Gabor PozsgaiUniversity of the Azores | UAc · Grupo da Biodiversidade dos Açores
Gabor Pozsgai
Doctor of Philosophy
About
59
Publications
15,184
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457
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Additional affiliations
April 2021 - present
February 2017 - February 2021
September 2015 - September 2016
Para la Tierra NGO
Position
- Scientific Officer
Publications
Publications (59)
Agricultural intensification and land use transformation are among the main driving forces of the unprecedented decline of biodiversity and ecosystem services in croplands. Trait-based approaches provide a unique framework to detect the potential mechanisms of how this intensification affects biodiversity and alter ecosystem services. However, the...
Background:
Pesticides are one of the most important anthropogenic-related stressors. In times of global pollinator decline, the role of integrated farming and that of urban gardens in supporting wild pollinators is becoming increasingly important. We circulated an online questionnaire to survey the plant protection practices among Hungarian farme...
Describing and conserving ecological interactions woven into ecosystems is one of the great challenges of the 21 st century. Here, we present a unique dataset compiling the biotic interactions between two ecologically and economically important taxa: ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) and fungi. The resulting dataset contains the carabid-fungus...
Semi-natural grasslands are commonly managed as a grazing resource for domestic livestock but, due to their unique biodiversity, they are also of conservation interest. Numerous drivers have impacted on the status of these grasslands in recent decades, most importantly changing grazing management strategies. These changes have the potential to affe...
Pristine Azorean forests have been deeply fragmented since human colonization. Fragmentation increases the length of edges and it therefore promotes edge habitats. Studying the impact of edge habitat on species assemblages is crucial to highlight the importance of forest connectivity and guide management strategies.
This study explores the impact o...
The gut microbiomes of arthropods are reported to have significant impact on key physiological functions such as nutrition, reproduction, behavior, and health. Spiders are diverse and numerically dominant predators in crop fields where they are potentially important regulators of pests. The taxonomic structure of spider gut microbiomes, and environ...
Pristine Azorean forests have been deeply fragmented since human colonization. Fragmentation increases the length of edges and it, therefore, promotes edge habitats. Studying the impact of edge habitat on species assemblages is crucial to highlight the importance of forest connectivity and guide management strategies.
This study explores the impact...
Background:
Understanding the networks of trophic interactions into which generalist predators are embedded is key to assessing their ecological role of in trophic networks and the biological control services they provide. The advent of affordable DNA metabarcoding approaches greatly facilitates quantitative understanding of trophic networks and t...
Agricultural intensification and land use transformation are among the main driving forces of the unprecedented decline of biodiversity and ecosystem services in croplands. Trait-based approaches provide a unique framework to detect the potential mechanisms of how this intensification affects biodiversity and alter ecosystem services. However, the...
For centuries, islands and mountains have incited the interest of naturalists, evolutionary biologists and ecologists. Islands have been the cradle for biogeography and speciation theories, while mountain ranges have informed how population adaptation to thermal floors shapes the distribution of species globally. Islands of varying size and mountai...
BACKGROUND Understanding the networks of trophic interactions into which generalist predators are embedded is key to assessing their ecological role of in trophic networks and the biological control services they provide. The advent of affordable DNA metabarcoding approaches greatly facilitates quantitative understanding of trophic networks and the...
Island biota are in imminent threat from anthropogenic impacts. Of these impacts the negative effects of exotic species on the taxonomic and functional diversity of the local fauna are of particularly major concern. Aside from their impact on the diversity of native fauna, exotics may also have a detrimental effect on native interactions which, in...
BACKGROUND
Pesticides are one of the most important anthropogenic-related stressors. In times of global pollinator decline, the role of integrated farming and that of urban gardens in supporting wild pollinators is becoming increasingly important. We circulated an online questionnaire to survey the plant protection practices among Hungarian farmers...
• Repeatability is the cornerstone of science, and it is particularly important for systematic reviews. However, little is known on how researchers’ choice of database, and search platform influence the repeatability of systematic reviews. Here, we aim to unveil how the computer environment and the location where the search was initiated from influ...
• Semi-natural grasslands are commonly managed as a grazing resource for domestic livestock but, due to their unique biodiversity, they are also of conservation interest. Numerous drivers have impacted on the status of these grasslands in recent decades, most importantly changing grazing management strategies. These changes have the potential to af...
Non‐native plant pests and pathogens are increasing exponentially, causing extirpation of foundation species. The impact of large‐scale declines in a single host on associated biodiversity is widely documented. However, the impact of multiple host loss on biodiversity and whether these impacts are multiplicative has not been assessed. Ecological th...
Background
Conservation biological control provides an environment-friendly approach to improve the efficacy of natural enemies. Although numerous studies have demonstrated the potential of semi-natural habitats in promoting biological control in organic or unsprayed agroecosystems, few studies were conducted in conventional agricultural fields. In...
Coleoptera are visible members of food webs in tea plantations, with high species richness and abundance. Many tea pests, as well as natural enemies, are members of this order, so a knowledge of how groundcovers affect beetles can aid pest management. We collected beetles in a replicated field experiment in the Wuyi Mountains, Fujian Province China...
A detailed knowledge on the spatial distribution of pests is crucial for predicting population outbreaks or developing control strategies and sustainable management plans. The diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella, is one of the most destructive pests of cruciferous crops worldwide. Despite the abundant research on the species’s ecology, little is...
Beetles are visible members of food webs in tea plantations, with high species richness and abundance. Many tea pests, as well as natural enemies, are members of this order, so a knowledge of how groundcovers affect beetles can aid pest management. We collected beetles in a replicated field experiment in the Wuyi Mountains, Fujian Province China. T...
Conservation biological control provides an environment-friendly approach to improve the efficacy of natural enemies. Although numerous studies have demonstrated the potential of semi-natural habitats in promoting biological control in organic or unsprayed agroecosystems, few studies were conducted in conventional agricultural fields. In this study...
Running wheels are frequently used to improve the welfare of captive animals, increase environmental enrichment, and, by doing so, reduce stereotypic behaviors. With the exception of a single investigation, all previous scientific literature investigating wheel running behavior has been based on animals in captive environments. This specific study...
Both field- and landscape-scale factors can influence the predator communities of agricultural pests, but the relative importance and interactions between these scales are poorly understood. Focusing on spiders, an important taxon for providing biological control, we tested the influence of field- and landscape-scale factors on structuring the spid...
Repeatability is the cornerstone of science and it is particularly important for systematic reviews. However, little is known on how database and search engine choices influence replicability. Here, we present a comparative analysis of time-synchronized searches at different locations in the world, revealing a large variation among the hits obtaine...
Whereas they are of high ecological, conservation, and agricultural importance, ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) are amongst the organisms declining rapidly as a result of human activities. Since they are part of a complex ecological network –in which other taxa’s survival may depend on them, or they may depend on other taxa –in the case of t...
BACKGROUND
Empoasca onukii, the tea green leafhopper, is a key pest of tea, whose control often requires the extensive use of insecticides. As a predator of the tea green leafhopper, the mite, Anystis baccarum, is a potential biological control agent worldwide, though little is known about how intercropping cover crops can impact its suppressing ef...
Invertebrates make up over 95% of animal biodiversity on Earth and contribute to multiple ecosystem services (ES) in natural and human-dominated systems. One such service, biological control (BC) of herbivorous pests, is a core component of sustainable intensification of agriculture, yet its importance is routinely overlooked. Here we report a macr...
Pandora neoaphidis and Entomophthora planchoniana (phylum Entomophthoromycota) are important fungal pathogens on cereal aphids, Sitobion avenae and Rhopalosiphum padi. Here, we evaluated and compared for the first time the virulence of these two fungi, both produced in S. avenae cadavers, against the two aphid species subjected to the same exposure...
Tea is an economically important crop, consumed by billions of people. Despite the increasing market for pesticide-free products, the use of pesticide in tea is still high. In order to investigate whether intercropping promotes biological control organisms, Chamaecrista rotundifolia (Pers.) Greene, Indigofera hendecaphylla Jacq., Trifolium repens L...
Invertebrates make up 97-99% of biodiversity on Earth and contribute to multiple ecosystem services (ES) in both natural and human-dominated systems. One such service, biological control (BC) of herbivorous pests, is a core component of sustainable intensification of agriculture, yet its importance is routinely overlooked. Here we report a macro-sc...
Invertebrates make up 97-99% of biodiversity on Earth and contribute to multiple ecosystem services (ES) in both natural and human-dominated systems. One such service, biological control (BC) of herbivorous pests, is a core component of sustainable intensification of agriculture, yet its importance is routinely overlooked. Here we report a macro-sc...
Running wheels are frequently used to improve the welfare of captive animals, increase environmental enrichment, and, by doing so, reduce stereotypic behaviors. It is, however, still debated whether or not wheel running itself is a stereotypy. New evidence emerged when Meijer and Robbers (2014, Proc. Royal Soc. B) reported voluntary wheel running o...
1. The importance of non-brassica vegetation patches as potentially suitable food source or/and refuge habitats for pests is highlighted by the positive correlation between aphid numbers and the proportions of this vegetation type. Brassicas playing a less important role in driving aphid abundances may be related to the fact that for most aphids br...
Despite the important roles ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) play in ecosystems, the highly valued ecosystem services they provide, and ample descriptive documentation of their phenology, the relative impact of various environmental factors on carabid phenology is not well studied. Using the long-term pitfall trap capture data from 12 terrest...
Forests worldwide are currently threatened by a number of non-native tree diseases. Widespread death of a tree species will have ecological impacts on species that in some way depend on that tree species to complete their life-cycle. One measure to mitigate these impacts is to establish alternative tree species to replace the threatened tree specie...
Although changes to interspecific relationships can significantly alter the composition of insect assemblages, they are often ignored when assessing impacts of environmental change. Long-term ground beetle data were used in this study to analyse ecological networks from three habitats at two sites in Scotland. A Bayesian Network inference algorithm...
The suitability of alternative tree species to replace species that are either threatened by pests/disease or at risk from climate change is commonly assessed by their ability to grow in a predicted future climate, their resistance to disease and their production potential. The ecological implications of a change in tree species are seldom consider...
1. One-way, directional changes in both plant and animal associations are likely to be occurring as a result of changing climate. Current knowledge of long-term cycles in insect communities is scarce, and therefore it is difficult to assess whether the observed changes in insect communities are the first part of a long-term trend or parts of normal...
Ash Dieback, a disease of Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) trees caused by the ascomycete, Hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus, was first noticed in the UK in February 2012 and has since been found through much of the country. Evidence from elsewhere in Europe suggests that most infected Ash trees succumb to the disease and, hence, UK woodlands and landscapes are...
The objectives of the research project were:
• to collate information about the ecology of ash and species which use ash and how
they do so;
• to assess how British woodlands might change as a result of the loss of ash;
• to define a range of management scenarios which might be applied as a result of ash
dieback, and to assess how these might affec...
1. Livestock grazing impacts on insect populations in a variety of ways. For phytophagous insects the impact is primarily a result of altering the structure and species assemblage of vegetation. However not all species react in similar ways and even within an order there may be winners and losers from different grazing regimes.
2. A long-term, repl...
Abstract A growing body of evidence shows that climate change can alter the phenology of plants and animals. In this study long‐term data from the UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) were analyzed to investigate whether there has been a change in the phenology of the ground beetle Pterostichus madidus (Fabricius, 1775). Pitfall trap data were ava...
Invasive ant species represent a serious threat to many ecological communities, often causing decreases in the abundance, species richness and diversity of native ants and other arthropods. The invasive garden ant, Lasius neglectus VAN LOON, BOOMSMA & ANDRÁSFALVY, 1990, is an invasive tramp species that forms dense supercolonies. We studied the eco...
Faunistical surveyes happened in the Körös-Maros National Park, in 2001. The main aim of the surveyes were the aquatic macroinvertebrates and their spreading. One thousand individuals were identified, which represented 67 species of 25 genus from the studied area. Most of these species are not rarities in Hungary. The huge number of the Cryptocepha...
A vetésfehér'itő bogarak, vagy más néven veresnyakú árpabogarak mezőgazdasági jelentősége hazánkban is régóta ismert. A levélbogarak családjába (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) tartozó fajok elsősorban a gabonaféléken, de nemritkán kukoricán is jelentős károkat okozhatnak. Az ismert irodalmi adatok a hazánkban eddig le'irt két veresnyakú fajra vonatkozn...
Projects
Projects (5)
We investigate what plant protection habits are typical among garden owners and what factors influence their gardening practices in ten countries from Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe. Our goals are to expand our current knowledge on the motivation for gardening and the gardening practices of garden owners, as well as to obtain information about the insect diversity of home gardens.
The use of ecological network concept within integrated pest management is an innovative way to explore complex ecological relationships which, in turn, can be used to disentangle the connections between microorganisms, insect pests, and non-target insects. Here, we create insect-fungus databases and describe the interactions between different taxa in different habitats.
The Tea Fauna Project is focused on biodiversity associated with tea plants species across Asia. The project aims the knowledge about biodiversity trends in Asia, better understanding insects fauna in natural tea habitats or plantations, providing useful data for forest conservation and services for local communities to encourage agroforestry practices in tea production.
https://www.teafauna.com
