Chapter 14 Agricultural Methods and Pest Management

Pheromone

A chemical used by one animal that changes the behavior of another.

Chlorinated Hydrocarbons

A group of pesticides of complex, stable structure that contain carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine.

Glyphosate

A herbicide that controls annual and perennial plants.

Atrazine

A herbicide that controls broad-leaf or grassy weeds.

Fenuron

A herbicide that kills woody plants.

Auxin

A herbicide that mimics natural growth regulators.

Integrated Pest Management

A method of pest management in which many aspects of the pests biology are exploited to control its numbers.

Precision Agriculture

A new technique that addresses fertilizer and pesticide runoff.

Macronutrients

A nutrient such as nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium, that is required in relatively large amounts of plants. They are the common ingredients of chemical fertilizers.

Monoculture

A system of agriculture in which large tracts of land are planted with the same crop for efficient planting, cultivating, and harvesting.

Polyculture

A system of agriculture that mixes different plant species in the same plots of land.

Diuron

An herbicide that is effective against the target organism in the proper concentration, at the appropriate time, but will kill all vegetation at higher concentrations.

Genetically Modified Organism

An organism that has an altered genetic makeup due to genetic engineering or biotechnology.

Organophosphates and Carbamates

Both work by interfering with the ability of the nervous system to conduct impulses normally.

Alternative Agriculture

Includes all non-traditional agricultural methods.

Genetic Engineering or Biotechnology

Inserting specific pieces of DNA into the genetic makeup of organisms.

Shifting Agriculture (slash and burn)

Involves cutting down and burning the trees and other vegetation in a small area of forest. (See figure 14.1.) Burning releases nutrients that were tied up in the biomass and allows a few crops to be raised before the nutrients in the soil are depleted.

Sustainable Agriculture

Involves modifications to conventional farming practices to reduce reliance on fertilizers and pesticides and protect agricultural and natural systems while producing adequate safe food in an economically viable manner.

Organic Agriculture

Is distinguished by methods that do not involve the use of artificial fertilizers, chemical growth regulators, antibiotics, pesticides, and genetically modified organisms.

Eagles, osprey, cormorants, and pelicans

List four organism in higher trophic levels who are susceptible to the consumption of concentrated amounts of DDT.

It would be inexpensive, it would affect only the target organism, it would have a short half life, and it would breakdown into harmless materials.

List the four characteristics of a perfect pesticide.

Maintains pore space, modifies the structure of soil, and allows water and air to move through roots.

List three important components of organic material.

Provides habitat for soil organisms, makes humus, an maintains soil chemistry.

List three important results of the decomposition of organic matter.

Increasing protein and sucrose content, enriching vitamin E and provitamin A, and herbicide and insect resistance.

List three reasons that crops are modified.

Increasing population, crop subsidies and trade barriers, higher fuel costs, and poverty.

Long term solutions to feeding the world's hungry are complex and are unlikely to be found without dealing with the following:

Micronutrients

Nutrients needed in extremely small amounts for proper plant growth.

Any chemical used to kill or control populations of unwanted fungi, animals, or plants.

Pesticide

Persistent Pesticides

Pesticides that are stable over long periods of time.

Nonpersistent Pesticides.

Pesticides that break down quickly.

Biomagnification

The phenomenon of acquiring increasing levels of a substance in the bodies of higher-trophic-level organisms

Bioaccumulation

The process of accumulating higher and higher amounts of material within the body of an animal.

Thin, nutrient-poor tropical soils, and on steep slopes.

The shifting agriculture method, also called the slash and burn method, is particularly useful in what areas?

Conserve soil and water resources, reduce use of fertilizer and pesticides, promote biodiversity in the farming operation and in the surrounding natural ecosystems, sustain the economic viability of farm operations, and enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.

The sustainable approach to agriculture is characterized by what five goals?

1979

The use of PCBs was discontinued in what year?

Labor Intensive Agriculture

This form of agriculture developed in areas of the world with better soils and involves a great deal of manual labor to till, plant, and harvest the crop.

Reduced amounts of organic matter and altered physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil.

Total dependency on chemical fertilizers can sometimes result in what?

The growing site does not allow for mechanization, the kind of crop requires much hand labor, or the economic condition of the people does not allow them to purchase the tools and machines used for mechanized agriculture.

What 3 factors favor labor intensive agriculture?

Tilling, planting, harvesting, and pumping irrigation water.

What 4 ways is energy needed in mechanized agriculture?

Boron, zinc, and manganese.

What are 3 examples of micronutrients?

Loss of genetic diversity, reliance on pesticides, reliance on fertilizer, and soil erosion.

What are 4 draw backs of monoculture?

Reduce use of nitrogen-based fertilizers and improve storage of manure. Reduce runoff from feedlots. Plant perennial crops instead of fertilizer-intensive corn and soybeans on 10 percent of the acreage. Remove nitrogen and phosphorus from domestic wastewater. Restore 2 million to 4 million hectares (5-10 million acres) of wetlands, which absorb nitrogen runoff.

What are four approaches that could reduce the amount of hypoxia-causing nitrogen released into the Mississippi River Basin?

Insects, weeds, rodents, and fungi.

What are four pest species?

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium compounds.

What are the 3 primary macronutrients nutrients often in short supply?

Increased yield and greater disease resistance.

What are the main driving forces behind the continual development of new varieties of domesticated plant and animal species?

Products must have at least 70 percent organic ingredients, the use of genetic engineering is prohibited, and no chemical fertilizer or synthetic pesticides can be used.

What are the requirements for the certification and labeling of organic foods?

Fertilizers replace nutrients but not soil matter, prices of chemical fertilizers are dependent on world energy prices, and water moves nutrients in soil that causes them to accumulate in water bodies.

What are three drawbacks of using fertilizers?

Aldrin, DDT, and Chlordane.

What are three examples of chlorinated hydrocarbons?

Weeds take nutrients from soil, shade crop species, and take water from soil.

What are three reasons that weeds are targeted with herbicides?

Increasing organic matter in the soil, reducing the amount of fertilizer applied, and applying fertilizer as plants need it.

What are three ways fertilizer run of can be lessened?

It can only be economically successful in specific cases and it cannot produce enough food for today's population.

What are two economic limitations to sustainable agriculture?

To kill organisms that spread disease and damage crops in the field.

What are two reasons for the use of rodenticides?

They are prevalent in the US and wester world, organisms will continue to be tested, and all breeding requires genetic modification.

What do supporters of genetically modified organisms in agriculture argue?

A complete understanding of all ecological aspects of the crop and the particular pests to which it is susceptible, information about the metabolism of the crop plant, the biological interactions between pests and their predators or parasites, the climatic conditions that favor certain pests, and techniques for encouraging beneficial insects.

What does integrated pest management require?

Water dissolves soil nutrients and carries them into streams and lakes, where they may encourage the growth of unwanted plants and algae.

What happens as water moves through the soil?

Disrupting reproduction, using beneficial organisms to control pests, developing resistant crops, modifying farming practices, and selectively using pesticides.

What methods are employed in integrated pest management?

Cormorants

What organism in the Great Lakes experienced a large decline in population from the use of PBCs?

25%

What percent of the world's crop yield can be directly attributed to the use of chemical fertilizers?

They have increased the amount of food that can be grown in many parts of the world, their economic value, and many health problems are currently impossible to control without them.

What the three primary reasons that pesticides are used so extensively?

Predatory insects, herbivorous insects, and pesticide-producing bacteria.

What types of beneficial organisms can be used to control pests?

1972

What year did the United States ban the use of DDT for all agricultural use?

Macronutrient Nitrogen

When harvesting one metric ton of potatoes, what would you expect to find more of?

The Stockholm Convention

Where did the decision to ban the use of DDT for agricultural use worldwide conclude?

Developing countries such as Brazil.

Which regions see consistent use of persistent pesticides?

They replace the soil nutrients removed by plants.

Why are fertilizers valuable?

As treatments to protect seeds from rotting before germination, as fumigants to protect agricultural products from spoilage, and as sprays and dusts to prevent spread of disease among plants.

Why are fungicides used?

They kill the insects that spread malaria, transmit bubonic place, and carry sleeping sickness.

Why are insecticides used in developing countries?

Because the rain washes the nutrients from the soil.

Why are tropical areas with high rainfall poor in nutrients?

Shade-requiring species may be helped by taller plants, nitrogen-fixing legumes may provide nitrogen for species that require it, and mixing species may reduce insect pest problems because some plants produce molecules that are natural insect repellents.

Why is the system of polyculture so beneficial in gardens?