The heavy use of synthetic pesticides in agriculture has been responsible for detrimental effects on human and environmental health, making it necessary to develop more sustainable pest management ...strategies. A promising approach consists in the integration within cropping systems of agricultural techniques producing bottom-up effects or supporting top-down regulation of crop pests. However, there is still a lack of information on the extent to which this approach is currently being developed. In this paper, we review the last 10 years of published literature on the use in annual cash crops of three agricultural techniques: (i) crop spatial diversification, (ii) crop temporal diversification, and (iii) soil management influencing crop pests either through bottom-up effects or by supporting the top-down regulation of four categories of bioprotection agents: (i) macro- and (ii) micro-organisms, (iii) semiochemicals, and (iv) natural substances. We found that each agricultural technique is adopted to support a specific bioprotection category and to control a specific pest taxon. Crop spatial diversification was generally found to target herbivorous insects and to support macro-organism bioprotection agents. Crop temporal diversification and soil management mainly targeted pathogenic fungi and supported microorganism bioprotection agents. Despite the widespread idea that semiochemicals and natural substances are promising agents for pest regulation, their adoption remains largely unexplored. We also found that agricultural techniques are mostly adopted to support bioprotection in a conservation biological control approach while ignoring augmented bioprotection. In addition, the top-down regulation by means of bioprotection supported by agricultural techniques is just as effective against crop pests as the bottom-up effect produced by the agricultural techniques alone. We argue that a concerted effort to integrate bioprotection with agricultural techniques would open new research opportunities to reduce synthetic pesticide inputs fostering the transition from a conventional agriculture towards sustainable agroecosystems.
Above- and below-ground herbivory are key ecosystem processes that can be substantially altered by environmental changes. However, direct comparisons of the coupled variations of above- and ...below-ground herbivore communities along elevation gradients remain sparse. Here, we studied the variation in assemblages of two dominant groups of herbivores, namely, above-ground orthoptera and belowground nematodes, in grasslands along six elevation gradients in the Swiss Alps. By examining variations of community properties of herbivores and their food plants along montane clines, we sought to determine whether the structure and functional properties of these taxonomic groups change with elevation. We found that orthoptera decreased in both species richness and abundance with elevation. In contrast with aboveground herbivores, the taxonomic richness and the total abundance of nematode did not covary with elevation. We further found a stronger shift in above- than below-ground functional properties along elevation, where the mandibular strength of orthoptera matched a shift in leaf toughness. Nematodes showed a weaker pattern of declined sedentary behavior and increased mobility with elevation. In contrast to the direct exposal of aboveground organisms to the surface climate, conditions may be buffered belowground, which together with the influence of edaphic factors on the biodiversity of soil biota, may explain the differences between elevational patterns of above- and below-ground communities. Our study emphasizes the necessity to consider both the above- and below-ground compartments to understand the impact of current and future climatic variation on ecosystems, from a functional perspective of species interactions.
Plant metabolism is a key feature of biodiversity that remains underexploited in functional frameworks used in agroecology. Here, we study how phytochemical diversity considered at three ...organizational levels can promote pest control. In a factorial field experiment, we manipulated plant diversity in three monocultures and three mixed crops of oilseed rape to explore how intra- and interspecific phytochemical diversity affects pest infestation. We combined recent progress in metabolomics with classic metrics used in ecology to test a box of hypotheses grounded in plant defence theory. According to the hypothesis of ‘phytochemically mediated coevolution’, our study stresses the relationships between herbivore infestation and particular classes of specialized metabolites like glucosinolates. Among 178 significant relationships between metabolites and herbivory rates, only 20% were negative. At the plant level, phytochemical abundance and richness had poor predictive power on pest regulation. This challenges the hypothesis of ‘synergistic effects ’ . At the crop cover level, in line with the hypothesis of ‘associational resistance’, the phytochemical dissimilarity between neighbouring plants limited pest infestation. We discuss the intricate links between associational resistance and bottom-up pest control. Bridging different levels of organization in agroecosystems helps to dissect the multi-scale relationships between phytochemistry and insect herbivory.
Nematodes are key components of soil biodiversity and represent valuable bio-indicators of soil food webs. Numerous community indices have been developed in order to track variations in soil ...ecosystem processes, but their use is mainly restricted to anthropogenic stresses. In this study, we propose to expand the use of nematodes’ derived ecological indices in order to shed light on variations of soil food webs in natural systems distributed along elevation gradients. For this purpose, we aimed at determining how elevation affects the community structure and the trophic diversity by studying the abundance, the composition and the functional diversity of nematode communities. Nematode communities were sampled every 200 m across five transects that span about 2000 m in elevation in the Alps. To understand the underlying ecological parameters driving these patterns we studied both abiotic factors (soil properties) and biotic factors (trophic links, relationships with plant diversity). We found that (1) nematode abundance increases with elevation of lowland forests and alpine meadows; (2) differences in nematodes communities rely on habitat-specific functional diversity (e.g. tolerance to harsh environments, colonizer/persister status) while most trophic groups are ubiquitous; and (3) the metabolic footprint of the complete nematode community increases with elevation. We thus conclude that the contribution of soil dwelling nematodes to belowground ecosystem processes, including carbon and energy flow, is stronger at high elevation. The resulting cascading effects on the soil food web structure are discussed from an ecosystem functioning perspective. Overall, this study highlights the importance of nematodes in soil ecosystems and brings insights in their enhanced role along ecological gradients.
One major goal in plant evolutionary ecology is to address how and why tritrophic interactions mediated by phytochemical plant defences vary across species, space, and time. In this study, we tested ...three classical hypotheses about plant defences: (i) the resource-availability hypothesis, (ii) the altitudinal/elevational gradient hypothesis and (iii) the defence escalation hypothesis. For this purpose, predatory soil nematodes were challenged to hunt for root herbivores based on volatile cues from damaged or intact roots of 18 Alpine Festuca grass species adapted to distinct climatic niches spanning 2000 meters of elevation. We found that adaptation into harsh, nutrient-limited alpine environments coincided with the production of specific blends of volatiles, highly attractive for nematodes. We also found that recently-diverged taxa exposed to herbivores released higher amounts of volatiles than ancestrally-diverged species. Therefore, our model provides evidence that belowground indirect plant defences associated with tritrophic interactions have evolved under two classical hypotheses in plant ecology. While phylogenetic drivers of volatile emissions point to the defence-escalation hypothesis, plant local adaptation of indirect defences is in line with the resource availability hypothesis.
Sustainable agriculture is certainly one of the most important challenges at present, considering both human population demography and evidence showing that crop productivity based on chemical ...control is plateauing. While the environmental and health threats of conventional agriculture are increasing, ecological research is offering promising solutions for crop protection against herbivore pests. While most research has focused on aboveground systems, several major crop pests are uniquely feeding on roots. We here aim at documenting the current and potential use of several biological control agents, including micro-organisms (viruses, bacteria, fungi, and nematodes) and invertebrates included among the macrofauna of soils (arthropods and annelids) that are used against root herbivores. In addition, we discuss the synergistic action of different bio-control agents when co-inoculated in soil and how the induction and priming of plant chemical defense could be synergized with the use of the bio-control agents described above to optimize root pest control. Finally, we highlight the gaps in the research for optimizing a more sustainable management of root pests.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Long‐standing theory predicts herbivores and predators should drive selection for increased plant defences, such as the specific production of volatile organic compounds for attracting predators near ...the site of damage. Along elevation gradients, a general pattern is that herbivores and predators are abundant at low elevation and progressively diminish at higher elevations. To determine whether plant adaptation along such a gradient influences top‐down control of herbivores, we manipulated soil predatory nematodes, root herbivore pressure and plant ecotypes in a reciprocal transplant experiment. Plant survival was significantly higher for low‐elevation plants, but only when in the presence of predatory nematodes. Using olfactometer bioassays, we showed correlated differential nematode attraction and plant ecotype‐specific variation in volatile production. This study not only provides an assessment of how elevation gradients modulate the strength of trophic cascades, but also demonstrates how habitat specialisation drives variation in the expression of indirect plant defences.
Herbivory and plant defenses exhibit a coupled decline along elevation gradients. However, the current ecological equilibrium could be disrupted under climate change, with a faster upward range shift ...of animals than plants. Here, we experimentally simulated this upward herbivore range shift by translocating low-elevation herbivore insects to alpine grasslands. We report that the introduction of novel herbivores and increased herbivory disrupted the vertical functional organization of the plant canopy. By feeding preferentially on alpine plants with functional traits matching their low-elevation host plants, herbivores reduced the biomass of dominant alpine plant species and favored encroachment of herbivore-resistant small-stature plant species, inflating species richness. Supplementing a direct effect of temperature, novel biotic interactions represent a neglected but major driver of ecosystem modifications under climate change.
Biological control using Trichogramma pretiosum Riley (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae), an egg parasitoid wasp, was tested in Uruguay to reduce populations of lepidopteran pests on soybeans. It was ...observed that the commercial parasitoid dispensers, which were made of cardboard, were vulnerable to small predators that succeeded in entering and emptying the containers of all the eggs parasitized by T. pretiosum. Observations in a soybean crop showed that the only small, common predators present were two ant species. The species responsible for the above mentioned predation was determined from the results of a laboratory experiment in which the behavior of the two common ants was tested. A modification of the dispensers to prevent introduction of this ant has been proposed and successfully tested in the laboratory and in the field.
Predicting variation in plant functional traits related to anti-herbivore defences remains a major challenge in ecological research, considering that multiple traits have evolved in response to both ...abiotic and biotic conditions. Therefore, understanding variation in plant anti-herbivore defence traits requires studying their expression along steep environmental gradients, such as along elevation, where multiple biotic and abiotic factors co-vary. We expand on plant defence theory and propose a novel conceptual framework to address the sources of variations of plant resistance traits at the community level. We analysed elevation patterns of within-community trait dissimilarity using the RaoQ index, and the community-weighted-mean (CWM) index, on several plant functional traits: plant height, specific leaf area (SLA), leaf-dry-matter-content (LDMC), silicium content, presence of trichomes, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (CN) and total secondary metabolite richness. We found that at high elevation, where harsh environmental conditions persist, community functional convergence is dictated by traits relating to plant growth (plant height and SLA), while divergence arises for traits relating resource-use (LDMC). At low elevation, where greater biotic pressure occurs, we found a combination of random (plant height), convergence (metabolite richness) and divergence patterns (silicium content). This framework thus combines community assembly rules of ecological filtering and niche partition with plant defence hypotheses to unravel the relationship between environmental variations, biotic pressure and the average phenotype of plants within a community.
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