Zytynska Sharon E, Eicher Moritz, Fahle Robin, Weisser Wolfgang W
Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behaviour Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences University of Liverpool Liverpool UK.
Terrestrial Ecology Research Group Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan Technical University of Munich Freising Germany.
Ecol Evol. 2021 Dec 6;11(24):18434-18445. doi: 10.1002/ece3.8432. eCollection 2021 Dec.
Floral plantings are often used in agriculture to attract pollinator communities, but they also play an important role in recruiting and establishing natural communities for natural pest control. Inconsistent effects of floral plantings for pest control may be a result of an absence of mechanistic insights and a reliance on the idea that simply increasing flower diversity will benefit these services. A more tailored set of flower species may be needed to benefit the natural enemies through provision of nectar and alternative prey. We used an outside pot experiment to investigate the effect of three flower plants (, , ) on reducing aphid pests on four different plant cultivars of barley (), over two years. We grew the four cultivars of barley alone, next to a single flower or next to a mixture of flowers, and observed aphid and natural enemy colonization across the growing season. Aphid population sizes were reduced on all barley cultivars grown next to a flower with stronger pest suppression when all flowers were present. Each flower species recruited a different community of non-barley aphids that, in turn, varied in their ability to establish the natural enemy populations and subsequently the ability to reduce barley aphid populations. Overall, increased pest suppression in the mixed treatments was a result of numerous weaker interactions between different flower, aphid, and natural enemy species, rather than a few dominant interactions. Natural enemy communities could be enhanced by incorporating flower species that vary in their ability to attract and host alternative prey (i.e., non-pest aphids) as well as suitable nectar provisioning. We can use our knowledge of ecological interactions to tailor floral plantings to increase the effectiveness of pest control services.
花卉种植在农业中常被用于吸引传粉者群落，但它们在招募和建立用于自然虫害控制的自然群落方面也发挥着重要作用。花卉种植对虫害控制的效果不一致，可能是由于缺乏机理认识，以及依赖于简单增加花卉多样性就会有益于这些服务的观点。可能需要一套更具针对性的花卉物种，通过提供花蜜和替代猎物来使天敌受益。我们进行了一项室外盆栽实验，在两年时间里研究了三种花卉植物（，，）对减少四种不同大麦品种（）上蚜虫害虫的影响。我们单独种植这四种大麦品种，或者在单一花卉旁边或花卉混合物旁边种植，并在整个生长季节观察蚜虫和天敌的定殖情况。当所有花卉都存在时，与有更强害虫抑制作用的花卉相邻种植的所有大麦品种上的蚜虫种群数量都减少了。每种花卉物种招募了不同的非大麦蚜虫群落，这些群落反过来在建立天敌种群的能力以及随后减少大麦蚜虫种群的能力方面各不相同。总体而言，混合处理中害虫抑制作用的增强是不同花卉、蚜虫和天敌物种之间众多较弱相互作用的结果，而不是少数主导相互作用的结果。通过纳入在吸引和容纳替代猎物（即非害虫蚜虫）能力以及提供合适花蜜方面有所不同的花卉物种，可以增强天敌群落。我们可以利用我们对生态相互作用的了解来定制花卉种植，以提高虫害控制服务的有效性。
