Monoculture management and fire exclusion promote insect-induced vegetation mortality

Evidence

Current methods of managing ecosystem resources often promote insect-induced vegetation mortality. For exam­ ple, landscape-level monocultures of crop species provide insect herbivores with an extensive source of attractive host odors and hosts sufficiently stressed by cultiva­ tion techniques or by poor adaptation to environmental conditions to promote insect population growth. Increased diversity of crop species, genotypes, or age classes at the patch level would tend to minimize insect effects on vegetation. Fire exclusion frequently results in competitively suppressed vegetation and consequent insect population irruptions (Cole and Amman, 1980; Flieger, 1970; Schowalter et al. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1582

Categorization

• XREF: Suppression of disturbance (fire exclusion) creating worse outcomes echoes the disturbance-regime-diversity thread and ch14’s point that regime removal degrades systems. — connects to: Fire suppression restructures the whole ecosystem and reduces overall wildlife diversity — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 442; Fire exclusion policies carry greater safety risk than prescribed burning — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 480; Biodiversity protects systems from collapse while monocultures die wholesale under disease. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1418 (+9 more)
• SEED: Angle: managing for regime disturbance (patch diversity, age classes) as pest control rather than suppression as control.

Broader Connections

• Polyculture fields resist pest outbreaks by hosting predator insects #contradicts (0.85) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 486
• Fire suppression created monocultural forests that mid-frequency burning heals #corroborates (0.85) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 303
• Suppressing disturbance makes ecosystems more vulnerable to catastrophe #expands (0.80) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 2073
• Ecosystem resilience increases with species diversity against species loss #corroborates (0.75) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 314
• Shrubland diversity arises from varied disturbance rather than a single optimum #corroborates (0.75) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 672