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Impact Of Cover Crops On Insect Community Dynamics In Organic Farming, Lili Martinez, Pushpa Soti, Jasleen Kaur, Alexis Racelis, Rupesh R. Kariyat

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Manipulating cover crops as an integrated pest management strategy has recently gained popularity in both traditional and organic agroecosystems. However, little information is available for producers to make informed decisions about cover crop selection, management, and their potential use as a pest management tool. To address this, we conducted a two-year, four-season field experiment on the potential of various cover crops during the summer seasons of both years, followed by monocultures of cash crops during winters. We hypothesized that the cover crop treatments would attract beneficial insects and repel damaging herbivores in a species-specific manner, and the insect community dynamics …