Background: Field margin and non-crop vegetation in agricultural systems are potential ecosystem services providers because they offer semi-natural habitats for both below and above ground animal groups such as soil organisms, small mammals, birds and arthropods that are service supplying units. They are considered as a target area for enhancing farm biodiversity. 

Methodology: To explore the multiple potential benefits of these semi-natural habitats and to identify research trends and knowledge gaps globally, a review was carried out following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. A total of 235 publications from the year 2000 to 2016 in the Scopus and Web of Science databases were reviewed.

Results: The literature showed an increasing trend in the number of published articles over time with European studies leading in the proportion of studies conducted, followed by North America, Asia, South America, Africa and Australia. Several functional groups of organisms were studied from field margin and non-crop vegetation around agricultural lands including natural enemies (37%), insect pests (22%), birds (17%), pollinators (16%), soil macro fauna (4%) and small mammals (4%). Ecosystem services derived from the field margin included natural pest regulation, pollination, nutrient cycling and reduced offsite erosion. Some field margin plants were reported to host detrimental crop pests, a major ecosystem dis-service, potentially leading to increased pest infestation in the field.

Conclusion: The majority of studies revealed the importance of field margin and non-crop vegetation around arable fields in enhancing ecosystem biodiversity. Promotion of field margin plants that selectively enhance the population of beneficial organisms would support sustainable food security rather than simply boosting plant diversity. Our analyses also highlight that agro-ecological studies remain largely overlooked in some regions.

Multiple ecosystem services from field margin vegetation for ecological sustainability in agriculture: scientific evidence and knowledge gaps.

There is an urgent need to develop sustainable and environmentally benign integrated pest management (IPM) strategies for arable crops. The enhancement and manipulation of naturally occurring populations of the natural enemies of crop pests through habitat management for ‘conservation biological control’, as well as habitat management to manipulate populations of the pests themselves, have the potential to become major components of successful IPM strategies. We review the studies that have contributed to our current understanding of how the crop margin, local landscape, and regional landscape can influence pollen beetle Brassicogethes aeneus (syn. Meligethes aeneus) (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) abundance and damage to oilseed rape crops (Brassica napus), and the efficacy of their natural enemies. We also discuss how habitat management across these multiple scales may improve pollen beetle control, reducing the need for insecticide use and contributing towards sustainable production of this important crop which is grown on increasing areas for both food and fuel.

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Prospects for improved off-crop habitat management for pollen beetle control in oilseed rape

A major problem associated with agricultural intensification over recent decades has been the development of insecticide resistance in crop pest populations. This has been a particular issue for control of the pollen beetle (Brassicogethes aeneus syn. Meligethes aeneus), a major pest of oilseed rape throughout Europe. Sustained and often prophylactic use of pyrethroid insecticides has led to the development of insecticide-resistant beetle populations, and alternatively, more environmentally benign integrated pest management strategies are sought for the pest. The population dynamics of pollen beetles and their natural enemies, and the damage caused by the pest, are influenced by processes acting at multiple scales, from the regional or landscape scale down to the local field or within-field scale. In this review, we focus on the within-field scale, and how crop management factors, including tillage, crop plant density, crop nutrition and crop rotations may be optimised and incorporated into integrated pest management strategies for more sustainable and effective control of the pest.

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The potential of crop management practices to reduce pollen beetle damage in oilseed rape

The simultaneous use of multiple biological control agents can be effective in suppressing pest populations, but the intraguild interactions that occur between biological control agents can disrupt biological control. I hypothesized that the combined use of the parasitoid, Aphidius matricariae, and the entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana (in the form of commercialized product, BotaniGard) for controlling the greenhouse aphid pest, Myzus persicae, would have a positive effect on pest control. Experiments were conducted in the laboratory over short periods and in greenhouses over multiple generations. Although BotaniGard had negative interactions with the parasitoids in short time scale experiments, over an extended time the combined use of BotaniGard and parasitoids had synergistic effects on aphid suppression. The number of parasitoids present at the end of the experiments in longer-scale experiments was higher in treatments with BotaniGard application than in treatments with parasitoids alone.

Compatibility of the parasitoid Aphidius matricariae with BotaniGard for the control of greenhouse aphids

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor
of Philosophy in Life Sciences of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and 
Technology

Potential predators and parasitoids for conservation biological control in smallholder bean farming tropical ecosystem

Mesocosm experiments to assess the transmission of Pandora neoaphidis within simple and mixed field margins and over the crop-margin interface

Field margins for biocontrol and biodiversity across crop rotations: overview of the aims and approaches of Defra project IF01122

The effect of sowing date (autumn vs. spring) on the flowering period of biennial margin mixes and their resource value for enemies of crop pests

BACKGROUND
Understanding the dynamics of pest immigration into an agroecosystem enables effective and timely management strategies. The pollen beetles (Brassicogethes aeneus) is a primary pest of the infloresence stages of oilseed rape (Brassica napus). This study investigated the spatial and temporal dynamics of pollen beetle immigration into oilseed rape fields in Denmark and the UK using multiple methods, including optical sensors.


RESULTS
In all fields, pollen beetles were found to be aggregated and beetle density was related to plant growth stage, with more beetles occuring on plants after the budding stage than before inflourescence development. Optical sensors were the most efficient monitoring method, recording pollen beetles two and four days ahead of water traps and counts from plant scouting, respectively.


CONCLUSION
Optical sensors are a promising tool for early warning of insect pest immigration. The aggregation pattern of pollen beetles post immigration could be used to precisely target control in oilseed rape crops.

M. T. Torrance

Papers

Mesocosm experiments to assess the transmission of Pandora neoaphidis within simple and mixed field margins and over the crop-margin interface

Field margins for biocontrol and biodiversity across crop rotations: overview of the aims and approaches of Defra project IF01122

The effect of sowing date (autumn vs. spring) on the flowering period of biennial margin mixes and their resource value for enemies of crop pests

Dynamics of pollen beetle (Brassicogethes aeneus) immigration and colonisation of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) in Europe.