Archetype models upscale understanding of natural pest control response to land-use change
Abstract
Control of crop pests by shifting host plant availability and natural enemy activity at landscape scales has great potential to enhance the sustainability of agriculture. However, mainstreaming natural pest control requires improved understanding of how its benefits can be realized across a variety of agroecological contexts. Empirical studies suggest significant but highly variable responses of natural pest control to land-use change. Current ecological models are either too specific to provide insight across agroecosystems or too generic to guide management with actionable predictions. We suggest obtaining the full benefit of available empirical, theoretical, and methodological knowledge by combining trait-mediated understanding from correlative studies with the explicit representation of causal relationships achieved by mechanistic modeling. To link these frameworks, we adapt the concept of archetypes, or context-specific generalizations, from sustainability science. Similar responses of natural pest control to land-use gradients across cases that share key attributes, such as functional traits of focal organisms, indicate general processes that drive system behavior in a context-sensitive manner. Based on such observations of natural pest control, a systematic definition of archetypes can provide the basis for mechanistic models of intermediate generality that cover all major agroecosystems worldwide. Example applications demonstrate the potential for upscaling understanding and improving predictions of natural pest control, based on knowledge transfer and scientific synthesis. A broader application of this mechanistic archetype approach promises to enhance ecology's contribution to natural resource management across diverse regions and social-ecological contexts.
Details
- Organisation(s)
-
Institute of Geobotany
- External Organisation(s)
-
Lund University
Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland
Stanford University
University of Minnesota
Eurac Research
Cornell University
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
University of California at Davis (UC Davis)
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
Leipzig University
Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ)
- Type
- Article
- Journal
- Ecological applications
- Volume
- 32
- ISSN
- 1051-0761
- Publication date
- 01.12.2022
- Publication status
- Published
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 15 - Life on Land
- Electronic version(s)
-
https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2696 (Access:
Open
)
