Special Issue "Innovating Practice and Policy for Sustainable Pest Management"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. David Ervin
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Departments of Economics and Environmental Science and Management, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97207-0751, USA
Interests: sustainability of genetically engineered crops; pest resistance management; ecosystem service valuation; business sustainability motivations
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Sonia Graham
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Geography and Sustainable Communities, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Interests: collective action; environmental justice; community-led weed management
Dr. David R. Shaw
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Provost and Executive Vice President, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA
Interests: herbicide resistance; wicked problems; community-based solutions development
Dr. George Frisvold
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Interests: environmental and resource economics; regulation and use of biotechnology; integrated pest management
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Many species have evolved resistance to pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and antibiotics. Weed, insect, plant pathogen, and antibiotic resistance is escalating around the world despite valiant public and private efforts to stem the advance. Left unchecked, these trends threaten widespread ecological, social and economic damage, especially in agriculture. Current approaches to manage pest resistance rely heavily on finding new technologies to replace those that have become ineffective. Yet, science and experience tell us that all new technologies are susceptible to resistance if not managed properly. The root causes of resistance arise from a combination of ecological, socio-economic, technological and human behavior factors. Befitting such a complex set of interactions, pest resistance is a “wicked problem” that requires transdisciplinary approaches under the convergence paradigm with deep integration across natural and social science disciplines and with non-academic experts.  

Innovating more sustainable approaches to manage pest resistance poses a critical scientific challenge of forging new research collaborations that fully engage stakeholders from industry, government and civil society from the outset. This special issue reports scientific and policy advances that hold significant potential to develop such innovations. The articles may address one or more of the following questions:

  1. Under what socio-ecological conditions can uncoordinated individual decisions achieve sustainable management of pest resistance?
  2. Under what socio-ecological conditions are collective, community-based approaches necessary to sustain effective pest resistance management under common pool resource conditions?
  3. What are the key impediments/barriers and enabling conditions to instituting collective-community-based approaches to pest resistance management?
    • How do social and ecological systems interact to generate constructive enabling conditions or subdue the impediments/barriers?
  4. What are the primary social behaviors that foster unsustainable pest resistance management?
  5. What local, state and federal policies constrain or enable effective pest resistance management regimes that are tailored to local/regional socio-ecological conditions?
  6. What lessons from sustainable pest management regimes can help incubate new successful efforts in other areas and regions beset by resistance epidemics?
  7. How do different decisions in social systems of resistance management generate, and in turn become formed by, biological conditions of pests in the local environment?
  8. How do management strategies for multiple vectors of resistance, such as weeds, insects, and viruses, interact to the detriment or support of one another?
    • How can multiple vectors of resistance be managed holistically through integration of social and ecological knowledge systems?

This Special Issue seeks to collect papers aimed at developing and evaluating policy options to address resistance problems in agriculture. This includes empirical studies of past policy successes (or failures) as well as prescriptive articles, making the case for innovative policies. Papers that take a synthetic approach, for example considering insecticide, herbicide and antibiotic resistance as an overarching problem, are of interest. Also welcome are analyses of the role of non-chemical pest control options, and policies to promote them.


Prof. David Ervin
Dr. Sonia Graham
Dr. David R. Shaw
Dr. George Frisvold
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • herbicide resistance
  • insecticide resistance
  • plant pathogen resistance
  • sustainable
  • transdisciplinary
  • convergence
  • socio-ecological
  • policy options
  • collective action
  • community-based
  • stakeholder engagement
  • experiential knowledge

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Non-Chemical Control of Annual Bluegrass (Poa annua) in Bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) via Fraise Mowing: Efficacy and Barriers to Adoption
Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8124; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158124 - 21 Jul 2021
Viewed by 526
Abstract
Fraise mowing is a maintenance practice that may serve as a non-chemical means of controlling the problematic weed annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.) in bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) given reports of efficacy on other turfgrass species. However, an understanding of practitioner decision-making [...] Read more.
Fraise mowing is a maintenance practice that may serve as a non-chemical means of controlling the problematic weed annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.) in bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) given reports of efficacy on other turfgrass species. However, an understanding of practitioner decision-making in implementing fraise mowing as a weed-control measure remains unknown. A field study was conducted in Knoxville, TN and repeated in space in Jay, FL during summer 2019 to assess bermudagrass regrowth and subsequent annual bluegrass control, following fraise mowing at depths of 1.5 and 3.0 cm compared to a non-treated check (0 cm). Bermudagrass recovered more quickly at the 1.5 cm depth than the 3.0 cm depth and was the swiftest in Florida. Fraise mowing at either depth resulted in a 41–97% reduction in annual bluegrass populations. A qualitative study was conducted in spring 2021, which engaged eight turfgrass managers from Tennessee and Florida via individual interviews in order to understand barriers and challenges to fraise mowing application. Turfgrass managers had positive views of fraise mowing but described challenges in implementation for weed control including cost, labor, area closure, and debris removal. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovating Practice and Policy for Sustainable Pest Management)
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Article
Herbicide Resistance, Tillage, and Community Management in the Pacific Northwest
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1937; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041937 - 11 Feb 2021
Viewed by 446
Abstract
The use of glyphosate as a replacement for tillage has been credited with spurring the adoption of conservation tillage in the United States. With herbicide-resistant weeds becoming a significant agronomic problem, however, it is unclear whether conservation tillage gains are in danger of [...] Read more.
The use of glyphosate as a replacement for tillage has been credited with spurring the adoption of conservation tillage in the United States. With herbicide-resistant weeds becoming a significant agronomic problem, however, it is unclear whether conservation tillage gains are in danger of being reversed as farmers turn to tillage to manage weeds that herbicides can no longer kill. Using 2015 focus groups, a 2016 national survey, and an ongoing Community Herbicide Resistance Management Initiative in four communities of the Pacific Northwest we assess the following questions: (1) How do U.S. farmers view tillage as an option for controlling herbicide-resistant weeds, (2) Do attitudes towards and experience with herbicide-resistant increase farmers’ usage of tillage, and (3) Can community management provide an avenue for maintaining conservation tillage while also increasing effective management of herbicide-resistant weeds? We find that many farmers consider tillage to be an emergency fail-safe in managing weeds, that there is a complex relationship between herbicide resistance awareness, concern, and tillage use that can be partly explained by experience and dedication to conservation tillage, and finally that community management has the potential to provide the support and resources necessary to prevent a large-scale increase in tillage related to herbicide resistance management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovating Practice and Policy for Sustainable Pest Management)
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