Arthropod community composition in agricultural landscapes is dependent on habitat characteristics, such as plant composition, landscape homogeneity and the presence of key resources, which are usually absent in monocultures. Manipulating agroecosystems through the insertion of in-field floral resources is a useful technique to reduce the deleterious effects of habitat simplification. Food web ...

A looming challenge for agriculture is sustainable intensification of food production to feed the growing human population. Current chemical and genetic technologies used to manage plant diseases are highly vulnerable to pathogen evolution and are not sustainable. Pathogen evolution is facilitated by the genetic uniformity underlying modern agroecosystems, suggesting that one path to sustainabl...

Recent aphid-vectored viruses in the northeastern U.S. led to extensive surveys of aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) species composition. We report the species composition and richness of alate aphids associated with processing snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.; Fabales: Fabaceae) agroecosystems from field surveys conducted during 5 yr in New York and 3 yr in Pennsylvania. Rates of species accumulati...

Organic resources play a critical role in both short-term nutrient availability and longer-term maintenance of soil organic matter in most smaller holder farming systems in the tropics. Despite this importance, there is little predictive understanding for the management of organic inputs in tropical agroecosystems. In this paper, an organic resource database (ORD) is introduced that contains in...

Birds face varying risk from parasites as they select and utilize habitat. Unfortunately, behavioral and habitat correlates of parasitism in birds are not well documented. This study combines data from a foraging behavior study with results from a banding study to test whether behavior and habitat affect an ectoparasite infestation by trombiculid mite (chigger) larvae on the bird community foun...

(1) Urbanization threatens biodiversity, yet urban native plants support contributing to conservation and ecosystem services. Within agroecosystems, where non-native are abundant, may boost the abundance richness of beneficial arthropods. Nevertheless, current information focuses on pollinators, with little attention being paid other beneficials, like natural enemies. (2) We examined how specie...

In the light of ongoing land use changes, it is important to understand how multitrophic communities perform at different land use intensities. The paradox of enrichment predicts that fertilization leads to destabilization and extinction of predator-prey systems. We tested this prediction for a land use intensity gradient from natural to highly fertilized agricultural ecosystems. We included mu...