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Author Spotlight: Discovering New Biopesticides from Bioactive Soil Microbe-Derived Natural Products

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Biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and classical biological control.

Edward W Evans¹

¹Department of Biology, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-5305 USA.

Applied Entomology and Zoology

|May 17, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

High biodiversity enhances ecosystem functioning and pest suppression. However, ensuring sufficient pest control with few natural enemies remains a key challenge in biological control.

Keywords:

Ecological redundancy Niche partitioning Species complementarity Species introductions Squarrose knapweed

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Applied Entomology

Background:

Global biodiversity loss drives research into ecosystem functioning.
Natural enemy diversity is crucial for effective pest control.

Approach:

Reviewing parallels between general biodiversity research and classical biological control.
Comparing implications of diversity loss versus diversity increase in ecosystems.

Key Points:

High species and functional diversity enhance ecosystem functioning, resource exploitation, and stability.
Increasing natural enemy diversity correlates with greater pest suppression.
Classical biological control introduces diverse natural enemies to new regions for pest and weed management.

Conclusions:

Ecosystem functioning, like primary productivity, is stabilized by high diversity.
While diversity increases pest suppression, the efficacy of limited natural enemy species is a concern.
Minimizing non-target effects is critical in classical biological control strategies.