Restoring population balance through natural enemy introductions

This paper concentrates on biological control as a tool for restoring natural balance to disturbed populations. The focus is on using natural enemies against adventive pests. Of 1200 cases of biological control worldwide, ca. 200 have proved completely successful. In these cases, pest population densities have been reduced 100- to 10,000-fold. These reductions in density required from 6 to 13 host generations. Addition of natural enemies to pest-dominated systems also improves system diversity by reducing unnatural competition from the pest species. (C) 2001 Academic Press.