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Dryad

Influence of crop field size on pest densities, pesticide use, and crop yield

Cite this dataset

Rosenheim, Jay (2022). Influence of crop field size on pest densities, pesticide use, and crop yield [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.25338/B8006R

Abstract

Increasing diversity on farms can enhance many key ecosystem services to and from agriculture, and natural control of arthropod pests is often presumed to be among them.  The expectation that increasing the size of monocultural crop plantings exacerbates the impact of pests is common throughout the agroecological literature.  Here, we share five data sets, describing 14 pest species, 5 crops (cotton in California, citrus in California, potatoes in Peru, grapes in Spain, and olives in Spain), and 20,000 field-years of observations, that allow us to quantify the impact of field size on pest densities, pesticide applications, and crop yield. 

Methods

Data were collected by farmers, farm staff, or private pest control advisors in commercial agriculture (subsistence agriculture for Peru only).  Detailed methods on sampling are described in the companion paper ("Testing a tenet of agroecology: do larger field sizes exacerbate insect pest problems?").

Usage notes

Metadata are included with each data file, explaining the meaning of all variables.

Funding

United States Department of Agriculture, Award: USDA-FACT 2020-67021-32477