Lessons from projects in DYNAFOR Lab

Many insect pest species exploit several types of habitats in agricultural landscapes. As these habitats may export or import individuals, identifying habitats acting as sources and sinks and determining the spatial scale of their effects is critical for managing landscapes to enhance pest control. Here I describe a systematic, spatially-explicit approach that can be used to characterize and test the effects of source and sink habitats and of local factors on pest attributes. This approach was used to predict spatial variation in population dynamics in Lygus hesperus and evolution of insecticide resistance in Bemisia tabaci, suggesting that it has the potential to improve the design of landscape-level management strategies in many pests.