Temporally staggered cropping co-benefits beneficial insects and pest control globally

Temporally staggered cropping co-benefits beneficial insects and pest control globally | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Temporally staggered cropping co-benefits beneficial insects and pest control globally Adrija Datta, Subramanian Sankaranarayanan, Udit Bhatia This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7655633/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted 11 You are reading this latest preprint version 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 Köppen 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. Biological sciences/Ecology Earth and environmental sciences/Ecology Biological sciences/Zoology Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files supplementaryintercropping.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 19 Nov, 2025 Reviews received at journal 19 Nov, 2025 Reviews received at journal 16 Oct, 2025 Reviews received at journal 09 Oct, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Oct, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 28 Sep, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Sep, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 23 Sep, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 22 Sep, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 22 Sep, 2025 First submitted to journal 19 Sep, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7655633","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":524116663,"identity":"8c1045ba-9b44-47f5-b4da-2dd7160d65aa","order_by":0,"name":"Adrija Datta","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Adrija","middleName":"","lastName":"Datta","suffix":""},{"id":524116664,"identity":"adc16201-867e-4e4b-9a79-3876647e710f","order_by":1,"name":"Subramanian Sankaranarayanan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Indian Institute of Technology 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