Collembolan of soils are well-known grazers of bacteria/fungi/algae, and can influence positively nodulation of some mycorhyza. But why are they not considered as bio control agents? Is this due to the "unspecificity" of grazing? Has anyone some clues about this fact?
Pierre:
Yes, they could in some sense be considered as biocontrol agent: Kindly see this link:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aen.12240/abstract?systemMessage=WOL+Usage+report+download+page+will+be+unavailable+on+Friday+27th+January+2017+at+23%3A00+GMT%2F+18%3A00+EST%2F+07%3A00+SGT+%28Saturday+28th+Jan+for+SGT%29++for+up+to+2+hours+due+to+essential+server+maintenance.+Apologies+for+the+inconvenience.
Best
Syed
Of course collembolans feed on organic matter and Soil microflora. In my view, bio control agent is one which infests / infects harmful organism. As this particular insect is not specific against harmful one, hence this can not be considered as bio-control agent but as detritivore.
Trials are going on to test the potential of using soil collembolans to control Meloidogyne nematodes.
Yes, they could be considered biocontrol organisms. Many studies found it
Dear Gloria,
Thanks for your answer. However, it seems that the use of collembolan species as biocontrol organisms is controversial, and not well known. Could you maybe advise me some studies/papers demonstrating their effective use? (I only found a few papers from the 90's about this)
From your point of view, is it mainly lab studies or field studies?
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