Biodiversity and natural control of mites associated with medicinal plants in organic farming systems / Islam Mohammad Soliman Zidan ; Supervised Morad Fahmy Hassan , Mohammed Samy Nawar , Gomaa Mohamed Abouelella

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Agriculture - Department of Nematology

The current study was aimed to; 1) the diversity of mites associated with medicinal plants in organic farms, 2) investigate population dynamics of the most important pests of medicinal plants in some organic farms, 3) study the nutritional contents and morphological characters of targeted plants, 4) design a control application using indigenous predatory mite species located in organic habitats, 5) study the effect of fertilization of organic farming systems on the level of injury, and 6) to study the interaction of treatments to recommend the best protocol of IPM in an organic system. Samples of medicinal plants were collected from three certified organic farms by the ECOA, i) Shampoliah farm, Ibshway, Fayoum Governorate (GPS 29{u00B0}21'07.4"N 30{u00B0}44'17.8"E), ii) SEKEM farm, Belbis, Ash Sharqia Governorate (GPS 30{u00B0}22'56.1"N 31{u00B0}39'17.4"E), and iii) Egyptian Hydrofarms (an organic hydroponic company), Cairo-Alex Highway Giza Governorate, (GPS 30{u00B0}09'07.0"N 30{u00B0}50'59.5"E). Biodiversity resulted in mite and insect species diversity indices, there were some mite species which have dominancy by inhabiting weed plants. Also, the distribution, species richness, similarity, and rarity of arthropod species detected and calculated. Two organic locations selected to perform pest population dynamics field experiments; i) Om Sabir, El Beheira Governorate (30{u00B0}29'50.6"N 30{u00B0}46'18.8"E), and ii) Kom Oshim, Fayoum Governorate (29{u00B0}34'40.9"N 30{u00B0}55'38.3"E), during two seasons 2016 and 2017. Through the study, the curves of the Two-spotted spider mite (TSSM), white fly and onion thrips were studied, as well as indicators of distribution and diversity of these pests

Issued also as CD