Author
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Greenstone, Matthew |
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Submitted to: Bulletin of Entomological Research
Publication Type: Literature Review Publication Acceptance Date: 6/1/1999 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Book review; no new research information provided; no interpretive summary required. Technical Abstract: This is a review of the proceedings of the last of three European Union workshops, held from 1993 to 1995, entitled "Enhancement, Dispersal and Population Dynamics of Beneficial Predators and Parasitoids in Integrated Agroecosystems." Organized around increasing levels of ecological complexity, it emphasizes efforts to model the interactions of pests and natural enemies. The models fall into two groups, analytical and simulatio models, and metabolic pool models. In a discussion paper, Topping et al. review single-species spatially explicit models. Clear and comprehensive, it asks why models are made and reviews the types that have been developed. The authors suggest that a major virtue of large-scale spatially explicit models is their ability to incorporate geographic and economic variables linked to farming. The concluding paper, by Sunderland et al., provides an encyclopedic catalog of the biotic interactions comprising agroecosystem dynamics. This barrage of facts provides a powerful argument for the need for models: agroecosystem interactions are so numerous and complex that no system can be studied in its entirety experimentally. Together with the two that preceded it, this volume is an indispensable summary of the state of research on enhancing natural enemy populations for biological control in temperate agroecosystems. |