Insects (2019) 10 (12 - 421)

María Gloria Sáenz-Romo, Ariadna Veas-Bernal, Héctor Martínez-García, Sergio Ibáñez-Pascual, Elena Martínez-Villar, Raquel Campos-Herrera, Vicente Santiago Marco-Mancebón and Ignacio Pérez-Moreno (2019)
Effects of ground cover management on insect predators and pests in a Mediterranean vineyard
Insects 10 (12 - 421)
Abstract: Conservative techniques, such as ground cover management, could help promote viticulture sustainability, which is a goal of conservation biological control, by providing shelter and food sources for predatory insects. A field experiment was conducted in a Mediterranean vineyard to evaluate ground cover management impacts on predatory insect and potential grapevine pest abundance and diversity, both on the ground and in the grapevine canopy. Three different ground cover management techniques (tillage, spontaneous cover and flower-driven cover) were tested for two years (2016 and 2017). Overall, the ground cover management significantly affected the abundance of important epigeal predators, of which carabids, forficulids and staphylinids were the most captured. The carabid abundances under both the cover crop treatments were found to be approximately three times higher compared with that under the tillage treatment. In contrast, the canopy insect abundance in the vineyard was similar among the treatments for both the predators and the potential grapevine pest species. These results indicate that cover crop vegetation can be used in vineyards to enhance predatory insect abundance and may improve agroecosystem resilience.
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Database assignments for author(s): Ignacio Perez-Moreno

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
environment - cropping system/rotation
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
environment/habitat manipulation

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Altica ampelophaga	Grapevine (Vitis)	Spain (continental)
	Hebata vitis	Grapevine (Vitis)	Spain (continental)
	Sinoxylon sexdentatum	Grapevine (Vitis)	Spain (continental)
	Xylotrechus arvicola	Grapevine (Vitis)	Spain (continental)