This book is the first to integrate biological control into a conceptual framework – ecostacking - uniting all aspects of biological control and ecosystem services. In 2018 the "First International Congress of Biological Control" was organised and held in Beijing, China. The chapters highlight some of the achievements presented at the congress, worldwide. Of particular significance are the numerous contributions by Chinese researchers illustrating the remarkable progress made on developing and adopting multiple biological control strategies over vast agricultural areas, largely replacing chemical pesticides for sustainable agricultural and horticultural production. In many parts of the world including Europe, fragmented research based on short-term funding has been unable to answer to the needs to develop sustainable long-term solutions to crop protection, while colleagues in China have been successful in implementing programs that exemplify the power of the ecostacking approach.
Key contributions by European and US specialists combined with the expertise and experiences by the Chinese contributors comprise the building blocks for the integration of biological control approaches into the overall frame of ecostacking. This book will lead the way to a broader, integrated adoption of biological control techniques in sustainable pest, disease and weed management supporting also the functioning of other key ecosystem services.
Chapter 2 of this book isavailable open
access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com
Professor Yulin Gao is a Professor and Extension Entomology Specialist of the Institute of Plant Protection at Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China. He is international known for his research on integrated pest management in potato and vegetable crops. He serves as the Vice President of APRS-IOBC and also serves as the Executive Editor of the well-known international journal Pest Management Science. Furthermore he serves as an editorial board member for a number of journals including Journal of Economic Entomology, Environmental Entomology and Journal of Pest Science.
Professor emeritus Heikki M.T. Hokkanen is a leading authority on biological control and integrated pest management. Currently he is affiliated with the University of Eastern Finland, Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, as well as with the Southwest University, College of Plant Protection, Chongqing, China. He is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Springer book series "Progress in Biological Control", and of the Springer journal "Arthropod-Plant Interactions".
Dr. Ingeborg Menzler-Hokkanen works as a university researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Kuopio campus, Finland. She has over 20 years of experience in entomological work with focus on biological control, integrated pest management, and pollinators. In addition, she has expertise in socio-economic questions (with a PhD in Economics), including regulation of new technologies, adoption of new technologies by end-users, and ethical questions.
