With the continued social and economic development of northern China, landscape fragmentation has placed increasing pressure on the ecological system of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. To maintain the integrity of ecological processes under the influence of human activities, we must maintain effective connections between habitats and limit the impact of ecological isolation. In this pap...

Studies of community assembly have emphasized snapshot comparisons of spatially replicated samples from "natural" assemblages. Agro-ecosystems are characterized by relatively little habitat heterogeneity and no dispersal barriers for actively flying insects. Therefore, dynamic patterns of species segregation and aggregation are more likely to reflect the direct or indirect effects of species in...

To control problematic vole species in organic orchards farmers can choose between different measures. Some methods like gassing, trapping and even the support of natural vole antagonists target to reduce vole population by killing individuals. Other methods like protective guards or migration barriers exclude voles from single trees or whole orchards. Recent combinations of the two approaches ...

To improve biological control of Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois) (Hemiptera: Miridae), the European parasitoid Peristenus digoneutis Loan (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) was introduced into the US in the 1980's and has become established in forage alfalfa, strawberries and apples. The objective of this study was to determine how four different insecticide management regimes affected parasitism...

In natural systems, extended phenotypes of trees can be important in determining the species composition and diversity of associated communities. Orchards are productive systems where trees dominate, and can be highly biodiverse, but few studies have considered the importance of tree genetic background in promoting associated biodiversity. We tested the effect of apple cultivar (plant genetic b...

a faunistic survey was conducted to identify the leafhoppers in the southwest of iran (khouzestan province) in 2014. among the collected materials, aconurella nuristana dlabola, 1957 is recorded for the first time for iranian leafhoppers fauna. diagnostic characters and geographical distribution of the newly recorded species is presented briefly.

Flower strips are commonly recommended to boost biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services (e.g., pollination and pest control) on farmland. However, significant knowledge gaps remain regards the extent to which they deliver on these aims. Here, we tested the efficacy of flower strips that targeted different subsets of beneficial arthropods (pollinators and natural enemies) and their ecosyste...

The question has arisen whether to use “backwards” selections (i.e. tested parents), “forwards” selections (in this case, mainly untested progeny from openpollinated tests), or a combination of parents and progeny, both in seed orchards and in breeding. Those are the three main options currently available for cooperative breeding programs and seed orchards in the US Pacific Northwest. Which opt...

Sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) fungi on apple fruit were sampled from nine orchards in four midwestern U.S. states during 2000 and 30 orchards in 10 eastern U.S. states during 2005 in order to estimate taxonomic diversity and discern patterns of geographic distribution. Forty apple fruit per orchard were arbitrarily sampled and colonies of each mycelial phenotype were counted on each apple. R...