Ecosystem based approaches to apple orchard management

The conventional management of orchards makes intensive use of pesticides that can have detrimental impacts on the biodiversity of apple orchard ecosystems. Biodiversity provides a range of important ecosystem services that are essential for system functioning and stability and which are of benefit to society, but which tend to be eroded by intensive agricultural management practices. This project will explore a range of management interventions using experimental and commercial apple orchards at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) farm at Loughgall, Northern Ireland. The project will employ ecosystem based approaches that take into account the trophic and non-trophic interactions amongst species, which are important for determining ecosystem functioning and stability. The ecological networks describing predation and pollination within apple orchards will be quantified across gradients of management intensity and history. The aim will be to implement cost effective management interventions that promote the biodiversity of key groups such as flowering plants, pollinators and natural enemies to benefit food production in apple orchard systems. The project will form part of an ongoing thematic focus on apple orchard production and will contribute to a collaboration between the universities of Bristol and Galway with Queen’s University Belfast and AFBI.