Laura Riggi (researcher)

My research interests are to assess how landscapes and land-use practices impact biodiversity, and ecosystem services in agroecosystems and investigate practices that promote biodiversity, such as increasing crop diversity.

I have used large-scale field experiments and modelling to investigate how landscape composition impacts pests, pollinator, and natural enemy community and traits. At the field scale I am interested to assess how crop diversification practices, such as inter-cropping and organic fertilization (such as novel organic fertilizers from insect production), impact arthropod and microbial communities and yields. In particular, I am interested to better understand interactions across different compartments, such as above- and below-ground communities, to inform effective habitat management practices.

Currently I am leading a project funded by FORMAS, focussing on assessing the effects of strip-cropping on above and belowground communities and the services they provide. 

Outside of research I enjoy drawing and sharing on biodiveristy in agroecosystems via stories and illustrations.

Projects:

FORMAS mobility grant (2021 - 2025) “Multifunctional strip- cropping systems to optimize above- and belowground ecosystem services”

VR Development grant (2021 - 2024) “Insect farming for feed production and organic waste management in Benin” 

SLU Global Seed (2022) “Socio-economic impacts of insect farming in Benin” 

Center for Biological Control grant (SLU, Sweden) (2021) “Crop diversity to boost bottom-up pest control: A greenhouse experiment on soil microbe-induced resistance”

Stiftelsen Oscar och Lili Lamms Minne (2020) “Cascading effects of floral resources on bee pathogen prevalence in Swedish agricultural landscapes” 

Red Clover project (2018 - 2020): Investigate the impact of mass flowering crops on pollinator communities and bumblebee pathogens.

Broad Bean project (2020 - 2021): Consequences of floral herbivory by Bruchus on pollination services in faba beans.

Farming System Ecology and Cropping System Ananlysis Chair gorups at Wageningen University, Netherlands

Institute of International Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Benin

Riggi L.G.A., Aguilera G. & Chopin P. 2024. Expert-based model of the potential for natural pest control with landscape and field scale drivers in intensively managed cereal-dominated agricultural landscapes. 159: 111684. Ecological indicators

Wootton K., Blanchet F., Liston A., Nyman T., Riggi L.G.A., Kopelke J., Roslin T., & Gravel D. 2024. Differential imprints of trait-matching in tritrophic networks: insights from complementary methods. 10.1111/ecog.07028. Ecography

Riggi, L.G.A., Raderschall C., Fijen T., Scheper J., Smith H.G., Holzschuh A., Aguilera G., Badenhausser I., Bänsch S., Beyer N., Blitzer E., Bommarco R., Danforth B., González-Varo J., Grab H., Kleijn D., Le Provost G., Poveda  K., Potts S., Rundlöf M., Steffan-Dewenter I., Tscharntke T., Vilà M., Westphal C., Berggren Å., Lundin O. 2023. Early-season mass-flowering crop cover dilutes wild bee abundance and species richness in temperate regions: A quantitative synthesis. Journal of Applied Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.14566.

Riggi L.G.A. & Riggi L.H.R. “Soil, where food begins”. FAO children booklet. Soil day (https://www.fao.org/world-soil-day/about-wsd/wsd-2022/contests/children-booklet-contest-2022/en/) 

Riggi, L.G.A., Raderschall, C.A., Lundin, O. 2022. High insect pest damage increases faba bean (Vicia faba) yield components but only in the absence of insect pollination. Ecology & Evolution.

Riggi, L.G.A., Lundin, O., Berggren, Å. 2021. Mass-flowering red clover crops have positive effects on bumblebee richness and diversity after bloom. Basic and Applied Ecology. 56, 22-31.

Viketoft; M., Riggi, L.G.A., Bommarco, R., Hallin, S., Taylor, A. 2021. Type of organic fertilizer rather than organic amendment per se increase abundance of soil biota. PeerJ. 9 , e11204

Aguilera G., Riggi L.G.A., Miller K., Roslin T. and Bommarco R. Organic soil fertilisation enhances local predator abundances and suppresses aphid growth. Journal of Applied Ecology. 58:1455–1465

Riggi, L.G.A. & Berggren, Å. 2020. Small field islands systems include a large proportion of the regional orthopteran species pool in arable landscapes. Journal of Insect Conservation.

Riggi, L.G.A & Bommarco R. 2019. Subsidy type and quality determine direction and strength of trophic cascades in arthropod food webs in agroecosystems. Journal of Applied Ecology. 56 (8)

Riggi, L.G.A., Vesna, G., Rusch A., Malsher G., Ekbom B., Bommarco R. 2017. Pollen beetle mortality is increased by ground-dwelling generalist predators but not landscape complexity. AGEE, 250: 133-142.

Gagic, V., Riggi, L.G.A., Ekbom, B., Malsher, G., Rusch, A. and Bommarco, R., 2016. Interactive effects of pests increase seed yield. Ecology and Evolution, 6(7): 2149–2157.

Riggi L.G.A., V Gagic, R Bommarco, B Ekbom. 2016. Insecticide resistance in pollen beetles over 7 years - a landscape approach. Pesticide Management Science, 72(4): 780-6.

Riggi, L.G.A., Veronesi, M., Goergen, G., MacFarlane, C., Verspoor, R.L. 2016 .Observations of entomophagy across Benin - practices and potentials. Food Security, 8(1):151-152.

Damon, A., Hernández-Ramírez, H., Riggi, L.G.A., et al. 2012. Pollination of euglossinophylic epiphytic orchids in agroecosystems and forest fragments in southeast Mexico. European Journal of Environmental Sciences. 2 (1): 5-14.

Bugs for Life Charity

ResearchGate