Nurturing with ulterior motives: the use of refuges in agricultural pest control
Dr. John Ringland
When nonlinear dynamical processes occur in a heterogeneous environment, complexity
and surprises are often in store.
A case in point is in the reproduction and survival of an agricultural pest species
in a habitat consisting mainly of crops that have been made strongly pesticidal by
genetic engineering, but partly of benign "refuges" for the pests.
I will show how nurturing pests can actually be an effective means of controlling
them, but that there are balancing acts involved. If we get it right, the greatly
feared development of pesticide resistance in the pest population can be not only
delayed but prevented indefinitely. If we get it wrong, we can actually ignite this
process we are trying to prevent.
REFERENCES:
"Analysis of Sustainable Pest Control Using a Pesticide and a Screened Refuge", J.
Ringland and P. George, Evolutionary Applications, 4 (2011), 459-470.
"Boundaries of Sustainability in Simple and Elaborate Models of Agricultural Pest
Control with a Pesticide and a Nontoxic Refuge", J. Mohammed-Awel, J. Bantle, A. Festinger,
H. Jo, R. Klafehn, J. Ringland, J. Biol. Dyn., 6 (2012), 80-95.
