Agricultural intensification has led to a widespread decline in farmland biodiversity measured across many different taxa. The changes in agricultural practices affect many different aspects of the farmland habitat, but agricultural industry, policy and much previous research has tended to be concerned with specific sectors or practices (e.g. pesticide use or cereal husbandry). Here, we review the empirical literature to synthesize the research effort that has been directed to investigate specific practices or goals to make general statements regarding the causes and consequences of farmland biodiversity decline. We argue that the loss of ecological heterogeneity at multiple spatial and temporal scales is a universal consequence of multivariate agricultural intensification and, therefore, that future research should develop cross-cutting policy frameworks and management solutions that recreate that heterogeneity as the key to restoring and sustaining biodiversity in temperate agricultural systems.

https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/pdf/S0169-5347(03)00011-9.pdf

Farmland biodiversity: is habitat heterogeneity the key?

Agricultural intensification has resulted in a simplification of agricultural landscapes by the expansion of agricultural land, enlargement of field size and removal of non-crop habitat. These changes are considered to be an important cause of the rapid decline in farmland biodiversity, with the remaining biodiversity concentrated in field edges and non-crop habitats. The simplification of landscape composition and the decline of biodiversity may affect the functioning of natural pest control because non-crop habitats provide requisites for a broad spectrum of natural enemies, and the exchange of natural enemies between crop and non-crop habitats is likely to be diminished in landscapes dominated by arable cropland. In this review, we test the hypothesis that natural pest control is enhanced in complex patchy landscapes with a high proportion of non-crop habitats as compared to simple large-scale landscapes with little associated non-crop habitat. In 74% and 45% of the studies reviewed, respectively, natural enemy populations were higher and pest pressure lower in complex landscapes versus simple landscapes. Landscape-driven pest suppression may result in lower crop injury, although this has rarely been documented. Enhanced natural enemy activity was associated with herbaceous habitats in 80% of the cases (e.g. fallows, field margins), and somewhat less often with wooded habitats (71%) and landscape patchiness (70%). The similar contributions of these landscape factors suggest that all are equally important in enhancing natural enemy populations. We conclude that diversified landscapes hold most potential for the conservation of biodiversity and sustaining the pest control function.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2006.3530

Sustainable pest regulation in agricultural landscapes: a review on landscape composition, biodiversity and natural pest control

▪ Abstract Research on impacts of climate change on plant diseases has been limited, with most work concentrating on the effects of a single atmospheric constituent or meteorological variable on the host, pathogen, or the interaction of the two under controlled conditions. Results indicate that climate change could alter stages and rates of development of the pathogen, modify host resistance, and result in changes in the physiology of host-pathogen interactions. The most likely consequences are shifts in the geographical distribution of host and pathogen and altered crop losses, caused in part by changes in the efficacy of control strategies. Recent developments in experimental and modeling techniques offer considerable promise for developing an improved capability for climate change impact assessment and mitigation. Compared with major technological, environmental, and socioeconomic changes affecting agricultural production during the next century, climate change may be less important; it will, however, ...

Climate change and plant disease management

▪ Abstract As phloem feeders and major vectors of plant viruses, aphids are important pests of agricultural and horticultural crops worldwide. The processes of aphid settling and reproduction on plants therefore have a direct economic impact, and a better understanding of these events may lead to improved management strategies. Aphids are also important model organisms in the analysis of population differentiation and speciation in animals, and new ideas on plant utilization influence our understanding of the mechanisms generating biological diversity. Recent research suggests that the dominant cues controlling plant preference and initiation of reproduction are detected early during the stylet penetration process, well before the nutrient supply (phloem) is contacted. Aphids regularly puncture cells along the stylet pathway and ingest cytosolic samples, and the cues stimulating settling and parturition likely are metabolites present in peripheral (nonvascular) plant cells. We discuss these findings and t...

HOST PLANT SELECTION BY APHIDS: Behavioral, Evolutionary, and Applied Perspectives

Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Feeding Behaviour and Food Quality. 3. Host Specificity and Speciation. 4. Size. 5. Resource Tracking: Mechanism - Cyclical Parthenogenesis. 6. Resource Tracking: Mechanism - Polyphenism. 7. Resource Tracking in Time. 8. Resource Tracking in Space. 9. Population Dynamics. 10. Community Structure and Species Diversity. 11. Epilogue. References. Index.

Aphid Ecology An optimization approach

SUMMARY

Suction trapping data indicate three periods of migration of Rhopalosiphum padi in spring, summer and autumn. Four alate morphs are present at different times during the year. A comparison of data from suction traps operating at 12·2 and 1·5 m suggests a different behaviour of females in autumn with more being recorded at 12·2 than 1·5 m. Males, which are only present in autumn, were also more numerous at 12·2 m. During tests to measure barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) infectivity, only 9% of female R. padi reproduced on oat seedlings in autumn compared with 74% in summer. Tests on alate female R. padi trapped alive showed that in summer all were exules, but during the first half of September these were largely replaced by gynoparae so that in autumn only 5% of all R. padi trapped at 12·2 m were alate exules. The aerial densities of gynoparae and males were 10 times greater at 12·2 than 1·5 m while densities of alate exules were similar at both heights. It is suggested that gynoparae and males fly higher to increase the chance of finding a taller dispersed host plant.



The implications for BYDV epidemiology of the behaviour and presence of the various R. padi alate morphs indicate that autumn-sown cereals emerging before mid-September are particularly at risk from colonisation by alate exules before the transition to a mainly sexual migrant population is complete. Alate exules introduce BYDV from comparatively local sources. The ratio of total R. padi to Sitobion avenae in suction trap samples in autumn usually exceeds 100: 1, but on crops it was only 10: 1. The ratio of alate exule R. padi to S. avenae in suction traps in autumn was only 12: 1, similar to that observed on crops.

Migration of alate morphs of the bird cherry aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi) and implications for the epidemiology of barley yellow dwarf virus

Recent studies on the ecology of two cereal aphid species, Sitobion avenae (F.) and Metopolophium dirhodum (Wlk.), are reviewed. The most important factors affecting their abundance were used to construct decision trees to assess the risk of outbreaks of these species in the summer in England. These factors for S. avenae were crop sowing date, the size of the autumn migration, the severity of the winter, the size of the spring migration and the incidence of natural enemies in spring and early summer. For M. dirhodum, only the last two factors were considered as it does not occur on cereals until the spring in England. These decision trees were successfully tested using field data from 1983, when no outbreaks of either species occurred due to the effects of natural enemies.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0007485300015650

Decision trees to assess the risk of cereal aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) outbreaks in summer in England

Winter wheat cv. Avalon was sown in autumn 1981, 1982 and 1983 on a clay loam soil following two cereal crops. Multifactorial experiments tested the effects of combinations of the following eight factors, each at two levels: rotation, sowing date, timing of nitrogen, amount of nitrogen, growth regulator, pesticide, spring fungicide and summer fungicide.The best 16-plot mean grain yields in 1982–4 were respectively 8·7, 10·2 and 11·1 t/ha. Rotation had the largest effect on grain yield. Wheat following barley was severely infected with take-all and yielded, on average over 3 years, 2·2 t/ha less than wheat following oats. Take-all was more severe on wheat sown in mid-September than in mid-October; its effects on yield were lessened by early timing of N in 1982. Take-all decreased growth and N uptake mainly after anthesis, and also number of ears and dry weight per grain. Sowing in mid-September compared with mid-October decreased yield of wheat after barley by an average of 0·8 t/ha because take-all was more severe. Early sowing had negligible effects on grain yield of wheat after oats, but increased straw dry weight by 1·1 t/ha.Spring fungioide increased yield by an average of 0·3 t/ha. Effects were larger after barley than after oats, associated with a greater incidence of eyespot after barley. Summer fungioide increased yield by an average of 0·3 t/ha. Foliar diseases were slight in all 3 years. Fusarium ear blight and sharp eyespot were prevalent in 1982 and were not well controlled by the fungioide treatments. Fungicide temporarily decreased the incidence of some components of the mioroflora on the ears. Pesticide increased grain yield of wheat after oats only in 1984, when aphids on the ears were numerous. Aphids were present on early-sown plots in all three autumns but there was little barley yellow dwarf virus infection even without pesticide. Pesticide always decreased the number of nematodes after harvest to fewer than present before sowing. Populations never approached levels expected to affect yield.Early N application (main application early March) resulted in a larger grain yield in 1982 than N applied a month later. In 1983 and 1984 grain yield and N uptake by the grain were greater with the late application, especially when wheat was sown early. The soil contained more mineral N in the autumn of 1982 and 1983 than in 1981. Straw weight was always greater with early than with late application. Increasing the amount of N applied from 163 to 223 kg/ha increased N uptake by 40 kg/ha and grain yield by 0·5 t/ha after oats and by 0·6 t/ha after barley. N uptake in grain plus straw by the best yielding crops ranged from 205 kg/ha in 1982 to 246 kg/ha in 1984.Chlormequat applied at the start of stem extension shortened the stems at maturity by 2 cm each year. In 1984 it inoreased yield of early-sown wheat by 0·3 t/ha and also decreased lodging, which did not occur in the first 2 years.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0021859600069811

Some factors affecting the growth and yield of winter wheat grown as a third cereal with much or negligible take-all

The population dynamics of Metopolophium dirhodum were studied on winter wheat seedlings at constant (10-degrees-C, 15-degrees-C, 20-degrees-C, 25-degrees-C and 30-degrees-C) and fluctuating (12(night)-22(day)-degrees-C) temperatures, and during booting to early inflorescence, and anthesis to early milky ripe stage, at 19-degrees-C. The pre-reproductive development time was decreased by increasing the temperature from 10-degrees-C to 25-degrees-C. It was significantly shorter when the aphids were feeding during booting to early inflorescence than during anthesis to early milky ripe stage but was similar when the aphids were feeding on the flag, second or third leaves. The total number of nymphs produced/apterous adult was not significantly affected by temperature from 10-degrees-C to 25-degrees-C but adult reproductive lifespan was reduced by increasing temperature from 10-degrees-C and 12-22-degrees-C to 15-degrees-C, 20-degrees-C and 25-degrees-C. The daily intrinsic rate of increase changed from 0.11 to 0.25, and the cohort generation time decreased from 31 to 12 days, with increase of temperature from 10-degrees-C to 25-degrees-C. Reproductive rate was similar when the aphids were feeding on the flag, second or third leaves during booting to early inflorescence at 19-degrees-C. The reproductive rate was higher when the aphids fed from mid-inflorescence to mid-milky ripe stage than from mid-milky to early ripe stage. These results were compared with those from other studies. Predictions from a simulation model using development and reproductive rates from this study and literature were compared and the former rates resulted in a more accurate prediction of field observations in 1979, an outbreak year.

Effects of temperature, feeding position and crop growth stage on the population dynamics of the rose grain aphid, Metopolophium dirhodum (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

The role of natural enemies in cereal aphid population dynamics

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