Nonlinear state-dependent feedback control of a pest-natural enemy system

Natural enemy interactions constrain pest control in complex agricultural landscapes.

Biological control of pests by natural enemies is a major ecosystem service delivered to agriculture worldwide. Quantifying and predicting its effectiveness at large spatial scales is critical for increased sustainability of agricultural production. Landscape complexity is known to benefit natural enemies, but its effects on interactions between natural enemies and the consequences for crop dam...

Theoretical Study of Pest Control Using Stage Structured Natural Enemies with Maturation Delay: A Crop-Pest-Natural Enemy Model

In the natural world, there are many insect species whose individual members have a life history that takes them through two stages, immature and mature. Moreover, the rates of survival, development, and reproduction almost always depend on age, size, or development stage. Keeping this in mind, in this paper, a three species crop-pest-natural enemy food chain model with two stages for natural e...

Time-Invariant State Feedback Control Laws for a Special Form of Underactuated Nonlinear Systems Using Linear State Bisection

Linear state bisection is introduced as a new method to find time-invariant state feedback control laws for a special form of underactuated nonlinear systems. The specialty of the systems considered is that every unactuated state should be coupled with at least two directly actuated states. The basic idea is based on bisecting actuated states and using linear combinations with adjustable parame...

Dual Defense: Pest-resistant Turf and Natural Enemy Interactions

Pest control of aphids depends on landscape complexity and natural enemy interactions.

Aphids are a major concern in agricultural crops worldwide, and control by natural enemies is an essential component of the ecological intensification of agriculture. Although the complexity of agricultural landscapes is known to influence natural enemies of pests, few studies have measured the degree of pest control by different enemy guilds across gradients in landscape complexity. Here, we u...