For several years, this topic has been the focus of research in our lab. Biodiversity has two components, the number of species (species richness) and the relative abundances of those species (species evenness). We have been documenting the critical role that natural enemy richness and evenness play in herbivore suppression. Our work has variously focused on biodiversity among predators, pathogens and parasitoids, with a wide variety of insect herbivores serving as their prey/hosts. This research has been supported by several large USDA-NRI grants.
You can read more about our enemy biodiversity work at: Washington State Magazine, Nature.com, Seattle Times, and NY Times.
See more about our Biodiversity and Biocontrol Laboratory.
