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. (2013). The Statistical Sleuth: A
Course in Methods of Data Analysis (3rd ed), Cengage Learning.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.