Temporally staggered cropping co-benefits beneficial insects and pest control globally (2509.16284v1)

Abstract: Reconciling increasing food production with biodiversity conservation is critical yet challenging, particularly given global declines in beneficial insects driven by monoculture intensification. Intercropping, the simultaneous or sequential cultivation of multiple crops, has been proposed as a viable strategy to enhance beneficial insect services and suppress pests, yet global evidence regarding optimal spatiotemporal intercropping configurations remains fragmented. Here, we synthesize results from 7,584 field experiments spanning six continents and 22 Koppen climate regions, evaluating effects of spatial (row, strip, mixed, agroforestry) and temporal (additive, replacement, relay) intercropping configuations on beneficial insect (predators, parasitoids, pollinators) abundance and pest suppression using the Management Efficiency Ratio (MER; log ratio of abundance in intercropping versus monoculture). Relay intercropping, characterized by temporally staggered planting, emerged as the universally optimal temporal configuration, substantially increasing predator (MER = 0.473) and parasitoid populations (MER = 0.512) and effectively suppressing pests (MER = -0.611) globally. At regional scales, identical spatiotemporal configurations simultaneously optimized beneficial insect predator abundance and pest suppression in 57% of regions, while other regions required distinct, insect-specific approaches. Our findings highlight relay intercropping as a globally generalizable solution, but underscore regional variation that calls for targeted policies to simultaneously secure food production and biodiversity conservation.