Abstract
The modern concept of biological insect pest suppression encompasses more than just the practices of classical biological control as presented in the preceding chapters. We may also include within our current thinking a host of old and very new techniques which all come under the umbrella of biological pest suppression in that they involve human manipulation of the biological environment of the pest. Through judicious interference, we can beneficially modify the species characteristics (i.e. internal environment) of the pest or some of the density-independent conditioning forces in its external environment. For convenience we may generally divide the techniques used into two groups: those involving other members of the ecosystem, and those concerned directly with the pest itself. In the former group we may include such ancient and time-tested practices as breeding hosts for pest resistance (Chap. 4.1) and various cultural manipulations (Chap. 4.2) which together constitute a system for modifying the density-independent conditioning elements of the environment in order to reduce its potential carrying capacity for the pest. The latter group includes a number of more recently developed techniques that are basically aimed at modifying species characteristics of the pest, such as alteration of genetic makeup or reproductive capacity (Chap. 4.3), or interference with normal behavioral and developmental functions (Chap. 4.4).
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© 1977 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg
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Coppel, H.C., Mertins, J.W. (1977). Manipulation of the Biological Environment for Insect Pest Suppression. In: Biological Insect Pest Suppression. Advanced Series in Agricultural Sciences, vol 4. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66487-8_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66487-8_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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