Habitat management and plant configuration for biological pest control in agricultural landscapes

The negative environmental effect of massive applications of chemical pesticides in intensive agricultural production practices has been a significant global concern. Therefore the rapid development of biological pest control in recent years is directed towards alleviating the negative impacts of intensified modern agricultural practices on the environment. Habitat management is an important conservation biological control approach that creates habitat conditions favorable to natural enemies but unfavorable to agricultural pests. Essentially, habitat management aims to maximize the function of biological control by providing natural enemies with resources (such as additional foods like nectar, alternative preys/hosts, and shelter from adverse conditions), or to suppress pests by making their habitats unfavorable. The appropriate selection and sound configuration of plants in agricultural landscapes are critical to successful habitat management. In this manuscript, we reviewed the mechanisms of habitat management for pest control. It was concluded that elaborate establishment of non-crop habitats and design of cropping systems were important habitat management approaches for improving biological control. We further proposed potential plant configuration models for biological control of pests in agricultural landscapes in China.