Increasing concern over worldwide loss of biodiversity has led ecologists to focus intently on how ecosystem functioning may depend on diversity. In applied entomology, there is longstanding interest in the issue, especially as regards the importance of natural enemy diversity for pest control. Here I review parallels in interest, conceptual framework, and conclusions concerning biodiversity as it affects ecosystem functioning in general and classical biological control in particular. Whereas the former focuses on implications of loss of diversity, the latter focuses on implications of increase in diversity as additional species of natural enemies are introduced to novel communities in new geographic regions for insect pest and weed control. Many field studies now demonstrate that ecosystem functioning, e.g., as reflected in primary productivity, is enhanced and stabilized over time by high diversity as the community increases in its efficiency in exploiting available resources. Similarly, there is growing field support for the generalization that increasing species and functional diversity of natural enemies leads to increasing pest suppression. Nonetheless a central concern of classical biological control in particular, as it seeks to minimize non-target effects, remains as to whether one or a few species of natural enemies can provide sufficient pest control.

中文翻译：

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生物多样性、生态系统功能和经典生物控制

对全球生物多样性丧失的日益关注导致生态学家专注于生态系统功能如何依赖于多样性。在应用昆虫学中，长期以来一直对这个问题感兴趣，尤其是天敌多样性对害虫控制的重要性。在这里，我回顾了关于生物多样性的兴趣、概念框架和结论的相似之处，因为它影响一般的生态系统功能，特别是经典的生物控制。前者侧重于多样性丧失的影响，而后者侧重于多样性增加的影响，因为额外的天敌物种被引入新地理区域的新群落以控制害虫和杂草。许多实地研究现在表明，生态系统的功能，例如反映在初级生产力、随着社区在开发可用资源方面的效率提高，高度多样性会随着时间的推移而增强和稳定。同样，越来越多的现场支持普遍认为，天敌的物种和功能多样性的增加会导致害虫抑制的增加。尽管如此，经典生物防治的一个中心问题仍然是，特别是当它寻求最大限度地减少非目标效应时，一种或几种天敌是否可以提供足够的害虫防治。