Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
Natural control of invertebrate crop pests has the potential to complement or replace conventional insecticidebased
practices, but its mainstream application is hampered by predictive unreliability across agroecosystems.
Inconsistent responses of natural pest control to changes in landscape characteristics have been attributed to
ecological complexity and system-specific conditions. Here, we review agroecological models and their potential
to provide predictions of natural pest control across agricultural landscapes. Existing models have used a
multitude of techniques to represent specific crop-pest-enemy systems at various spatiotemporal scales, but less
wealthy regions of the world are underrepresented. A realistic representation of natural pest control across
systems appears to be hindered by a practical trade-off between generality and realism. Nonetheless, observations
of context-sensitive, trait-mediated responses of natural pest control to land-use gradients indicate the
potential of ecological models that explicitly represent the underlying mechanisms. We conclude that modelling
Year
2021
Category
Refereed journal