Abstract

Natural enemy diversity generally strengthens biological control, but individual studies have found everything from positive to negative effects. We discuss the factors that promote these different outcomes. We argue that a trait-based approach is helpful to improve our understanding of the relationship between enemy diversity and biological control, and suggest that enemy diversity is likely to be particularly important as an insurance against effects of climate change. Future research should increase the scale and ecological realism of enemy diversity studies, and consider both the strength and stability of biological control. Such research is likely to reveal even stronger evidence that conserving enemy biodiversity will improve biological pest control.

Published in

Current Opinion in Insect Science
2017, Volume: 20, pages: 1-6
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

• Jonsson, Mattias

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
SDG13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts


UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2017.01.001

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/92470