- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Associate professor Neal Williams will be the host.
"Agriculture faces the formidable challenge of securing food availability, producing renewable energy, and adapting to climate change - without compromising public goods closely tied to agricultural landscapes such as biodiversity, clean water, cultural values, and climate change mitigation," Bommarco says in his abstract. "A key vehicle to solve this dilemma is to replace external inputs, such as pesticides and mineral nutrients, with crop production options that rely entirely, or to large extent, on ecosystem services supplied by biodiversity. Focusing on two services provided by beneficial insects - crop pollination and biological pest control - I present examples of ecological and agronomic entomological research that can underpin the development of productive and sustainable agricultural practices."
Bommarco's primary research involves the ecology and management of crop pollination and biological control of insect pests in agricultural landscapes. He also addresses how conservation of biodiversity can be efficiently combined with agriculture and management of ecosystem services linked to crop production.
Of his work, Bommarco says on his website: "My research interest lies in exploring the landscape ecology of insects and plants in agricultural landscapes. I am interested in how land use, landscape structure, and conservation efforts affect the distribution and dynamics of biodiversity, with particular focus on organisms that deliver ecosystem services to us. In this context I examine the community ecology, population ecology and functioning of predators that provide us with biological control of agricultural pest insects, and of flower visiting insects (such as bumble bees, solitary bees, hover flies, and butterflies) that pollinate crop and wild flowers. I participate in interdisciplinary collaborations that aim to translate the attained information, on the ecology and functioning of various organisms inhabiting our cultured landscapes, into policy support and suggestions for future land use management of biodiversity and ecosystem services."
He is part of a research team working on these issues. (Read more at Ecosystem services and conservation research team.) In addition, Bommarco is the handling editor for Oecologia.
His recent publications include:
Garibaldi L et al. 2013. Wild bees enhance fruitset of crops regardless of honey bee abundance. Science in press
Rusch A, Bommarco R, Jonsson M, Smith HG, Ekbom B. 2013. Flow and stability of natural pest control services depend on complexity and crop rotation at the landscape scale. Journal of Applied Ecology in press
Bommarco R., Kleijn D., Potts S.G. Ecological intensification: harnessing ecosystem services for food security. Trends in Ecology and Evolution online
Marini L., A. Bertolli, E. Bona, G. Federici, F. Martini, F. Prosser & R. Bommarco. 2012. Beta-diversity patterns elucidate mechanisms of alien plant invasion in mountains. Global ecology and biogeography in press
Bommarco R., L. Marini, B.E. Vaissière. 2012. Insect pollination enhances seed yield, quality and market value in oilseed rape. Oecologia in press
Marini L., Bruun H.H., Heikkinen R.K., Helm A., Honnay O., Krauss J., Kühn I., Lindborg R., Pärtel M., Bommarco R. 2012. Traits related to species persistence and dispersal explain changes in plant communities subjected to habitat loss. Diversity and Distributions in press
Bommarco's seminar is scheduled to be video-recorded for later posting on UCTV.
(Editor's Note: See remainder of Spring Quarter Seminars, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology)