Shade trees decrease pest abundances on brassica crops in Kenya

dc.contributor.authorGuenat, Solène
dc.contributor.authorKaartinen, Riikka
dc.contributor.authorJonsson, Mattias
dc.date.accessioned2023-01-31T04:03:34Z
dc.date.available2023-01-31T04:03:34Z
dc.date.issued2019-04-15
dc.description© The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Version of Scholarly Record of this Article is published in Agroforestry Systems, 2019, available online at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10457-017-0159-5 . Keywords: Agroforestry; Aphids; Pest control; Brassica olearacea var. acephala; Parasitism; Predation; ecosystem services; Africa; Kenya.
dc.description.abstractAgroforestry practices may mitigate the current loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services due to deforestation and agricultural intensification. To examine the effects of agroforestry on the ecosystem service of pest regulation, we assessed pest abundances and biological control potential in shaded and open kale (Brassica oleracea L. acephala) fields in Western Kenya. Specifically, we compared the abundance of pest aphids and caterpillars, ground-dwelling ants, spiders and predatory beetles, and examined aphid parasitism rates, predation rates on diamondback moth eggs, attack rates on surrogate caterpillars and bird predation on aphids. Shade trees effectively reduced abundances of aphids, caterpillars and increased abundances of spiders and predatory beetles, but neither affected ant abundances, or predation and parasitism rates. Our results suggest that presence of shade trees can decrease pest abundances, but that this is not only due to improved biological control by natural enemies but also due to microclimatic conditions affecting pest performance and bottom-up processes such as changes in plant quality and soil conditions. We encourage studies exploring simultaneously how top-down and bottom-up processes affect pest regulation in agroforestry settings.
dc.description.sponsorshipWe are thankful to Vi-Agroforestry in Kitale for assistance with fieldwork logistics and contact with farmers, to Dr. C. Midega from the ICIPE for providing us with diamondback moth eggs, to O. Cleophas, P. Springe and S. Wanjiru for their help with fieldwork and to Dr. M. Dallimer from the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds, for his comments on the statistics. M. Jonsson is grateful for funds from Centre for Biological Control at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
dc.identifier.citationGuenat, S., Kaartinen, R. & Jonsson, M. (2019). Shade trees decrease pest abundances on brassica crops in Kenya. Agroforestry Systems, 93, 641–652. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-017-0159-5
dc.identifier.otherhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-017-0159-5
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14096/220
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherSpringer Nature
dc.titleShade trees decrease pest abundances on brassica crops in Kenya
dc.typeArticle

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
s10457-017-0159-5.pdf
Size:
1.19 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:

Collections