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Effects of intercropping with aromatic plants on the diversity and structure of an arthropod community in a pear orchard

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Abstract

Five aromatic plants, Centaurea cyanus, Saturela hortensis, Nepeta cataria, Agerarum houstonianum, and Ocimum basilicum, were assessed as intercrops in a pear orchard, and all significantly reduced the pest population compared with that in the plot natural grasses. The decrease was particularly marked for C. cyanus, S. hortensis, and A. houstonianum, and plots intercropped with these aromatic plants also had significantly higher values of ratios of natural enemies to pests, Simpson’s index, the Shannon–Wiener index, and the evenness index of arthropod species at the flowering, immature-fruits, and fruit-growth stages of the pear trees. In none of the plots except that intercropped with C. cyanus, however, were there any significant changes in the abundance of predators and parasitoids. Intercropping with aromatic plants in pear orchards proved beneficial to the main crop by repelling pests and regulating the structure of the arthropod community in the pear orchard ecosystem.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support was provided by Key Projects in the National Science and Technology Pillar Program in the Eleventh Five-year Plan Period (2008BAD92B08-1) and Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation Project (6102004). We thank the Key Laboratory of Pomology in Beijing University of Agriculture, and thank all technicians of Daxing forestry administration in Beijing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Science and Technology, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, 102206, China

    Bei Zhou Song, Hong Ying Wu, Yun Kong, Jie Zhang, Yan Li Du, Jing Hui Hu & Yun Cong Yao

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  1. Bei Zhou Song
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  2. Hong Ying Wu
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  3. Yun Kong
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  4. Jie Zhang
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  5. Yan Li Du
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  6. Jing Hui Hu
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  7. Yun Cong Yao
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Correspondence to Yun Cong Yao.

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Beizhou Song and Hongying Wu contributed equally to this work.

Handling Editor: Dirk Babendreier.

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Song, B.Z., Wu, H.Y., Kong, Y. et al. Effects of intercropping with aromatic plants on the diversity and structure of an arthropod community in a pear orchard. BioControl 55, 741–751 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-010-9301-2

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