TY  - JOUR
T1  - Does Ecological Intensification Strengthen Pest Suppression? A Systematic Review of Crop Diversification, Habitat Management, and Natural-Enemy Conservation
A1  - Lucas Meyer
A1  - Anna Schmid
A1  - Stefan Braun
A1  - Maria Hernandez
JF  - Entomology and Applied Science Letters
JO  - Entomol Appl Sci Lett
SN  - 2349-2864
Y1  - 2025
VL  - 12
IS  - 1
DO  - 10.51847/gqMthctIpf
SP  - 57
EP  - 67
N2  - Ecological intensification is promoted as a means of suppressing crop pests while reducing insecticide dependence, yet it often combines interventions and outcomes that are not biologically equivalent. This systematic review evaluates how crop diversification, habitat management, and natural-enemy conservation influence pest regulation across field and landscape scales. The synthesis separates diversification from the mechanisms it may activate, distinguishes natural-enemy abundance from realized control, and treats pest density, crop damage, yield, and pesticide use as related but non-interchangeable outcomes. Evidence was classified by intervention, mechanism, scale, pest and enemy guild, outcome, and strength of inference. Ecological intensification most consistently improved habitat availability, resource continuity, and beneficial-arthropod responses. Stronger evidence for reduced pest pressure or damage occurred when interventions matched crop phenology, target-pest biology, enemy movement, and landscape configuration. Effects weakened where resources were poorly timed, simplified or pesticide-intensive landscapes constrained recolonization, or intermediate biodiversity responses were assumed to imply agronomic benefit. Crop diversification and habitat management therefore function less as universal treatments than as context-dependent components of integrated pest management. The review proposes an evidence-to-decision pathway requiring explicit support for each link from intervention design to mechanism, realized suppression, and production outcome. Priorities include longer studies, standardized functional outcomes, trait-informed moderator analysis, multiscale designs, and economic evaluation.
UR  - https://easletters.com/article/does-ecological-intensification-strengthen-pest-suppression-a-systematic-review-of-crop-diversifica-hkfplrzwxlzyuo0
ER  -