The use of C-3 and C-4 plants to study natural enemy movement and ecology, and its application to pest management
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Plants using either the C3 or the C4 photosynthetic pathway show a number of characteristic differences, including distinct ratios of the natural carbon isotopes, 13C and 12C, in their tissues. The carbon isotope ratios are transferred with little distortion to herbivores feeding on plants of either photosynthetic type; this is also reflected at higher trophic levels. This knowledge has been successfully applied to investigations of the ecology of both vertebrate and invertebrate animals, but there has been little application to pest management. However, with both C3 and C4 plants being widely grown, carbon isotopes allow for safe, natural, and efficacious marking of arthropods in many agricultural systems. The rationale for, and a brief synopsis of, the use of carbon isotopes is presented for animal ecology in general, followed by a research framework for using C3 and C4 plants to study the movement of predators and parasitoids in multiple-crop systems. Lastly, we present recent examples of entomological research on natural enemy movement using carbon isotope ratios. 2004 Taylor and Francis Ltd.
