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•Tree species, specifically oak and almond trees, in SNHs has a positive effect on Chrysopidae adults and larvae population in organic olive orchards.•Oak trees had the highest ...species richness and diversity in Chrysopidae adults as compared to the other tree species studied.•The dominant species C. mutata, C. pallida, P. (prasinus) pp3, A. benedictae and P. (prasinus) pp2 were responsible for temporal changes among tree species with respect to the Chrysopidae community.•The larger number of adult Chrysopidae from tree species in SNHs translated into a larger number of larvae in olive trees. This coincided in time with the anthophagous and carpophagous generations of the olive moth, Prays oleae, thus highlighting the potential role of tree species in SNHs in improving P. oleae control.•The number of larvae in olive trees showed a positive correlation with the percentage of predated eggs in the anthophagous and carpophagous generations of Prays oleae.
Habitat management is a conservation biological control technique which helps to reduce the use of inputs in olive orchards and also to improve sustainability. Recent studies of olive orchards have pointed out that vegetation cover, which provides food resources, as well as reproduction and refuge sites, increases Chrysopidae populations and diversity. However, little is known about the effect of woody semi-natural habitats (SNHs) in olive orchards. In this context, our study aims to determine the attraction of adult Chrysopidae to different tree species in SNHs adjacent to olive orchards in order to promote the conservation biological control of this key predator. We vacuumed 75 almond, oak, olive and pine trees fortnightly between April and October of 2016. The trees were chosen at random and evenly distributed among five organic olive orchards selected according to their availability. Oak trees recorded the highest abundance, species richness and diversity levels of adult Chrysopidae, while olive trees had the highest abundance of Chrysopidae larvae. A total of 20 green lacewing species, belonging to seven different genera, were collected, of which Chrysoperla mutata (McLachlan, 1898), Chrysoperla pallida Henry et al., 2002 and Pseudomallada (prasinus) pp3 (Duelli and Henry, 2020) were the most abundant during the period of the study and had a preference for olive trees (C. mutata and C. pallida) and oak trees P. (prasinus) pp3. Furthermore, the number of Chrysopidae larvae collected showed a positive correlation with the percentage of predated eggs in the anthophagous and carpophagous generations of Prays oleae.
Analysing plant phenotypic plasticity in response to wind is complicated as this factor entails not only mechanical stress but also affects leaf gas and heat exchange. We exposed Plantago major ...plants to brushing (mechanical stress, MS) and wind (MS and air flow) and determined the effects on physiological, morphological and mechanical characteristics of leaf petioles and laminas as well as on growth and biomass allocation at the whole-plant level. Both MS and wind similarly reduced growth but their effects on morphological and mechanical plant traits were different. MS induced the formation of leaves with more slender petioles, and more elliptic and thinner laminas, while wind tended to evoke the opposite response. These morphological and mechanical changes increased lamina and petiole flexibility in MS plants, thus reducing mechanical stress by reconfiguration of plant structure. Responses to wind, on the other hand, seemed to be more associated with reducing transpiration. These results show that responses to mechanical stress and wind can be different and even in the opposite direction. Plant responses to wind in the field can therefore be variable depending on overall environmental conditions and plant characteristics.
In this study, we assess how chrysopids (generalist predators widely used as biological control agents) use olive, almond, oak, and pine trees for oviposition. We sampled clutches of chrysopids from ...tree canopies in August 2016 and 2017. Additionally, we checked the stage (alive, predated, emerged, or parasitized) and the site (upper side, edge, or underside of leaves) and mode (single and cluster clutches) for oviposition in every clutch. The clutches collected alive in August 2016 were raised in the laboratory and identified to species level. No differences in clutch abundance were observed amongst tree species, years and locations, suggesting that chrysopids are geographically well spread and that all of the tree species are equally suitable to support clutches of active chrysopids in this period. Additionally, chrysopids preferred to lay their clutches on the edge and upper side of the leaves and the single clutches were the most frequent. We collected clutches of 9 chrysopid species (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) belonging to four genera, from which Pseudomallada prasinus (Burmeister, 1839), Cunctochrysa baetica (Hölzel, 1972), and Chrysoperla mutata (McLachlan, 1898) were the most abundant.The almond trees shelter the highest chrysopid species richness. We found C. mutata as the only Chrysoperla Steinmann, 1964 species laying on the olive trees and Chrysoperla lucasina (Lacroix, 1912) and Chrysoperla pallida Henry et al., 2002 on the almond trees. Although every tree species is able to shelter a similar abundance of eggs of chrysopids, conserving different trees ensures the existence of a diverse assemblage of chrysopids that might respond to periodical perturbations and moves to olive groves in the case of a pest outbreak.
Green lacewings (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) are key biological control agents found in a broad range of crops. Given the importance of enhancing their presence and conservation, in this study, we aim ...to identify and to determine the relative importance of the pollen consumed by Chrysoperla lucasina (Lacroix, 1936) from 29 pollen types offered by 51 native plant species sown in an experimental farm in Villarrubia in the south of Spain. For the purposes of this study, C. lucasina specimens were captured in the late spring of 2016 and 2017. The pollen types and other components in the alimentary canal of C. lucasina were microscopically identified using the transparency method, which is a novel technique applied to green lacewings captured in the field. The results show that (i) C. lucasina feeds on over half of the pollen types offered by the sown plant species, with no differences in behaviour by sex or year; (ii) Capsella bursa-pastoris was the most frequently identified pollen type in the alimentary canal; (iii) the majority of pollen types identified correspond to sown native plant species and not to surrounding plant species; and that (iv) most of the adults studied also consumed honeydew. Our feeding study has important implications for the selection of plant mixtures for ground cover restoration and flower vegetation strips in Mediterranean agroecosystems, which complements our previous findings on how C. lucasina use native plant species as host and reproduction sites. The plant species Capsella bursa-pastoris and Biscutella auriculata, which are best suited to provide pollen, host and reproduction sites for C. lucasina in late spring, should consequently be included in the proposed plant mixtures for Mediterranean agroecosystems.
Habitat management improves biological control by increasing the abundance and fitness of natural enemies through the provision of floral resources along field edges or between crops. Among the ...natural enemies reliant on flower resources, green lacewings often stand out due to their abundance, predation capacity and polyphagy. We evaluated the impact of tailored flower strips on the enhancement of natural enemies, especially green lacewings, in three organic cabbage (
Brassica oleracea
) farms in Southern Sweden. Insects were sampled from the flower strips, and cabbage pests and predators were visually recorded in the crop. In a laboratory assay, the pollen feeding preferences of
Chrysoperla carnea
(Stephens, 1836) were evaluated in a dual-choice test. The pollen consumed by the Chrysopidae was extracted from laboratory and field specimens, then quantified and identified. Flower strips were found to attract predators and parasitoids, whose abundance increased as flowers bloomed. Cabbage plants next to the flower strips showed lower pest infestation as compared to cabbage plant control, although no significant differences were observed in the number of predators. Chrysopidae used flower strips as feeding, reproduction and shelter sites and mainly consumed pollen from
Phacelia tanacetifolia
Benth. Under laboratory conditions,
C. carnea
showed a preference for
P. tanacetifolia
and
Coriandrum sativum
L. pollen over
Borago officinalis
L. and
Fagopyrum esculentum
Moench. We show that tailored flower strips could be an efficient tool for enhancing beneficial arthropods and should be considered in integrated pest management for cabbage crops.
We explored the activation of defense genes and the changes in volatile profiles in olive (
Olea europaea
var. Picual) plants subjected to mechanical wounding and prior soil inoculation with the ...fungus
Trichoderma afroharzianum
T22. Our findings indicate a sustained effect of the inoculant in olive plants, which shifted the constitutive volatile emission more significantly towards an aldehyde-dominated blend than the mechanical damage alone. Furthermore, we found that wounding alone did not alter the expression of hydroperoxide lyase genes associated with aldehyde biosynthesis. However, this expression was significantly enhanced when combined with prior T22 inoculation. Mechanical wounding amplified the plant’s immediate defensive response by enhancing the upregulation of the direct defense enzyme acetone cyanohydrin lyase.
Trichoderma afroharzianum
T22 also modulated direct defense, although to a lesser extent, and its effect persisted 9 months after inoculation. Metagenomic analyses revealed that aerial mechanical damage did influence specific root bacterial functions. Specifically, an upregulation of predicted bacterial functions related to various metabolic processes, including responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, was observed. On the contrary, T22’s impact on bacterial functional traits was minor and/or transient.
This article is the result of the historical and documentary review of an investigation which, from a qualitative approach, intended to find the base that built the identity of Colombian people and ...their behavior towards work and the institutions. It discusses the consequences of the XV Century Spanish conquest model, the deficit of institutionalization and the initial concept of work in the creation of institutions as an essential condition for social cohesion. All of which might still affect the understanding of illegality as a favorable environment for the emergence of multiple informal or marginal trades in some social spheres. These contexts end up consolidating themselves as the basis of an illegal 'industry' permanently reinventing itself, giving rise to the development of certain skills, including
Iberian-indigenous
malice, necessary for survival in the Colonial period, that later could have had an impact on the emergence of illegal behavior.
Sustainable land use in agricultural landscapes is essential to counteract the global decline of biodiversity, as well to ensure ecosystem services like natural pest control. Phytoseiid mites are key ...natural enemies of pest mites in vineyards but how local management and landscape context affect phytoseiid mites remains poorly known. In this study, we examined the effects of farming systems, inter-row management and landscape composition on phytoseiid mite communities in 156 vineyards across five European wine-growing regions. Our results showed that phytoseiid communities were mainly dominated by one or two phytoseiid species across Europe and that local management was a major factor affecting population densities. According to the wine-growing regions, phytoseiid mite densities benefited from integrated pest management or conventional farming compared to organic farming and from spontaneous vegetation cover compared to seeded cover crops. Moreover, mite densities benefited from increasing proportions of vineyards at the landscape scale. The farming systems effects were most likely related to the positive impact of the lower pesticide use in integrated and conventional vineyards. The positive effect of spontaneous vegetation cover could be related to a better supply of nutritive pollen as food resource compared to seeded cover crops, which depends on the plant species in the inter-row. Our findings indicated accordingly that a reduced pesticide use, and inter-row management are crucial factors for promoting pest control by predatory mites in European vineyards. Moreover, the proportion of viticultural area in the landscape is a considerable factor to retain stable phytoseiid mite populations.
•Local management influenced predatory mite populations across European vineyards.•Farming systems with less pesticide use favoured phytoseiid mites in vineyards.•Spontaneous vegetation in the inter-row increased predatory mite populations.•Phytoseiid mites benefitted from a higher proportion of vineyards in the landscape.
Polymer nanocomposites (nanoparticles dispersed in a polymer matrix) have been the subject of intense research for almost two decades in both academic and industrial settings. This interest has been ...fueled by the ability of nanocomposites to not only improve the performance of polymers, but also by their ability to introduce new properties. Yet, there are still challenges that polymer nanocomposites must overcome to reach their full potential. In this Research News article we discuss a new class of hybrids termed nanoparticle ionic materials (NIMS). NIMS are organic–inorganic hybrid materials comprising a nanoparticle core functionalized with a covalently tethered ionic corona. They are facilely engineered to display flow properties that span the range from glassy solids to free flowing liquids. These new systems have unique properties that can overcome some of the challenges facing nanocomosite materials.
Nanoscale ionic materials (NIMS) are organic‐inorganic hybrid particles comprising a charged oligomer corona tethered to hard inorganic nanoparticles. The figure shows that through an appropriate choice of nanoparticle core concentration, we are able to produce systems that span the spectrum from glassy solids to simple, solvent‐free, nanoparticle ionic fluids.
Somatic mutations in driver genes may ultimately lead to the development of cancer. Understanding how somatic mutations accumulate in cancer genomes and the underlying factors that generate somatic ...mutations is therefore crucial for developing novel therapeutic strategies. To understand the interplay between spatial genome organization and specific mutational processes, we studied 3,000 tumor-normal-pair whole-genome datasets from 42 different human cancer types. Our analyses reveal that the change in somatic mutational load in cancer genomes is co-localized with topologically-associating-domain boundaries. Domain boundaries constitute a better proxy to track mutational load change than replication timing measurements. We show that different mutational processes lead to distinct somatic mutation distributions where certain processes generate mutations in active domains, and others generate mutations in inactive domains. Overall, the interplay between three-dimensional genome organization and active mutational processes has a substantial influence on the large-scale mutation-rate variations observed in human cancers.
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