The ecological control of alien invasive pests by functional plants
Author of the article:YAN Yue1** GE Feng2 LIU Jia-Jing3 MEN Xing-Yuan2***
Author's Workplace：1. Shandong General Station of Agricultural Ecology and Resource Protection, Jinan 250100, China; 2. Shandong Key Laboratory for Green Prevention and Control of Agricultural Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan 250100, China; 3. China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Key Words：functional plants; invasive alien insect pests; ecological pest control; scale mismatch; ecological engineering
Abstract：Invasive, alien, insect pests have become a major threat to agricultural sustainability. By restructuring food webs, altering resource utilization, and disrupting the spatiotemporal coupling of ecological processes, they drive agroecosystem pest regulation from a steady-state system toward a non-equilibrium dynamic system. Functional plants, acting as key nodes linking plant-herbivore-natural enemy interactions, provide a novel pathway for ecological pest control. This study systematically synthesizes the theoretical foundations of functional plant-driven ecological control, elucidating the underlying mechanisms, including resource provisioning, behavioral regulation, and food web restructuring, that enhance biological control services. Furthermore, we identify critical constraints under invasion scenarios, including resource-function mismatches, spatiotemporal mismatches, and system-and management-level limitations, which lead to strong context dependency in control outcomes. Based on these constraints, a functional plant-driven ecological control framework is proposed, emphasizing trait-based plant selection, multiscale spatial configuration, and multi-mechanism integration to shift from local interventions to system-level regulation. Overall, functional plant-driven ecological control represents a promising strategy for managing invasive pests. However, its stable implementation depends on deeper mechanistic understanding and cross-scale integration. Future research should focus on developing new theoretical and technological frameworks tailored to non-eilibrium systems to support sustainable agriculture and biosecurity.