Abstract
Abstract There is an increasing awareness that vegetation diversity can affect herbivore and natural enemy abundance and that plants can play a major role in directly manipulating natural enemy abundance for protection against herbivore attacks. Using data from cassava fields, we aimed at (i) testing the capacity of the predatory mite Typhlodromalus aripo to control the herbivorous mite Mononychellus tanajoa in a chemical exclusion trial; and (ii) testing, based on the differential preference by T. aripo for cassava cultivars, how combinations of two morphologically different cassava cultivars with differential suitability to the predator can improve its population densities on the non‐favourable cultivar, thereby reducing M. tanajoa densities with subsequent increases in cassava yield. The study was conducted in a cassava field in B enin, W est A frica. The experiments confirmed that T. aripo effectively suppresses M. tanajoa populations on both cultivars and showed, in the no‐predator‐exclusion experiments, that cultivar combinations have significant effects on M. tanajoa and T. aripo densities. Indeed, T. aripo load on the non‐preferred cultivar was lowest in subplots where the proportion of T. aripo ‐preferred cultivar was also low, while, and as expected, M. tanajoa load on the non‐preferred cultivar showed decreasing trends with increasing T. aripo densities. The possible mechanisms by which cultivar mixing could increase predator load on the non‐favourable cultivar were discussed. Our data showed that appropriate cultivar combinations effectively compensate for morphologically related differences in natural enemy abundance on a normally predator‐deficient cultivar, resulting in lower pest densities on the non‐favourable cultivar. In practical terms, this strategy could, in part, enhance adoption of cultivars that do not support sufficient levels of natural enemies for pest control.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
T. aripo effectively suppressed M. tanajoa populations on both cassava cultivars.
- Taxon
- M. tanajoaMononychellus tanajoae0
- Treatment
- T. aripoe0
- Interactor
- T. aripoTyphlodromalus aripoe0biocontrol_agent
- Second interactor
- cassava
Manihot esculentae1host - Outcome
- M. tanajoa populationse0
- Direction
- suppressese0
- Qualifier
- both cultivarse0
- Setting
- B enin, W est A fricae1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The experiments confirmed that T. aripo effectively suppresses M. tanajoa populations on both cultivars”
e1“The study was conducted in a cassava field in B enin, W est A frica.”
Claim · model-written summary
Cultivar combinations significantly affected M. tanajoa density when predators were not excluded.
- Taxon
- M. tanajoaMononychellus tanajoae0
- Treatment
- cultivar combinationse0
- Interactor
- cassavaManihot esculentae1host
- Outcome
- densitiese0
- Qualifier
- no‐predator‐exclusion experimentse0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“in the no‐predator‐exclusion experiments, that cultivar combinations have significant effects on M. tanajoa and T. aripo densities.”
e1“cassava fields”
Claim · model-written summary
Cultivar combinations significantly affected T. aripo density when predators were not excluded.
- Taxon
- T. aripoTyphlodromalus aripoe0
- Treatment
- cultivar combinationse0
- Interactor
- cassavaManihot esculentae1host
- Outcome
- densitiese0
- Qualifier
- no‐predator‐exclusion experimentse0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“in the no‐predator‐exclusion experiments, that cultivar combinations have significant effects on M. tanajoa and T. aripo densities.”
e1“cassava fields”
Claim · model-written summary
T. aripo load on the non-preferred cultivar was lowest where the proportion of its preferred cultivar was low.
Verbatim
e0“T. aripo load on the non‐preferred cultivar was lowest in subplots where the proportion of T. aripo ‐preferred cultivar was also low”
Claim · model-written summary
M. tanajoa load on the non-preferred cultivar tended to decrease with increasing T. aripo density.
- Taxon
- M. tanajoaMononychellus tanajoae0
- Material
- non‐preferred cultivare0
- Interactor
- T. aripoTyphlodromalus aripoe0biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- M. tanajoa loade0
- Direction
- decreasinge0
- Qualifier
- trendse0
Verbatim
e0“M. tanajoa load on the non‐preferred cultivar showed decreasing trends with increasing T. aripo densities.”
Claim · model-written summary
Appropriate cassava cultivar combinations compensated for morphology-related differences in natural enemy abundance on a predator-deficient cultivar.
- Taxon
- cassavaManihot esculentae1
- Material
- predator‐deficient cultivare0
- Treatment
- appropriate cultivar combinationse0
- Outcome
- differences in natural enemy abundancee0
- Direction
- compensatee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“appropriate cultivar combinations effectively compensate for morphologically related differences in natural enemy abundance on a normally predator‐deficient cultivar”
e1“cassava fields”
Claim · model-written summary
Appropriate cultivar combinations lowered pest densities on the non-favourable cassava cultivar.
- Taxon
- cassavaManihot esculentae1
- Material
- non‐favourable cultivare0
- Treatment
- appropriate cultivar combinationse0
- Outcome
- pest densitiese0
- Direction
- lowere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“appropriate cultivar combinations effectively compensate for morphologically related differences in natural enemy abundance on a normally predator‐deficient cultivar, resulting in lower pest densities on the non‐favourable cultivar.”
e1“cassava fields”
Claim · model-written summary
Cultivar mixing could partly enhance adoption of cassava cultivars that support insufficient natural enemies for pest control.
- Taxon
- cassavaManihot esculentae1
- Outcome
- enhance adoption of cultivars that do not support sufficient levels of natural enemies for pest controle0
- Qualifier
- could, in parte0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In practical terms, this strategy could, in part, enhance adoption of cultivars that do not support sufficient levels of natural enemies for pest control.”
e1“cassava fields”