Hostname: page-component-76dd75c94c-t6jsk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T08:25:31.869Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Influence of agro-ecological service crop termination and synthetic biodegradable film covering on Aphis gossypii Glover (Rhynchota: Aphididae) infestation and natural enemy dynamics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2017

Serena Magagnoli*
Affiliation:
Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Bologna, Italy
Laura Depalo
Affiliation:
Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Bologna, Italy
Antonio Masetti
Affiliation:
Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Bologna, Italy
Gabriele Campanelli
Affiliation:
Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria – Unità di ricerca per l'orticoltura, Via Salaria, 1. Monsampolo del Tronto (AP), Italy
Stefano Canali
Affiliation:
Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria – Centro di ricerca per le relazioni tra pianta e suolo, Via della Navicella, 2, Roma, Italy
Fabrizio Leteo
Affiliation:
Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria – Unità di ricerca per l'orticoltura, Via Salaria, 1. Monsampolo del Tronto (AP), Italy
Giovanni Burgio
Affiliation:
Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Bologna, Italy
*
*Corresponding author: serena.magagnoli4@unibo.it

Abstract

Agro-ecological service crops (ASC) can increase the vegetation complexity of agroecosystems leading to a positive impact on natural enemies of arthropod pests and on weed control. In this study, two ASC terminations (green manure and roller crimper) and a Mater-Bi-mulched control (MB) were compared in order to describe the effects on pests and beneficial dynamics in an organic vegetable system. The trials were conducted over two consecutive growing seasons in 2014 and 2015. Zucchini were grown as cash crop and barley as ASC. Pests and natural enemies were monitored fortnightly by visual samplings along the whole zucchini-growing season. Zucchini plants showed a faster vegetative growth in MB treatment than in ASC terminations. In both years, MB plots were characterized by higher soil temperature and higher leaf nitrogen concentration resulting in plants more susceptible to Aphis gossypii infestations. In all the experimental plots, natural enemies controlled aphid infestations and no insecticide and sprays were necessary. In conclusion, the tested ASC techniques have been suggested as a tool to mitigate aphid infestation.

Type
Research Paper
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Al Hassan, D., Parisey, N., Burel, F., Plantegenest, M., Kindlmann, P., and Butet, A. 2012. Relationship between the abundance of aphids and their natural enemies in crop fields and landscape composition. European Journal of Environmental Sciences 2:8999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Altieri, M.A. 1999. The ecological role of biodiversity in agroecosystems. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 74:1931.Google Scholar
Altieri, M.A. and Nicholls, C.I. 2004. Biodiversity and Pest Management in Agroecosystems. CRC Press, Binghamton, NY.Google Scholar
Altieri, M.A., Lana, M.A., Bittencourt, H.V., Kieling, A.S., Comin, J.J., and Lovato, P.E. 2011. Enhancing crop productivity via weed suppression in organic no-till cropping systems in Santa Catarina, Brazil. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 35:855869.Google Scholar
Ashford, D.L. and Reeves, D.W. 2003. Use of a mechanical roller-crimper as an alternative kill method for cover crops. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture 18:3745.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beasley, T.M. and Schumacker, R.E. 1995. Multiple regression approach to analyzing contingency tables: Post hoc and planned comparison procedures. Journal of Experimental Education 64:7993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bianchi, F.J., Schellhorn, N.A., and Cunningham, S.A. 2013. Habitat functionality for the ecosystem service of pest control: Reproduction and feeding sites of pests and natural enemies. Agricultural and Forest Entomology 15:1223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryant, A., Brainard, D.C., Haramoto, E.R., and Szendrei, Z. 2013. Cover crop mulch and weed management influence arthropod communities in strip-tilled cabbage. Environmental entomology 42:293306.Google Scholar
Burgio, G., Ferrari, R., and Antoniacci, L. 1994. Spatial distribution and binomial sampling of Aphis gossypii glover (Homoptera: Aphididae) infesting protected cucumber and Melon in Northern Italy. Bollettino dell’Istituto di Entomologia G.Grandi 48:229237.Google Scholar
Canali, S., Campanelli, G., Ciaccia, C., Leteo, F., Testani, E., and Montemurro, F. 2013. Conservation tillage strategy based on the roller crimper technology for weed control in mediterranean vegetable organic cropping systems. European Journal of Agronomy 50:1118.Google Scholar
Canali, S., Diacono, M., Campanelli, G., and Montemurro, F. 2015. Organic no-till with roller crimpers: Agro-ecosystem services and applications in organic Mediterranean vegetable productions. Sustainable Agriculture Research 4:70.Google Scholar
Carmona, D.M. and Landis, D.A. 1999. Influence of refuge habitats and cover crops on seasonal activity-density of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in field crops. Environmental Entomology 28:11451153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebert, T. and Cartwright, B. 1997. Biology and ecology of Aphis gossypii Glover (Homoptera: Aphididae). Southwestern Entomologist 22:116153.Google Scholar
Ferrari, R. and Burgio, G. 1996. Primary and secondary parasitoids of Aphis gossypii Glover on primary and secondary hosts (Hibiscus syriacus L. and Citrullus lanatus Thunb.), in Bologna and Ferrara provinces (Italy.). Bollettino dell’Istituto di Entomologia G.Grandi 50:5771.Google Scholar
Foley, J.A., Ramankutty, N., Brauman, K.A., Cassidy, E.S., Gerber, J.S., Johnston, M., Mueller, N.D., O'Connell, C., Ray, D.K., and West, P.C. 2011. Solutions for a cultivated planet. Nature 478:337342.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garcia-Perez, M.A. and Núñez-Antón, V. 2003. Cellwise residual analysis in two-way contingency tables. Educational and Psychological Measurement 63:825839.Google Scholar
Haberman, S.J., Bishop, Y., Fienberg, S., and Holland, P. 1976. Discrete Multivariate Analysis: Theory and Practice. The Annals of Statistics 4:817820.Google Scholar
Havelka, J. and Zemek, R. 1988. Intraspecific variability of aphidophagous gall midge Aphidoletes aphidimyza (Rondani)(Dipt., Cecidomyiidae) and its importance for biological control of aphids. Journal of Applied Entomology 105:280288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooks, C.R., Valenzuela, H., and Defrank, J. 1998. Incidence of pests and arthropod natural enemies in zucchini grown with living mulches. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 69:217231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horrigan, L., Lawrence, R.S., and Walker, P. 2002. How sustainable agriculture can address the environmental and human health harms of industrial agriculture. Environmental Health Perspectives 110:445.Google Scholar
Iguchi, M., Fukushima, F., and Miura, K. 2012. Control of Aphis gossypii and Myzus persicae (Hemiptera: Aphididae) by a flightless strain of Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) on green pepper plants in open fields. Entomological Science 15:127132.Google Scholar
Johnson, J., Hough-Goldstein, J., and Vangessel, M. 2004. Effects of straw mulch on pest insects, predators, and weeds in watermelons and potatoes. Environmental Entomology 33:16321643.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larentzaki, E., Plate, J., Nault, B., and Shelton, A. 2008. Impact of straw mulch on populations of onion thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in onion. Journal of Economic Entomology 101:13171324.Google Scholar
Luna, J.M., Mitchell, J.P., and Shrestha, A. 2012. Conservation tillage for organic agriculture: Evolution toward hybrid systems in the western USA. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 27:2130.Google Scholar
Manici, L., Caputo, F., Nicoletti, F., Leteo, F., and Campanelli, G. 2016. The impact of legume and cereal cover crops on rhizosphere microbial communities of subsequent vegetable crops for contrasting crop decline. Biological Control. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocontrol.2016.11.003.Google Scholar
Pullaro, T.C., Marino, P.C., Jackson, D.M., Harrison, H.F., and Keinath, A.P. 2006. Effects of killed cover crop mulch on weeds, weed seeds, and herbivores. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 115:97104.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, E., González, B., and Campos, M. 2012. Natural enemies associated with cereal cover crops in olive groves. Bulletin of Insectology 65:4349.Google Scholar
Schmidt, M.H., Thewes, U., Thies, C., and Tscharntke, T. 2004. Aphid suppression by natural enemies in mulched cereals. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 113:8793.Google Scholar
Sharpe, D. O. 2015. Your chi-square test is statistically significant: Now what? Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation 20:2.Google Scholar
Teasdale, J.R. and Abdul-Baki, A.A. 1995. Soil temperature and tomato growth associated with black polyethylene and hairy vetch mulches. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 120:848853.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorup-Kristensen, K. 1993. The effect of nitrogen catch crops on the nitrogen nutrition of a succeeding crop: I. Effects through mineralization and pre-emptive competition. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica B-Plant Soil Sciences 43:7481.Google Scholar
Tilman, D., Cassman, K.G., Matson, P.A., Naylor, R., and Polasky, S. 2002. Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices. Nature 418:671677.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Truax, B. and Gagnon, D. 1993. Effects of straw and black plastic mulching on the initial growth and nutrition of butternut, white ash and bur oak. Forest Ecology and Management 57:1727.Google Scholar
Turchin, P. and Kareiva, P. 1989. Aggregation in Aphis varians: An effective strategy for reducing predation risk. Ecology 70:10081016.Google Scholar
Vacante, V. and Benuzzi, M. 2007. Difesa delle colture in serra. Edagricole, Bologna.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Image

Magagnoli supplementary material S1

Supplementary Figure

Download Magagnoli supplementary material S1(Image)
Image 16.5 MB
Supplementary material: Image

Magagnoli supplementary material S2

Supplementary Figure

Download Magagnoli supplementary material S2(Image)
Image 24.9 MB