Abstract Pesticides used in agriculture to prevent yield and economic loss are a threat for the natural heritage worldwide. Finding win-win solutions for pest control management in sustainable and profitable agriculture is a current yet elusive challenge for human societies. The main alternative to reduce pest damage in a sustainable manner consists in fostering natural enemies through the extensification of agricultural practices or the promotion of heterogeneous landscapes. However, very few studies have analyzed the combined effects of these components on natural enemies and pests simultaneously. In this work, we fit meta-models (using Piecewise Structural Equation Models) aiming to understand the direct and indirect effects of agricultural management, landscape heterogeneity and climatic variables on insectivorous birds, pest abundance and crop damage. For this, we focus on olive groves, one of the most important woody agroecosystems worldwide, and its two main pest species. We found that management extensification and landscape heterogeneity benefited pest control and supported more insectivorous birds. Also, high temperatures diminished pest damage. Compared to landscape and temperature effects, abundance/richness of insectivorous birds were poor predictors of pest abundance and damage, suggesting that other natural enemies might be currently more important for pest control in olive groves. Lastly, we found a decoupled response of pest abundance and pest damage that may be attributed to insecticide use. This suggests that predation pressure by birds might predict better pest abundance than pest damage in our system. Current predation pressure by birds against pests in olive groves seems very low. Fostering extensive management and landscape heterogeneity increases the abundance of insectivorous birds in this system, potentially enhancing the pest control service.

中文翻译：

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农业实践、景观复杂性和气候对橄榄林中食虫鸟类、害虫数量和损害的直接和间接影响

摘要 农业中用于防止产量和经济损失的农药对全世界的自然遗产构成威胁。在可持续和盈利的农业中寻找虫害控制管理的双赢解决方案是当前人类社会面临的一个难以捉摸的挑战。以可持续的方式减少害虫损害的主要替代方法是通过扩大农业实践或促进异质景观来培育天敌。然而，很少有研究同时分析这些成分对天敌和害虫的综合影响。在这项工作中，我们拟合了元模型（使用分段结构方程模型），旨在了解农业管理、景观异质性和气候变量对食虫鸟类的直接和间接影响，害虫数量和作物损失。为此，我们专注于橄榄树，这是全球最重要的木本农业生态系统之一，以及它的两个主要害虫物种。我们发现管理扩展和景观异质性有利于害虫控制并支持更多的食虫鸟类。此外，高温减少了害虫的损害。与景观和温度影响相比，食虫鸟类的丰度/丰富度对害虫丰度和损害的预测较差，这表明其他天敌目前可能对橄榄园的害虫控制更为重要。最后，我们发现可能归因于杀虫剂使用的害虫丰度和害虫损害的脱钩反应。这表明鸟类的捕食压力可能比我们系统中的害虫破坏预测更好的害虫数量。目前鸟类对橄榄树害虫的捕食压力似乎非常低。促进粗放管理和景观异质性增加了该系统中食虫鸟类的数量，有可能增强害虫防治服务。