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Portrait image of Richard Walters. Photo.

Richard Walters

Researcher

Portrait image of Richard Walters. Photo.

Archetype models upscale understanding of natural pest control response to land-use change

Author

  • Nikolaos Alexandridis
  • Glenn Marion
  • Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer
  • Matteo Dainese
  • Johan Ekroos
  • Heather Grab
  • Mattias Jonsson
  • Daniel S Karp
  • Carsten Meyer
  • Megan E O'Rourke
  • Mikael Pontarp
  • Katja Poveda
  • Ralf Seppelt
  • Henrik G Smith
  • Richard J Walters
  • Yann Clough
  • Emily A Martin
Show all

Summary, in English

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 getting 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 prediction 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.

Department/s

  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
  • Theoretical Population Ecology and Evolution Group
  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science
  • Evolutionary ecology
  • Lund university sustainability forum

Publishing year

2022-12

Language

English

Publication/Series

Ecological Applications

Volume

32

Issue

8

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Ecological Society of America

Topic

  • Ecology
  • Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use

Keywords

  • archetype
  • conservation biological control
  • crop
  • ecological model
  • land use
  • landscape
  • natural enemy
  • natural pest control
  • pest
  • upscale

Status

Published

Project

  • Enhancing biodiversity-based ecosystem services to crops though optimized densities of green infrastructure in agricultural landscapes

Research group

  • Theoretical Population Ecology and Evolution Group
  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1051-0761