G. M. Gurr, S. D. Wratten, and M. A. Altieri, Editors
Comstock Publishing Associates
Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY
2004, 256 pp.
Price: $99.95
ISBN: 0801443423 
 

Ecological Engineering for Pest Management is a comprehensive overview of traditional cultural techniques (e.g., habitat management) and new technologies (e.g., precision agriculture) and how these various tools can be used to promote natural enemies as a cornerstone for sustainable agricultural productivity. In the foreword, David Pimentel reminds us that although great strides in the development of new cultivars, pesticides, fertilization, and irrigation technologies have been made, “40% of world food production is lost to insect pests…despite application of 3 billion kg of pesticides to crops. Insecticide applications in U.S. crops have increased 10-fold yet crop losses have doubled from 7% in 1945 to 13% today.”

With this alarming picture in mind, Gurr et al. contend that there is something fundamentally wrong with the modern agricultural enterprise, a sentiment that has been expressed by pioneers in the development of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). The core problem is elementary—reliance on unilateral control strategies (e.g., pesticides) that lack an understanding and appreciation of the basic biology and ecology of the cropping system and all of its integrated components, from soil organisms to upper trophic level organisms with biological control agents at the apex.

Gurr et al. argue that wider adoption and implementation of ecologically based approaches to managing pests of agricultural importance may be safer and more sustainable than relying solely on pesticides or genetically engineered crops to protect monocultures from herbivorous arthropods, plant pathogens, and weeds; hence the need to examine the concept and practice of ecological engineering as a component of modern agricultural activity.

The phrase “ecological engineering” was first coined by Odum (1962) and defined as “environmental manipulation by man using small amounts of supplementary energy to control systems in which the main energy drives are still coming from natural sources.” This original definition has evolved to “design, operation, management, and repair of sustainable living systems in a manner consistent with ecological principles, for the benefit of human society and the natural environment”(Parrott 2002). Various disciplines are allied to ecological engineering, including restoration ecology, sustainable agroecology, habitat reconstruction, ecosystem rehabilitation, wetland restoration, and reclamation ecology. All these disciplines have aspects that are applicable to improving the health and productivity of agriculture.

The field is diverse and rich enough to warrant its own periodical, Ecological Engineering: The Journal of Ecosystem Restoration (Elsevier). However, a cursory review of this journal reveals very few articles that specifically address the challenges facing the management of agricultural pests. This apparent lack of agricultural representation justifies the need for this book, which presents a body of ecological engineering research related to agricultural pest management. Ecological Engineering for Pest Management should stimulate active research in areas that support the efficacy and scientific rigor of culturally based pest management.

Contributions to Ecological Engineering for Pest Management have been made in 14 diverse chapters by 27 researchers from Australia, Germany, Israel, Kenya, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Areas covered by contributors include the compatibility of genetic and ecological engineering; influence of landscape complexity on pest management and natural enemy activity; implications of habitat manipulation on natural enemy behavior, biology, and impact; the role of molecular identification and marking techniques for enhancing the understanding of biological and ecological requirements of parasitoids in agroecoystems; and precision agriculture and agroforestry in support of ecological engineering for pest control.

My overall impression of the content, breadth, and readability of this book is very favorable. The editors have done a commendable job in getting solid contributions from very good scientists (those well established in their careers, as well as coauthors who are graduate students and newly minted Ph.D.s). Chapters are well illustrated with good quality black-and-white photographs, crisp graphs and cartoons, and easy-to-read tables. Ecological Engineering for Pest Management makes a nice companion book to Gurr and Wratten’s Biological Control: Measures of Success (Kluwer Academic Press 2000); it supplements Barbosa’s Conservation Biological Control (Academic Press 1998) and Pickett and Bugg’s Enhancing Biological Control: Habitat Management to Promote Natural Enemies of Agricultural Pests (University of California Press 1998).

Ecological Engineering for Pest Management will appeal most to researchers with a strong interest in conservation biological control that promotes enhanced natural enemy activity in cropping systems via habitat manipulation. The influence of cover crops and resource provisionment for enhancing natural enemy activity has been an integral part of long-term research conducted by the editors and their expertise is clearly reflected in the content of the book. Extraction of specific chapters for use in graduate-level classes will provide excellent overviews of specialized areas.

My only criticism of this book, and this is a minor point, is the perceived detrimental role that genetically engineered (GE) crops could have for pest management. Long-term data sets on Bt corn and cotton have failed to demonstrate any appreciable adverse effect on natural enemies. In many instances, biological control of primary and secondary pests has increased because of the substantial reduction of harmful nondiscriminatory broad-spectrum pesticide applications. A call for a moratorium of GE crops and strict adherence to the “Precautionary Principle” by Altieri et al. (Chapter 2) is unlikely to happen. Instead, greater emphasis should be placed on how best to use these novel crops within an ecological engineering framework at a very early stage of global deployment.

Ecological Engineering for Pest Management provides a broad overview of a variety of management strategies that contribute to the theory and practice of the application of ecological engineering to agricultural systems. The chapters are well written and illustrated by researchers eminent in their respective fields. For biological control practitioners with either an interest or a strong research focus on habitat manipulation and its impacts on pest control and environmental improvement, Ecological Engineering for Pest Management will be a worthy addition to the library.

References Cited
Odum, H. T. 1962. Man in the ecosystem. Conn. Storrs Agric. Exp. Stat. Bull. 652: 75–75.
Parrott L. 2002. Complexity and the limits of ecological engineering. Trans. Am. Soc. Agric. Eng. 45: 1697–1702.

Mark S. Hoddle
Dept. of Entomology, University of California
Riverside, CA 92521
American Entomologist
Vol. 51, No.3, Fall 2005