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Navigating the Trade-off between Pest Management and Pollinator Conservation
Originally introduced in the mid-1990s, neonicotinoid insecticides (‘neonics’) experienced an exponential rise in use on farmland over the past two decades and are now the most widely used insecticides in the world. Unfortunately, the attributes that make neonics versatile and powerful pest management tools also make non-targeted insects vulnerable to their effects. Specifically, neonics have…
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Informing Conservation Program Targeting for Cost-Effective Integrated Pollinator-Pest Management
Pollinator-dependent crops–mostly fruits, vegetables, and nuts–tend to be high-valued, high-nutrition food and shortages in the availability of pollination services could be devastating from both nutritional and economic perspectives. Recent declines in both managed and wild pollinators have been attributed in part to habitat loss and pesticide exposure. Growers of pollinator-dependent crops are thus confronted with…
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Targeted Conservation Contracts To Enhance Agricultural Best Management Practices: Incorporating Heterogeneity and Predicting Additionality
This project is a coordinated effort involving researchers from Clark University and the University of Delaware, and funded by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2016-67023-21757 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The U.S. spends billions on state and federal policies encouraging farmers to implement best management practices (BMPs) through…
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Spatially Explicit Ecosystem Service Benefit Transfer for Policy Evaluation: An Integrated Biophysical and Meta-Analytic Approach
The USDA spends over $5 billion annually on conservation programs to enhance ecosystem services that promote agricultural sustainability, often targeting benefits such as water quality and aquatic ecosystem services. While the biophysical impacts of these programs can be estimated using established models, the economic benefits are generally unknown. Addressing this shortcoming requires practical, reliable and…
