Abstract
In Spain, water use in agriculture is expected to become limited by resources in the future. It is pertinent to study the effect of decreased irrigation on the presence of pests, plant damage, and arthropod communities in a super-intensive olive orchard examined from 2017 to 2019. Arthropods were studied with visual and vacuum sampling methods in two irrigation treatments (T1—control and T2—Regulated Deficit Irrigation (RDI)). Univariate analyses showed that the total arthropod abundance was significantly greater in T1 than in T2 in 2018 and 2019, mostly due to Diptera Nematocera. Visual sampling revealed that the feeding damage produced by Eriophyidae (Trombidiformes) was significantly lower in T2 in 2018 and 2019: 10–40% of shoots were affected in the late season compared with 50–60% affected for T1. The feeding symptoms caused by Palpita unionalis Hübner (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) and Zelleria oleastrella (Milliere) (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae) were significantly less for T2 than for T1. Multivariate principal response curves showed significant differences between irrigation strategies in the 2018 and 2019 data for both sampling methods. In conclusion, irrigation schemes with restricted water use (T2—RDI) help to reduce the abundance of several types of pests in olive crops, especially of those that feed on the plants’ new sprouts.
Highlights
Super-intensive olive management has increased rapidly in Spain, especially in Andalucía, with a 116% acreage increment between 2015 and 2018 [1]
Trees are planted in hedges to form continuous vegetation with the main objective of increasing harvest for oil production and with the advantage of drastically reducing harvest costs and other cultural practices [2]
The present study aims to improve the knowledge about how crop management can impact the presence of arthropods in olive orchards
Summary
Super-intensive olive management has increased rapidly in Spain, especially in Andalucía, with a 116% acreage increment between 2015 and 2018 [1]. Trees are planted in hedges to form continuous vegetation (a different management strategy from the usual olive crop) with the main objective of increasing harvest for oil production and with the advantage of drastically reducing harvest costs and other cultural practices [2]. This trend is currently observed in areas with sufficient water supply for irrigation that have been prepared to use harvesting machines and other mechanized operations, but irrigation in super-intensive olive orchards can double the water usage of a more traditional olive orchard [3,4]. Different strategies based on deficient irrigation are of great interest in arid and semiarid zones—such as the Mediterranean basin—to sustainably use water [7]
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