Contrasting effects of shade level and altitude on two important coffee pests
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Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Pest Science
Abstract
The diversity and abundance of natural enemies
of insect pests is often higher in agroforestry plantations
than in sun-exposed monocultures, and it is often assumed
that this will lead to improved pest suppression. The effect
that incorporating trees in cropping systems will have on
pest populations, however, also depends on the habitat
requirements of the pests themselves. In Eastern Uganda,
we studied how shade level (full [50 trees per acre,
moderate 21–50 trees per acre, and low 0–20 trees per acre)
and altitude (high 1,717–1,840 m.a.s.l. and low
1,511–1,605 m.a.s.l.) influenced the abundance of the
white stem borer Monochamus leuconotus and the coffee
berry borer Hypothenemus hampei. We found that the
effect of shade trees differed between the two pest species.
The coffee berry borer was more common on sun-exposed
plantations, whereas the white stem borer was more common
in shaded plantations. Furthermore, the effect of shade
level on the white stem borer depended on altitude, with
the differences between shade levels being most pronounced
in plantations at low altitudes. This implies that
the impact of agroforestry on pest regulation both under
current conditions and in a global warming scenario will be
highly context dependent; it will depend on the identity of
the most important pests in the area, and on environmental
factors such as altitude.
Description
Keywords
Agroforestry, Climate change, Hypothenemus hampei, Monochamus leuconotus, Sunexposure, Uganda
Citation
Jonsson, M., Raphael, I. A., Ekbom, B., Kyamanywa, S., & Karungi, J. (2015). Contrasting effects of shade level and altitude on two important coffee pests. Journal of Pest Science, 88(2), 281-287. DOI 10.1007/s10340-014-0615-1