The Ecological and Economic Costs and Benefits of Incorporating Habitat Management into Pumpkin Production.

Project Investigators: Ben Phillips, Mary Gardiner, Brad Bergerfurd, The Pollinator Partnership and Eric Nordman

My current research at OSU concerns enhancing sustainable agriculture through mitigating disturbances with semi-permanent habitat additions. The disturbances that accompany the production of agricultural crops such as tillage, pesticide application, and harvesting can negatively impact beneficial arthropod communities and the arthropod-mediated ecosystem services they support. I am examining habitat management methods that alter agricultural habitats to optimize the performance of beneficial insects in response to these disturbances. Some of these methods include restoration of riparian habitats to function as water filtration systems and to maintain reservoirs. Others involve establishing non-crop plots to better serve game and wildlife species of special concern in the field margins of crops. Still, many of these management practices aim to increase the services provided by beneficial insects, like pollination and predation, by intercropping with select plants that enhance the habitat requirements of these insects. The forms of these habitat additions are heavily influenced by their function, but in many cases, multiple goals can be attained with the right mix of plants. A mix selected to establish overwintering habitat essential for beneficial insects, enhance wildlife habitat throughout the year, stabilize soils, reduce agricultural runoff, and enhance native biodiversity through the re-incorporation of rare or formerly common native regional plants into agricultural landscapes will improve farming communities and satisfy conservation initiatives.

 
I am investigating how the addition of either a single non-native annual floral strip consisting of sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) or a perennial floral strip consisting of native Ohio forbs and grasses will influence both beneficial insect communities and the biocontrol and pollination services they supply within pumpkin agroecosystems. The introduction of floral resources to provide habitat and alternative food and prey for beneficial insects has been shown, in other studies, to increase their diversity and abundance.  I will compare beneficial insect abundance, diversity, and biocontrol and pollination services within 6 treatment (floral strips) and 6 control (crop produced adjacent to mown orchard grass) pumpkin farms across Ohio. Data on beneficial arthropod abundance and diversity will be collected using yellow sticky card traps, pitfall traps, pan traps, and visual observations. Predation and parasitism of cucumber beetle and squash bug eggs and parasitism of adults will be compared across treatment and control pumpkin fields. The rate of effective pollination service and the diversity and activity of the pollinator community within treatment and control fields will also be compared. Importantly, an economic analysis of the net revenue between treatment and control farms will be conducted to evaluate the feasibility of this habitat management tactic. This study will provide vegetable growers and extension agents with information on the effectiveness and economics of habitat management within a vegetable cropping system and will prove useful in reducing costs of chemical insecticides and in enhancing environmental quality and the natural resources base on which agriculture depends.