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Resource concentration?

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Resource concentration?

Posted by Soroush at February 19. 2007
It seems that there is a lot to me gained from a better understanding of how lack of biodiversity (monocrops) influence diversity of herbivores and natural enemies. Research following up on the resource concentration hypothesis (Root 1973) have found that monocrops often experience LESS herbivory than polycrops. I wonder whether we could dissect out what mechanisms explain this conumdrum. Yes, I admit it sounds a lot less romantic and fun than testing the effects of diversity over diversity. Nevertheless, there is a lot to be learned towards our goal going in the opposie direction.

Re: Resource concentration?

Posted by Nicholas P Schmidt at February 20. 2007

I also find this idea very interesting. To go along with your idea Soroush, I think it would be cool to investigate how landscape complexity (e.g. monocultures with a only a few fence rows vs. monocultures planted in a diverse landscape (i.e. prairies, woods, other crops)) and how this impacts herbivores and natural enemies. This past summer I observed much higher populations of soybean aphids infest smaller soybean fields in a diverse landscape compared to a very large soybean field with little around.

 

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