low and high plant diversity fields. We recommend smallholder farmers protect the field margins for the added benefit of natural pest regulation in their fields.
Project(s)
Natural Pest Regulation in Orphan Crop Legumes in Africa (NaPROCLA).
Priority 2: Trait Diversity and Function
Funder
| Funder name | Awards |
Global Challenges Research Fund, United Kingdom | Natural Pest Regulation in Orphan Crop Legumes in Africa (NaPROCLA), grant number BB/R020361/1. |
McKnight Foundation, United States | Grant number 20-034. |
World Bank Group, United States | |
Journal title
Insects
Volume
13
Issue
7
Article number
569
Publisher
MDPI AG
Place of publication
Basel, Switzerland
eISSN
2075-4450
Date accepted
June 17, 2022
Official URL
Related URL
Rights statement
In Copyright
Additional information
IF = 2.662 (2021-2022) ; (This article belongs to the Special Issue Insects and Ecosystem Service Provision)
Collection
Philip Stevenson