Pest regulation ecosystem services in croplands under changing landscape conditions

自然发生的昆虫和节肢动物的捕食可以帮助控制害虫对作物造成的损害。这种生物虫害控制是农民使用的一系列措施的一部分，以防止全球范围内估计18%的作物产量损失，否则将由害虫造成。然而，生物防治取决于农业景观中栖息地的可用性。耕地的集约化管理做法，如清除植被以扩大田地，以及干旱等气候压力因素，都有可能通过消除或干扰支持作物害虫天敌的生境来影响这种生态系统服务。我的研究项目通过研究天敌对不断变化的景观条件（如植被清除和干旱）的反应，以及探索天敌对害虫调控和作物产量的影响，来调查害虫调控生态系统服务的风险。我的13名受训人员（7名本科生，4名硕士和2名博士）将使用一种专注于这些捕食者特征的方法（即，它们的形态、行为或生理特征）。我们将收集数据，在作物领域选择代表目前的景观条件，可能会成为更多（或更少）在未来的共同。使用这些数据，学员将测试假设，连接当前的条件，如非作物植被或湿度在一个领域的可用性，与天敌及其特性，并模拟害虫调节这些条件的变化的敏感性。在此过程中，学员将发展景观生态学，社区生态学，昆虫学，遥感和先进的统计方法的可转移技能。在全球快速变化的时代，我的研究项目探讨了生物多样性和生态系统功能之间的重要联系，这种联系有被破坏的风险。通过关注田间生物的特征，而不是物种本身，我们的研究结果将跨种植系统和大陆进行翻译，为全球变化下生态系统服务风险的国际对话做出贡献。我们将进一步创新，利用从收获设备收集的精确农业数据，测量害虫调控对作物产量的影响，并开发一种新的方法来建模性状及其与服务的关系。这项工作是一个长期景观生态研究计划的一部分，旨在了解农田的环境条件如何影响多种生态系统服务。

Predation by naturally-occurring insects and arthropods can help to control damage to crops caused by insect pests. This biological pest control is part of a portfolio of measures used by farmers to prevent an estimated 18% loss in crop yields, globally, that would otherwise be caused by pests. However, biological control depends on the availability of habitat in agricultural landscapes. Intensive management practices in croplands such as clearing vegetation to expand fields, and climate stressors such as drought, have the potential to affect this ecosystem service by removing or disturbing habitats that support the natural enemies of crop pests. My research program investigates risks to pest regulation ecosystem services by studying the response of natural enemies to changing landscape conditions, such as vegetation clearance and drought, and by exploring the effects natural enemies may have on pest regulation and crop yields. My team of 13 trainees (7 undergraduates, 4 Master's and 2 Doctoral) will use an approach that focuses on the traits of these predators (i.e., their morphological, behavioural, or physiological characteristics). We will collect data in crop fields chosen to represent current landscape conditions that may become more (or less) common in future. Using these data, trainees will test hypotheses that connect current conditions, such as the availability of non-crop vegetation or moisture in a field, with natural enemies and their traits, and model the sensitivity of pest regulation to changes in these conditions. While doing so, trainees will develop transferrable skills in landscape ecology, community ecology, entomology, remote sensing, and advanced statistical methods. At a time of rapid global change, my research program explores a critical connection between biodiversity and ecosystem function that is at risk of disruption. By focusing on the traits of organisms that are present in fields, rather than on the species themselves, our findings will be translatable across cropping systems and continents, contributing to emerging international dialogues on the risks to ecosystem services under global change. We will further innovate by measuring the consequences of pest regulation for crop yield, using precision agricultural data collected from harvesting equipment, and we will develop a new approach for modelling traits and their relationship with services. This work forms part of a longer-term landscape ecological research program aimed at understanding how the environmental conditions in croplands may affect multiple ecosystem services.