About this Research Topic
This research topic focuses on the population dynamics and management of invasive insects once established in an expanded geographic range or host plant range, inclusive of novel, episodic, and annual range expansions across regions and plants. Once established, invasive insects stimulate agroecosystem responses (sensitivity and resilience) that vary across space, time, and scale. Responses are based in part on pest suppression agents innate to the system, sensitivity of the protected crop(s), and influences of agricultural and environmental conditions, including insertion of pest management inputs. The research topic emphasizes variation of pest dynamics and agroecosystem response (agroecosystem resilience) and efforts to support innate pest suppression with spatially strategic pest management inputs (areawide pest management).
Research topic goals are to stimulate 1) improved understanding of agroecosystem resilience to invasive insects and 2) increased support of innate pest suppression capacity of the agroecosystem with areawide pest management inputs. The research topic provides a venue to share agroecological research that characterizes plant-pest-pest suppression agent interactions as influenced by agricultural and environmental conditions and evaluates approaches to insert areawide pest management tactics that support innate pest suppression, further contributing to agroecosystem resilience to invasive insects. Contributions are also encouraged on how spatial data analysis (e.g., landscape-scale environmental predictors, GIS, and other geospatial data and tools) may provide better estimation and prediction of pest suppression and plant health outcomes and aid in identifying best avenues to strategically deploy areawide pest management inputs.
This Research Topic welcomes original research, opinion, perspective, and review articles. Studies are invited on agroecology research as well as mechanistic studies. Potential contributions include, but are not limited to:
• Studies that characterize plant-pest-pest suppression agent interactions and estimate pest and plant health outcomes as influenced by agricultural and environmental conditions.
• Case studies on areawide pest management tactics to complement innate pest suppression. Topics include vegetation-based strategies, such as semi-natural vegetation along crop borders and waterways, and agronomic-based strategies, such as resistant crops and crop rotations.
• Foundational studies of system components. Topics include consideration of spatial composition, configuration, and scale of climatic, agricultural, and landscape attributes that influence trophic interactions and affect agroecosystem resilience to invasive insects.
Meta-analysis and minireviews of past studies in this research realm of queries.
Research topic goals are to stimulate 1) improved understanding of agroecosystem resilience to invasive insects and 2) increased support of innate pest suppression capacity of the agroecosystem with areawide pest management inputs. The research topic provides a venue to share agroecological research that characterizes plant-pest-pest suppression agent interactions as influenced by agricultural and environmental conditions and evaluates approaches to insert areawide pest management tactics that support innate pest suppression, further contributing to agroecosystem resilience to invasive insects. Contributions are also encouraged on how spatial data analysis (e.g., landscape-scale environmental predictors, GIS, and other geospatial data and tools) may provide better estimation and prediction of pest suppression and plant health outcomes and aid in identifying best avenues to strategically deploy areawide pest management inputs.
This Research Topic welcomes original research, opinion, perspective, and review articles. Studies are invited on agroecology research as well as mechanistic studies. Potential contributions include, but are not limited to:
• Studies that characterize plant-pest-pest suppression agent interactions and estimate pest and plant health outcomes as influenced by agricultural and environmental conditions.
• Case studies on areawide pest management tactics to complement innate pest suppression. Topics include vegetation-based strategies, such as semi-natural vegetation along crop borders and waterways, and agronomic-based strategies, such as resistant crops and crop rotations.
• Foundational studies of system components. Topics include consideration of spatial composition, configuration, and scale of climatic, agricultural, and landscape attributes that influence trophic interactions and affect agroecosystem resilience to invasive insects.
Meta-analysis and minireviews of past studies in this research realm of queries.
Keywords: invasive pests, agroecology, agroecosystem disruption, integrated pest management, landscape ecology, resilient agroecosystems, natural enemies, biological control, host plant resistance, insecticides
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
