Landscape management for functional biodiversity

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Landscape management for functional biodiversity

Organization: IOBC/WPRS
Group Type: Methods Oriented

Activities

Prevention of crop attack by pests, diseases and weeds may be considered at different hierarchical scales. While the field scale has traditionally received much attention in strategic and applied research, the higher hierarchical scales of farm and landscape or region have only recently gained attention. Interdisciplinary research on issues such as functional biodiversity and landscape connectivity demonstrates that new options for pest control arise when systems management is approached from farm and regional scales. In addition to providing exciting new tools, this change in perspective is highly relevant in relation to the public debate on organic and integrated farming, the role of agriculture in landscape and nature management, and the increasing pressure on the rural areas to provide urban populations with 'green services'. Research at the farm and landscape scale requires inputs from a range of disciplines, such as meteorology, molecular biology, populations genetics, agronomy and landscape ecology. IOBC represents an excellent platform for stimulating and facilitating such inter-disciplinary discussions in this relatively young scientific field. Aim of the Working Group is to promote and stimulate basic and applied research activities related to improving cropping and farming system performance, in particular pest, disease and weed management, that adopt a landscape ecological approach. For this purpose, the Working Group acts as a platform for exchange of concepts and research results.