The impact of prairie strips on aphidophagous predator abundance and soybean aphid predation in agricultural catchments.

Reconstructing prairie vegetation in row crop-dominated agricultural landscapes may contribute to several ecosystem services, including the biological control of insect pests, such as the soybean aphid Aphis glycines Matsumura. The influence of the amount and configuration of reconstructed prairie vegetation on the delivery of ecosystem services was investigated in several small catchments at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Iowa. Treatments include catchments entirely in row crops under a no-till, corn-soybean (Zea mays L.