Research results offer a win-win for nature and economy
A prairie strip growing in wheat at the KBS LTER Main Cropping Systems Experiment.
March 4, 2021
In agricultural landscapes, predatory insects provide an essential ecosystem service valued at billions of dollars annually by suppressing pests that damage crops. A new study published in
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment that includes data from the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Researchsite found that natural pest suppression gains a big boost when agricultural landscapes are patchy and include a high ratio of natural edge habitat between fields.
Better understanding of how pest suppression works can help researchers and growers to maintain productive crop yields. Past studies have focused on the types of habitat patches surrounding crop fields, but sometimes those types don t tell the whole story. This study, which draws on Kellogg Biological Station LTER da