Lesson 9 – Semi-Natural Habitats and Birds as Pest Managers

 

Presentation Recording

Presenters

Karina Garcia is an agroecologist from Salinas, California– an agriculturally rich area near the Pacific Coast. She completed her PhD in the Department of Entomology at the University of Kentucky in 2022. Her dissertation focused on the net effects (services and disservices) of both wild and domesticated birds in agricultural settings. She is currently a Sustainability and Farm Data Analyst at Handsome Brook Farms.

Daniel Garcia is a Biologist and Professor of Ecology at the University of Oviedo (Spain), where he has work since 2001. Before that he developed his academic career in the University of Granada (Spain) and LavaI University (Québec, Canada). He was born and raised in the Basque Country, and he developed there his love to the forests and mountains of the rainy -and green- northern Spain. This shaped his view of nature as an ecologist, always interested in answering the “whys and hows” about plants and animals functioning together. His research focuses on the ecology of populations and communities in terrestrial ecosystems. Using ecological interactions (predation, exploitation, mutualism, facilitation) as study targets, he has evaluated the effects of human impacts (land use, habitat loss and fragmentation) in the outcome of ecological processes. In the last ten years, he’s been studying biodiversity effects on ecosystem services such as seed dispersal, pest control and crop pollination. His academic goal is to enrich the agroecology approach with the theoretical understanding of landscape heterogeneity and ecological networks. For that, he currently lead the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Lab (BESLab www.beslab.net)

Learning Objectives

Upon successfully completing this lesson, learners will be able to:

• Explain how semi-natural habitat at both farm and landscape scales influences bird abundance and biodiversity in agricultural systems.
• Evaluate how local (farm-scale) habitat management can enhance bird-mediated pest control without increasing crop damage risk.
• Know why the relationship between woody habitats and birds as pest managers is reciprocal.
• Identify the actions that farmers and managers can do to promote birds through woody habitats.

Resources

The good, the bad, and the risky: can birds be incorporated as biological control agents into integrated pest management programs? Garcia, Karina, 2020. 

Semi-natural habitats on organic strawberry farms and in surrounding landscapes promote bird biodiversity and pest control potential. Garcia, Karina, 2023.

Common birds combine pest control and seed dispersal in apple orchards through a hybrid interaction network. Garcia, Daniel, 2024.

Enhancing ecosystem services in apple orchards: Nest boxes increase pest control by insectivorous birds. Garcia, Daniel, 2020.

Birds as suppliers of pest control in cider apple orchards: Avian biodiversity drivers and insectivory effect. Garcia, Daniel, 2018.

 

Videos