Biology
The Community Ecology of Herbivore Regulation in an Agroecosystem: Lessons from Complex Systems
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Whether an ecological community is controlled from above or below remains a popular framework that continues generating interesting research questions and takes on especially important meaning in agroecosystems. We describe the regulation from above of three coffee herbivores, a leaf herbivore (the green coffee scale, Coccus viridis), a seed predator (the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei), and a plant pathogen (the coffee rust disease, caused by Hemelia vastatrix) by various natural enemies, emphasizing the remarkable complexity involved. We emphasize the intersection of this classical question of ecology with the burgeoning field of complex systems, including references to chaos, critical transitions, hysteresis, basin or boundary collision, and spatial self-organization, all aimed at the applied question of pest control in the coffee agroecosystem.
Publication Title
BioScience
Publication Date
12-2019
Volume
69
Issue
12
First Page
974
Last Page
996
ISSN
0006-3568
DOI
10.1093/biosci/biz127
Keywords
agroecosystems, complex systems, ecology
Repository Citation
Vandermeer, John; Armbrecht, Inge; De La Mora, Aldo; Ennis, Katherine K.; Fitch, Gordon; Gonthier, David J.; Hajian-Forooshani, Zachary; Hsieh, Hsun Yi; Iverson, Aaron; Jackson, Douglas; Jha, Shalene; Jiménez-Soto, Estelí; Lopez-Bautista, Gustavo; Larsen, Ashley; Li, Kevin; Liere, Heidi; MacDonald, Andrew; Marin, Linda; Mathis, Kaitlyn A.; Monagan, Ivan; Morris, Jonathan R.; Ong, Theresa; Pardee, Gabriella L.; Rivera-Salinas, Iris Saraeny; Vaiyda, Chatura; Williams-Guillen, Kimberly; Yitbarek, Senay; Uno, Shinsuke; Zemenick, Ash; Philpott, Stacy M.; and Perfecto, Ivette, "The Community Ecology of Herbivore Regulation in an Agroecosystem: Lessons from Complex Systems" (2019). Biology. 346.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_biology/346
