Crop rotation, plant nutrition, and changing sensitivity in cotton to Lygus herbivory

Crop plants can often sustain considerable herbivory by insect pests without showing loss of yield.  This plant compensation ability is a key ecosystem service provided by the crop plant itself.  In some cases, however, a plant’s compensation ability may be influenced by agronomic practices, including crop nutrient management or crop rotation.  Thus, maximizing ecosystem services may require us to understand the interactions of processes typically studied in isolation by agronomists and pest management researchers.  I review a case study of the impact of Lygus hesperus herbivory on cotton production.  In this case, the nutrient status of the plant, itself shaped primarily by the history of crop rotation, changed the sensitivity of the host plant to herbivory by Lygus.  Understanding this effect is critical to helping farmers manage Lygus pests while avoiding costly and unnecessary pesticide applications.