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Insects
Special Issues
Practices to Conserve Pollinators and Natural Enemies in Agro-Ecosystems
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Practices to Conserve Pollinators and Natural Enemies in Agro-Ecosystems

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Insect Pest and Vector Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2022) | Viewed by 6884

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Filitsa Karamaouna

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Senior Researcher, Department of Pesticides Control and Phytopharmacy, Benaki Phytopathological Institute, 14561 Kifissia, Greece
Interests: integrated pest management; agronomic practices/mitigation measures for conservation of natural enemies and pollinators; sustainable use of pesticides
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Josep Anton Jaques

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Universitat Jaume I, Campus del Riu Sec, Av. de Vicent Sos Baynat, s/n., E-12071 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Interests: natural enemies; biological control; conservation of beneficial arthropods; plant-insect interactions
Dr. Vaya Kati

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Benaki Phytopathological Institute, 8 Stefanou Delta str., 14561 Kifissia, Greece
Interests: weed management; weed ecology; field margin management; ecosystem services of natural vegetation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

Intensive agriculture has put great pressure on populations of beneficial arthropods, especially through adverse effects of pesticide use and the impact on resources in the agricultural landscape. Sustainable agronomic practices, such as management of field margins and mid-field strips with selected flower plants, cover crops, and banker plants, can create suitable habitats that provide food and shelter to pollinators and to natural enemies of insect pests in agro-ecosystems. The successful establishment of such habitats requires a good understanding of the food-web theory with respect to functional plant–arthropod diversity, regulation of herbivore populations by manipulation of bottom-up and top-down effects, and crop pollination. This Special Issue aims to focus on good agronomic practices/mitigation measures to sustain and enhance pollinators and natural enemies in terms of associated plant–arthropod interactions, functional biodiversity, and ecosystem services in cultivated areas. Original research articles, review articles, and short communications are welcome.

Dr. Filitsa Karamaouna
Prof. Dr. Josep Anton Jaques
Dr. Vaya Kati 
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pollinator habitats
  • natural enemies habitats
  • plant–insect interactions
  • natural vegetation
  • floral resources
  • conservation
  • agronomic practices
  • mitigation measures
  • functional biodiversity
  • ecosystem services

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 200 KiB  
Editorial
Practices to Conserve Pollinators and Natural Enemies in Agro-Ecosystems
by Filitsa Karamaouna, Josep A. Jaques and Vaya Kati
Insects 2021, 12(1), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12010031 - 05 Jan 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2290
Abstract
Intensive agriculture has put great pressure on populations of beneficial arthropods such as natural enemies and pollinators, especially through adverse effects of pesticide use and the impact on resources in the agricultural landscape, i [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Practices to Conserve Pollinators and Natural Enemies in Agro-Ecosystems)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

26 pages, 5607 KiB  
Article
Do Patches of Flowering Plants Enhance Insect Pollinators in Apple Orchards?
by Myrto Barda, Filitsa Karamaouna, Vaya Kati and Dionysios Perdikis
Insects 2023, 14(2), 208; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects14020208 - 19 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2362
Abstract
Apples depend on insect pollination but intensification of agriculture jeopardizes pollination services in agroecosystems. Concerns about the dependency of crop pollination exclusively on honey bees increase the interest in agricultural practices that safeguard wild pollinators in agroecosystems. The purpose of the study was [...] Read more.
Apples depend on insect pollination but intensification of agriculture jeopardizes pollination services in agroecosystems. Concerns about the dependency of crop pollination exclusively on honey bees increase the interest in agricultural practices that safeguard wild pollinators in agroecosystems. The purpose of the study was to assess the potential of floral resource provision in apple orchards to enhance the conservation of hymenopterous pollinating insects and potentially the pollination service to the crop. For this reason, flowering plant mixtures sown in patches inside apple orchards were tested against wild plant patches. Pollinator taxa recorded on the sown and wild plant patches were honey bees, wild bees (Andrena, Anthophora, Eucera, Halictus, Lasioglossum, Megachilidae on both; Systropha only on wild plants; Bombus, Hylaeus, Sphecodes, Nomada, Xylocopa only on sown mixture), syrphids, bee flies. The most abundant pollinator of apple was A. mellifera but wild bees were also recorded (Andrena, Anthophora, Bombus, Xylocopa, Lasioglossum, Megachilidae). The sown mixture attracted a more diverse taxa of pollinators and in greater numbers compared to the weed flora, but it did not have an effect on pollinators visiting apple flowers. Groundcover management with patches of suitable flowering mixtures can enhance pollinator conservation in apple orchards. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Practices to Conserve Pollinators and Natural Enemies in Agro-Ecosystems)
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13 pages, 603 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Bean Seed Treatment with Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium robertsii on Soil Microarthropods (Acari, Collembola)
by Tatiana Novgorodova, Natalia Vladimirova, Irina Marchenko, Tatyana Sadokhina, Maksim Tyurin, Lyudmila Ashmarina, Dmitry Bakshaev, Georgy Lednev and Viktor Danilov
Insects 2022, 13(9), 807; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13090807 - 05 Sep 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1395
Abstract
The treatment of agricultural crops with entomopathogenic fungi may disturb the structure of soil microarthropod communities, which can have an adverse impact on soil fertility and, ultimately, on the yield. The effect of the treatment of broad bean (Vicia faba L.) seeds, [...] Read more.
The treatment of agricultural crops with entomopathogenic fungi may disturb the structure of soil microarthropod communities, which can have an adverse impact on soil fertility and, ultimately, on the yield. The effect of the treatment of broad bean (Vicia faba L.) seeds, with the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium robertsii, on the abundance and community structure of soil microarthropods in the rhizosphere was assessed in different phases of plant vegetation in a two-year experiment. Under the conditions of the gradually decreased abundance of M. robertsii both in the soil cenoses and in the plants during summer, no adverse effect was revealed of the bean seed treatment, with the entomopathogenic fungus, on the abundance of soil microarthropods (Acari: Mesostigmata, Prostigmata, Oribatida and Astigmata; Collembola) and the structure of their communities. Similar results were obtained in the analysis, taking into account the positive colonization of plants. Some changes in the microarthropod community structure were explained primarily by the spatial heterogeneity of the field, the hydrothermal regime, and the features of the microarthropod life cycles. The results indicate the possibility of using dressing seeds with conidial suspension for plant inoculation with entomopathogenic fungus (at least M. robertsii) as a potentially safe plant protection method for non-target soil microarthropods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Practices to Conserve Pollinators and Natural Enemies in Agro-Ecosystems)
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