Conservation Biological Control Experiments from UK Field Crops, 2005-2009

Five field experiments from the NERC Rural Economy and Land Use programme investigated biological pest control techniques in UK cereal crops. Data collection occurred between 2005 and 2009, focusing on habitat manipulation and semiochemical odours as alternatives to insecticides. The research aimed to understand barriers to adopting integrated pest management strategies.

Use Cases

• Analyze the effect of wild field margin habitats on pest and predator population dynamics.
• Model the efficacy of semiochemical odour-based predator distribution techniques at field scale.
• Investigate portfolio and scale effects on the overall efficacy of integrated pest management (IPM) technologies.
• Compare technical and economic factors influencing farmer adoption of biocontrol versus pesticide use.

Strengths

• Data originates from five structured field experiments within a major UK research programme (NERC RELU).
• Covers a multi-year temporal range from 2005 to 2009 for longitudinal analysis.
• Focuses on a specific, high-impact agricultural case study: summer cereal aphid control.

Limitations

• Sample size and data volume (rows, columns) are unspecified, limiting assessment of analytical scope.
• Data is over 15 years old, which may not reflect current agricultural practices or environmental conditions.
• The dataset is part of a larger project; its relationship to socio-economic and other experimental data is not detailed here.

Provenance

Source

Environmental Information Data Centre, part of the NERC Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme.

Collection Method

Collected from controlled and field-scale agricultural experiments on habitat manipulation and semiochemical use.

Time Range

2005 to 2009

Freshness

Data was last updated in the repository on March 11, 2026, but the underlying collection period ended in 2009.

Geography

United Kingdom, specifically arable field crop systems.