scholarly journals Effects of cover crops on beetle assemblages in tea plantations

2021 ◽  
pp. 105783
Author(s):  
Li-Lin Chen ◽  
Gabor Pozsgai ◽  
Xiang-Yu Li ◽  
Lei Li ◽  
Gadi V.P. Reddy ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Lin Chen ◽  
Gabor Pozsgai ◽  
Xiang-Yu Li ◽  
Lei Li ◽  
Gadi V.P. Reddy ◽  
...  

AbstractBeetles are visible members of food webs in tea plantations, with high species richness and abundance. Many tea pests, as well as natural enemies, are members of this order, so a knowledge of how groundcovers affect beetles can aid pest management. We collected beetles in a replicated field experiment in the Wuyi Mountains, Fujian Province China. Tea was intercropped with Paspalum notatum or Chamaecrista rotundifolia, or rows were cleared to bare ground, or in the control they were left unmanaged to allow weeds to grow naturally. Sampling, done by sweep netting and vegetation beating, was conducted monthly, between May 2006 and April 2008, and Coleoptera abundance, biomass, species richness and assemblage structures were compared between groundcover treatments. Total beetle abundance and species richness were significantly higher in tea intercropped with C. rotundifolia and bare ground than in naturally grown weedy control. Whilst there was no difference between predator assemblages among treatments for any measure, herbivores were more abundant, weighed more, and were more diverse in C. rotundifolia treatments than in weedy control. Biomass and species richness were also greater in plots with P. notatum groundcover than those in weedy control. We found that beetle assemblages varied both seasonally and with ground cover treatment, but the potential pest control impact of more species-rich beetle assemblages was mixed, and further work is needed to gain information on trophic groups with potential benefits for use in non-insecticidal pest management.


2019 ◽  
Vol 112 (4) ◽  
pp. 348-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Lin Chen ◽  
Pei Yuan ◽  
Min-Sheng You ◽  
Gabor Pozsgai ◽  
Xu Ma ◽  
...  

Abstract Tea is an economically important crop, consumed by billions of people. Despite the increasing market for pesticide-free products, the use of pesticide in tea is still high. In order to investigate whether intercropping promotes biological control organisms, Chamaecrista rotundifolia (Pers.) Greene, Indigofera hendecaphylla Jacq., Trifolium repens L., and Vigna sinensis (L.) were separately intercropped with free weeding as control in a tea plantation at Yangli, China. Arthropods were collected by taking sweep-net samples, and treatment effects on assemblages were investigated. The combined species richness of all arthropods and that of parasitoids was significantly increased in intercropped treatments while the species richness of herbivores and predators was only greater in C. rotundifolia and I. hendecaphylla intercropped treatments. Compared with control, the combined abundance of all arthropods, and that of herbivores was lower, while the abundance of parasitoids and its taxa was greater in all intercropped treatments. The abundance of predators and its taxa was greater only in tea plantations intercropped with C. rotundifolia or I. hendecaphylla. Of the herbivores, the abundance of Empoasca onukii Matsuda, Sternorrhyncha, Aleyrodidae, and Pentatomidae was greater in the areas intercropped with C. rotundifolia in comparison with the control, but the abundance of Thysanoptera and Geometridae caterpillars was lower. The recorded increase in the abundance of beneficial arthropods may explain the lower abundance of Thysanoptera or Geometridae caterpillars detected in the intercropped tea plantations. Our results indicate that intercropping has the potential to enhance arthropod biodiversity, and to provide an option for sustainable pest control in tea plantations.


2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 326-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Lin Chen ◽  
Min-Sheng You ◽  
Shao-Bo Chen

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Lilin ◽  
Lin Sheng ◽  
You Minsheng ◽  
Chen Shaobo ◽  
Vasseur Liette ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-92
Author(s):  
Rob Edwards

Herbicide resistance in problem weeds is now a major threat to global food production, being particularly widespread in wild grasses affecting cereal crops. In the UK, black-grass (Alopecurus myosuroides) holds the title of number one agronomic problem in winter wheat, with the loss of production associated with herbicide resistance now estimated to cost the farming sector at least £0.5 billion p.a. Black-grass presents us with many of the characteristic traits of a problem weed; being highly competitive, genetically diverse and obligately out-crossing, with a growth habit that matches winter wheat. With the UK’s limited arable crop rotations and the reliance on the repeated use of a very limited range of selective herbicides we have been continuously performing a classic Darwinian selection for resistance traits in weeds that possess great genetic diversity and plasticity in their growth habits. The result has been inevitable; the steady rise of herbicide resistance across the UK, which now affects over 2.1 million hectares of some of our best arable land. Once the resistance genie is out of the bottle, it has proven difficult to prevent its establishment and spread. With the selective herbicide option being no longer effective, the options are to revert to cultural control; changing rotations and cover crops, manual rogueing of weeds, deep ploughing and chemical mulching with total herbicides such as glyphosate. While new precision weeding technologies are being developed, their cost and scalability in arable farming remains unproven. As an agricultural scientist who has spent a working lifetime researching selective weed control, we seem to be giving up on a technology that has been a foundation stone of the green revolution. For me it begs the question, are we really unable to use modern chemical and biological technology to counter resistance? I would argue the answer to that question is most patently no; solutions are around the corner if we choose to develop them.


1984 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. W. Bowling ◽  
W. P. Rutledge ◽  
J. G. Geiger
Keyword(s):  

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruslan A. Gopar ◽  
S. Martono ◽  
Muhamad N. Rofiq ◽  
Windu N.

The objective of this experiment was to obtain forage/ cover crops productivity and carrying capacity for ruminant animals in Pelalawan Regency, Riau in the dry season. Data were collected from civil palm oil plantations at the aged 7, 10 and 14 years in the end of dry season with a destructive sampling method. Sampling used line intercept method which every hectare were picked 10 points by using a pair of 1 m2 sized quadrant. The result showed that the number of vegetations/ cover crops in oil palm plantations aged 7, 10 and 14 years was 42 types.The proportion of forage which consist grass, legume and ferns was diverse at each age of oil palm plantations. Forage production under oil palm plantations aged 7, 10 and 14 years were 2,571 kg/ha, 1479.76 kg/ha and 1417.22 kg/ha as fed and amounted to 811.41 kg/ ha, 471, 15 kg/ ha and 456.91 kg/ ha in the dry matter production. Average carrying capacities of oil palm plantations aged 7, 10 and 14 years was 0.36 Animal units (AU)/ha/year, 0.21 AU/ha/year and 0.20 AU/ ha/year.Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui potensi jumlah covercrop dan kapasitas tampungnya di kebun sawit sebagai sumber pakan hijauan ruminansia pada musim kemarau di kabupaten Pelalawan, Riau. Pengambilan data dilakukan di perkebunan kelapa sawit yang berumur 7, 10 dan 14 tahun milik rakyat pada akhir musim kemarau. Pengambilan sampel dengan destructive sampling method menggunakan metode garis berpetak memakai kuadran berukuran 1m2 dengan jumlah sampel tiap area sebanyak 10 titik. Berdasar hasil pengukuran diperoleh hasil jumlah vegetasi/ covercrop yang ada di kebun sawit berumur 7, 10 dan 14 tahun sebanyak 42 jenis yang bervariasi tiap umur tanaman sawit. Proporsi hijauan yang ada meliputi jenis rumput, legume dan paku-pakuan bervariasi pada tiap umur kebun sawit. Produksi hijauan yang ada di bawah kebun sawit berumur 7, 10 dan 14 tahun berturut-turut 2.571 kg/ha, 1.479,76 kg/ha dan 1.417,22 kg/ha dalam bentuk segar serta sebesar 811,41 kg/ha, 471,15 kg/ha dan 456,91 kg/ha dalam bahan kering. Kapasitas tampung dari kebun sawit berumur 7, 10 dan 14 tahun adalah 0,36 satuan ternak (ST)/ha, 0,21 ST/ha dan 0,20 ST/ha.Keywords: cover crops, oil palm plantation, forage, ruminant, dry season, Pelalawan


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