Population dynamics and associated factors of cereal aphids and armyworms under global change
Date
2015-12-22
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer Nature
Abstract
Studying the impacts of global change, which comprises largely climate and landscape changes, on
agricultural pests is crucial for developing sustainable pest management. This research is focused
on understanding the factors associated with population dynamics of cereal aphids and armyworms
feeding on wheat in Henan province in China from 1987 to 2010. Association between changes in
climate (temperature, precipitation, and relative humidity) and agricultural characteristics (wheat
proportion, crop diversity, fertilizer input, and wheat yield per unit area) and damage from cereal
aphids and armyworms were examined. Cereal aphid damage has been rising, while armyworm
damage had no obvious trends, but with strong year-to-year fluctuations. The analysis indicates that
the factors most strongly associated with the population dynamics of cereal aphids are fertilizer input
and mean temperature in February, while the population dynamics of armyworms is significantly
related to precipitation in May. By comparing the characteristics of these two agricultural pests, we
identify possible reasons for the disparity between their associated factors, which are related to the
differences in their foraging behaviour, host range, migration capacity, and life history. These results
may contribute to developing ecologically based pest management for cereal aphids and armyworms
under global change.
Description
CITATION: Wang, L. et al. 2015. Population dynamics and associated factors of cereal aphids and armyworms under global change. Scientific Reports, 5:18801, doi:10.1038/srep18801.
The original publication is available at http://www.nature.com/srep
The original publication is available at http://www.nature.com/srep
Keywords
Rhopalosiphum padi (Cereal aphids) -- Control, Armyworms -- Control, Global environmental change, Agricultural pests -- Climatic factors -- Mathematical models, Population biology -- Climatic factors -- Mathematical models
Citation
Wang, L. et al. 2015. Population dynamics and associated factors of cereal aphids and armyworms under global change. Scientific Reports, 5:18801, doi:10.1038/srep18801.