scholarly journals Insectivorous birds are not effective pest control agents in olive groves

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Martínez-Núñez ◽  
Pedro J. Rey ◽  
Antonio J. Manzaneda ◽  
Daniel García ◽  
Rubén Tarifa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pest Control ◽  
Insectivorous Birds ◽  
Olive Groves

scholarly journals Landscape drivers and effectiveness of pest control by insectivorous birds in a landscape-dominant woody crop

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Martínez-Núñez ◽  
Pedro J. Rey ◽  
Antonio J. Manzaneda ◽  
Daniel García ◽  
Rubén Tarifa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pest Control ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Landscape Heterogeneity ◽  
List Type ◽  
Insectivorous Birds ◽  
Landscape Complexity ◽  
Pest Damage ◽  
Woody Crop ◽  
Plasticine Models

AbstractAvian-mediated pest control is a significant ecosystem service with important economic implications. However, there is an overall paucity of experimental information about how landscape simplification affect its current level. Information on pest control by birds is missing in some permanent agroecosystems of worldwide importance, like olive orchards, that dominate vast areas in the Mediterranean region.We assess the effectiveness of insectivorous birds for controlling the two main pest insects in olive orchards and explore the effects of landscape complexity and distance to semi-natural patches on avian insectivore abundance and pest control. For this, we combine bird surveys with field experiments (branch exclusions and pest plasticine models) at the regional scale.Landscape heterogeneity increased the abundance and richness of insectivorous birds, which were also more abundant and diverse in semi-natural patches, compared to the farm olive matrix. Experiments evidenced that pest control by birds (measured as attack rates to plasticine models and pest damage) in the studied olive orchards is negligible, while pests were overall abundant and pest damage was high on most farms. This raises alarms about the status of avian pest control in this agroecosystem.Although landscape heterogeneity increased the abundance/richness of insectivorous birds, and favored some forest species, insectivorous bird abundance seems diluted in relation to prey availability in all landscapes. Thus, pest control by birds seems currently unsuccessful in olive orchards. Our results might be evidencing the loss of an ecosystem service due to a generalized massive decline of common and forest insectivorous birds.Key messageOlive orchards dominate extensive areas causing important landscape simplification.Insectivorous birds are more abundant in semi-natural patches within olive farms.Field experiments show a low impact of birds on olive pests and damage.Avian-mediated pest biocontrol seems diluted by limited suitable habitat for birds.Agri-environmental measures should focus on increasing landscape complexity.

scholarly journals Landscape Simplification Increases Bactrocera Oleae Abundance In Olive Groves: Populations Dynamics In Different Land Uses.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Paredes ◽  
João Frederico Alves ◽  
Sara Mendes ◽  
José Miguel Costa ◽  
Joana Alves ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Pest Control ◽  
Landscape Context ◽  
Bactrocera Oleae ◽  
Land Uses ◽  
Olive Fly ◽  
Olive Groves ◽  
Chemical Products ◽  
Seasonal Population ◽  
Seasonal Population Dynamics

Abstract Bactrocera oleae is the main pest in olive groves and its management requires a sustainable perspective to reduce the use of chemical products. Landscape context is being considered as an important driver of pest reduction but results on B. oleae show inconsistency to date. Most of landscape-pest control studies focus on the dynamics of the pests within the focal crop, ignoring these dynamics in other land uses. Here we present a study in which we analyze the seasonal population dynamics of the olive pest B. oleae in the most important land uses of a typical olive landscape in Portugal. We found that B. oleae is present in all the land uses and the dynamics are very similar to those in the olive groves. However, the presence of these land uses in the landscape did not display any increase of B.oleae abundance within the olives groves. In contrast, a landscape mainly composed by olive groves increased the abundance of this pest. Importantly, more diverse landscapes surrounding olive groves reduce the abundance of the olive fly. Based on these findings, we can conclude that B. oleae is present in all the land uses of the studied landscape but that this presence does not imply an increase of B. oleae in olive groves. Indeed, other land uses can promote landscape diversification which is a driver of the reduction of B. oleae populations in olive groves. We thus encourage olive stakeholders to increase landscape diversification around their farms by promoting/restoring other crops/habitats.

scholarly journals Ant community potential for pest control in olive groves: Management and landscape effects

2021 ◽  
Vol 305 ◽  
pp. 107185
Author(s):  
Carlos Martínez-Núñez ◽  
Pedro J. Rey ◽  
Teresa Salido ◽  
Antonio J. Manzaneda ◽  
Francisco M. Camacho ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pest Control ◽  
Ant Community ◽  
Landscape Effects ◽  
Olive Groves

scholarly journals Ant community potential for pest control in olive groves: management and landscape effects

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Martínez-Núñez ◽  
Pedro J. Rey ◽  
Teresa Salido ◽  
Antonio J. Manzaneda ◽  
Francisco M. Camacho ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pest Control ◽  
Landscape Heterogeneity ◽  
Predation Pressure ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Landscape Complexity ◽  
Ant Community ◽  
Landscape Effects ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Olive Groves

AbstractAnts are important pest control agents in many agroecosystems worldwide. However, little is known about how management, ecological contrast generated by different agricultural practices, and landscape complexity affect their communities and the potential pest control that they can provide.Here, we surveyed ant communities in 40 paired olive groves with different ground-herb cover management across 20 localities spanning a wide range of landscape complexity at the regional scale. We also conducted experiments with dummy plasticine models in 18 of these groves to explore the ant potential to control the two main pests of the olive tree (olive moth and olive fly). In addition, we calculated an index, the Ant-community Predation Function (APF), which informs about the predation pressure exerted by ant communities over these pests.Results show that: a) extensive management at intermediate landscape complexity maximizes the abundance and pest control by ants; b) the ecological contrast affects ant abundance and ant richness but does not impact the predation function; c) APF is a good measure of pest control potential at the community level; and, d) Tapinoma nigerrimum is an important ant species for pest control in our system, which seems little affected by local or landscape heterogeneity.This study advances our knowledge about local management and landscape effects on ants and their potential contribution to pest control in olive groves. Extensive herb cover management and landscape heterogeneity increased ant predation pressure in olive groves.

Natural habitat increases natural pest control in olive groves: economic implications

2019 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 1111-1121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Paredes ◽  
Daniel S. Karp ◽  
Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer ◽  
Emilio Benítez ◽  
Mercedes Campos
Keyword(s):  
Pest Control ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Olive Groves ◽  
Natural Pest Control

scholarly journals Pest-removal services provided by birds on subsistence farms in south-eastern Nigeria

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0255638
Author(s):  
Murna Tela ◽  
Will Cresswell ◽  
Hazel Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Pest Control ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Forest Fragments ◽  
Strong Positive Correlation ◽  
Insectivorous Birds ◽  
Forest Fragment ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Bird Abundance ◽  
Potted Plants ◽  
South Eastern

To what extent birds provide the ecosystem service of pest control in subsistence farms, and how this service might depend on retained natural habitats near farmlands is unexplored in West Africa. To fill this knowledge gap, we placed plasticine mimics of insect pests on experimentally grown crops on the Mambilla Plateau, South Eastern Nigeria. We recorded bird attacks on the mimics and the proportion of mimics removed by birds. We also determined the influence of distance of crops from forest fragments on both attack and removal rates. We placed 90 potted plants of groundnut (Arachis hypogea) and bambara nut (Vigna subterranea) along 15 transects running 4.5 km from forest edge into open grassland. Each plant had six of the 540 mimics in total placed on their leaves. We inspected the potted plants weekly for 12 weeks to record (i) the presence of bird beak marks on mimics, and (ii) the number of missing mimics. Once a week we collected all the mimics from the plants and counted the number of assumed beak marks. After counting we replaced the mimics on the plants, mark free. We found a strong positive correlation between the abundance of insectivorous birds and the mean number of missing mimics and/or bird attack marks on mimics. However, this positive effect of insectivorous bird abundance on prey mimic attack/removal became less strong the farther they were from a forest fragment. We found increased predation rates and abundance of insectivorous birds closer to forest fragments. Our data suggest that pest predation may be a key ecosystem service provided by insectivorous birds on Nigerian farmlands. Farmlands that are closer to forest fragments may experience a higher rate of pest control by insectivorous birds than those further away, suggesting that retaining forest fragments in the landscape may enhance pest control services in sub-Saharan subsistence farms.

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