Ecological Engineering for Pest Management:
Advances in Habitat
Manipulation for Arthropods
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
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