ex0817: Biological Pest Control
Description
In a study of the effectiveness of biological control of the exotic
weed tansy ragwort, researchers manipulated the exposure to the
ragwort flea beetle on 15 plots that had been planted with a high
density of ragwort. Harvesting the plots the next season, they
measured the average dry mass of ragwort remaining (grams/plant) and
the flea beetle load (beetles/gram of ragwort dry mass) to see if the
ragwort plants in plots with high flea beetle loads were smaller as a
result of herbivory by the beetles.source
Ramsey, F.L. and Schafer, D.W. (2002). The Statistical Sleuth: A
Course in Methods of Data Analysis (2nd ed), Duxbury.References
McEvoy, P. and Cox, C. (1991). Successful Biological Control of
Ragwort, Senecio jacobaea, by introducing insects in Oregon,
Ecological Applications 1(4): 430--442.