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University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability Professor Ivette Perfecto and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology John Vandermeer say that, to manage agricultural practices with fewer or no pesticides, they will need to understand how ecological systems work on agricultural lands. 

Now, using two ecological theories, the researchers have described a tangle of interactions between three ant species, as well as a recently introduced fly that preys on one of the ant species. This work, conducted on a coffee farm in Puerto Rico, shows that the interaction between the ants and the predator fly creates chaotic patterns, demonstrating how natural populations are subjected to fluctuations depending on the interactions of organisms within a system. Understanding that any one of the four species could be dominant at any point in time may help farmers use the ants to manage pests on their farms. 

Read the full press release on the Michigan News website.

Study: Keystone predator and keystone intransitivity and the rescue of a completely subdominant species (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2421005122)