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Agricultural intensification is one of the major threats to global biodiversity and ecosystem services. Sustainable management of agricultural lands can reduce these impacts, but few efforts have been made in the context of paddy rice fields, especially in simplified landscapes composed of large monocultures separated by fragments of natural lands, such as in Taiwan or elsewhere in Asia. In this study, during a pest control intervention, we examined the effects of management practices on insect communities under conventional and organic farming systems in the paddy fields of northern Taiwan in 2016. Our results showed that organic practices did not increase the species richness or abundance of the four insect groups (total, predators/parasitoids, pests, and other insects). In addition, the composition of the insect communities did not differ between organic and conventional farming systems. Both the abundance and richness of predator/parasitoid insects were similar between conventional and organic farming systems. The pest abundance in the organic systems could be suppressed by other unmeasured predators and integrated management practices, which showed similar levels to the conventional systems with pesticide applications. The results of this study suggest that farming systems may not influence insect biodiversity in simplified landscapes during pest-control intervention.

Organogels are semi-solid systems where the liquid phase is immobilized for three-dimensional network self-sustained formed by structuring agents capable to hold a larger quantity of liquid oil. The use of these structuring agents or crystallization modifiers, as specific triacylglycerols, emulsifiers and high molecular weight - high melting point lipids, have been recognized as the main alternative for obtaining low saturated fats for food formulation. The aim of this work was to evaluate the crystallization, microstructure and polymorphism properties of hybrid soybean oil (SO) organogels, formulated with 6% (w:w) of structuring agents through a centroid simplex system added singly, in binary or ternary association of candelilla wax (CW), sorbitan monostearate (SMS) and fully hydrogenated palm oil (FHPO). The thermal behavior, crystallization kinetics, physical stability by temperature cyclization, microstructure and polymorphism were evaluated. FHPO and CW increased the stability and ability to form crystalline networks in organogels, while SMS accelerated the crystallization process. The structuring agents increased the initial and final crystallization temperatures, even as the melting temperatures and the enthalpy values of organogels. Time-temperature cyclization (cyclization 1: 5 degrees C/48 h + 35 degrees C/24 h + 5 degrees C/24 h; cyclization 2: 35 degrees C/48 h + 5 degrees C/72 h) showed that all the systems resulted in firm and stable organogels, except when SMS or FHPO were used singly. CW promoted formation of denser crystalline networks with higher solids content, quick crystallization onset and higher melting points that indicates adequate thermal resistance; while FHPO increased the solid content although it was effective to obtain organogels only at the cooling temperature (5 degrees C). The binary interaction of FHPO + CW increased the thermal resistance of organogels; and the interactions among SMS + CW and SMS + CW + FHPO although it was effective to obtain organogels. Regardless of the presence and proportions of structuring agents, organogels were characterized by beta polymorphism COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPES CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQ Fechado