A major challenge in agroecosystems is how to manage the systems so that it reduces crop pests and enhances natural pest control. This thesis investigates patterns of crop pests and top-down effects of birds and arthropod predators in relation to land-use composition across spatial scales. In paper (I) I examined the crop distribution and land-use types in relation to the crop raiding patterns in 15 transectsin sites close to and far from forests along with a questionnaire survey at household level. I found severe crop raiding close to forests, but it had no impact on crop composition growing between the two sites. In paper (II) I examined the effect of forest and tree cover, at local and landscape scales, on the abundance of arthropod predators by collecting specimens from 40 home gardens. My result showed higher abundance of arthropod predators when either the home garden or the surroundings had a high tree-cover, compared to when tree-cover at both scales was similarly either high or low. In paper (III) I investigated the effect of excluding birds and arthropod predators on leaf damage on rape seed in 26 home gardens. I found stronger top-down impacts from arthropod predators on crop pests in tree-poor gardens than in tree-rich gardens. There was no effect of birds. In paper (IV) I explored the effect of landscape complexity on bird and arthropod predation using plasticine caterpillars in 36 home gardens across landscapes. The rate of arthropod predation on caterpillars was higher in simple than in complex landscapes. The rate of bird predation did not vary between complex and simple landscapes. In simple landscapes, arthropod predation was higher than that of birds. The overall results suggest that simplified gardens/landscapes still have enough habitat heterogeneity to support arthropod predators for the significant top-down controlling effect on crop pests. However, I did not find clear effect of complexityon the top-down effect of birds. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript; Paper 3: Manuscript; Paper 4: Manuscript</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:15:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BrunoLM_DISSERT.pdf: 7166646 bytes, checksum: f3020f244ae15650c85072127bcd05e2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-04-24 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / Lithium (Li) is a chemical element with atomic number 3 and it is among the lightest known elements in the universe. In general, the Lithium is found in the nature under the form of two stable isotopes, the 6Li and 7Li. This last one is the most dominant and responds for about 93% of the Li found in the Universe. Due to its fragileness this element is largely used in the astrophysics, especially in what refers to the understanding of the physical process that has occurred since the Big Bang going through the evolution of the galaxies and stars. In the primordial nucleosynthesis in the Big Bang moment (BBN), the theoretical calculation forecasts a Li production along with all the light elements such as Deuterium and Beryllium. To the Li the BNB theory reviews a primordial abundance of Log log &#491;(Li) =2.72 dex in a logarithmic scale related to the H. The abundance of Li found on the poor metal stars, or pop II stars type, is called as being the abundance of Li primordial and is the measure as being log &#491;(Li) =2.27 dex. In the ISM (Interstellar medium), that reflects the current value, the abundance of Lithium is log &#491;(Li) = 3.2 dex. This value has great importance for our comprehension on the chemical evolution of the galaxy. The process responsible for the increasing of the primordial value present in the Li is not clearly understood until nowadays. In fact there is a real contribution of Li from the giant stars of little mass and this contribution needs to be well streamed if we want to understand our galaxy. The main objection in this logical sequence is the appearing of some giant stars with little mass of G and K spectral types which atmosphere is highly enriched with Li. Such elevated values are exactly the opposite of what could happen with the typical abundance of giant low mass stars, where convective envelops pass through a mass deepening in which all the Li should be diluted and present abundances around log &#491;(Li) &#8764;1.4 dex following the model of stellar evolution. In the Literature three suggestions are found that try to reconcile the values of the abundance of Li theoretical and observed in these rich in Li giants, but any of them bring conclusive answers. In the present work, we propose a qualitative study of the evolutionary state of the rich in Li stars in the literature along with the recent discovery of the first star rich in Li observed by the Kepler Satellite. The main objective of this work is to promote a solid discussion about the evolutionary state based on the characteristic obtained from the seismic analysis of the object observed by Kepler. We used evolutionary traces and simulation done with the population synthesis code TRILEGAL intending to evaluate as precisely as possible the evolutionary state of the internal structure of these groups of stars. The results indicate a very short characteristic time when compared to the evolutionary scale related to the enrichment of these stars / O L?tio (Li) ? um elemento qu?mico com n??mero at?mico 3 e est? entre os elementos mais leves conhecidos no Universo. De forma geral, o L?tio ? encontrado na natureza sob a forma de dois is?topos est?veis, o 6Li e o 7Li. Este ?ltimo ? o mais dominante e responde por cerca de 93% do Li encontrado no Universo. Devido a sua caracter?stica de fragilidade, esse elemento ? largamente utilizado na astrof?sica, sobretudo no que diz respeito ao entendimento dos processos f?sicos que ocorrem desde o Big Bang, passando pela evolu??o de gal?xias e estrelas. Na nucleoss?ntese primordial no momento do Big Bang (BBN), os c?lculos te?ricos preveem uma produ??o de Li juntamente com outros elementos leves tais como o Deut?rio e o Ber?lio. Para o Li, a teoria do BBN rev? uma abund?ncia primordial de log &#491;(Li) = 2.72 dex, numa escala logar?tmica relativa ao H. A abund?ncia de Li encontrada nas estrelas pobres em metal ou estrelas de Popula??o II, ? assim clamado como sendo a abund?ncia de Li primordial e ? medida como sendo log &#491;(Li) = 2.27 dex. J? no ISM (interestellar medium), que reflete o valor atual, a abund?ncia de L?tio ? de log &#491;(Li) = 3.2 dex. Este valor ? de grande import?ncia para a nossa compreens?o da evolu??o qu?mica da Gal?xia. Os processos respons?veis pelo aumento do valor primordial para o valor presente do Li n?o s?o claramente compreendidos nos dias de hoje. O fato ? que existe uma contribui??o real de Li provenientes das estrelas gigantes de pouca massa, e esta contribui??o precisa ser bem estimada se quisermos entender a evolu??o qu?mica da nossa Gal?xia. O principal entrave desta sequ?ncia l?gica, ? o aparecimento de algumas estrelas gigantes de baixa massa, de tipos espectrais G e K, cuja atmosfera ? altamente enriquecida com Li. Tais valores elevados s?o exatamente ao contr?rio do que se poderia esperar como abund?ncia t?pica para as estrelas gigantes de baixa massa, onde envelopes convectivos passam por um aprofundamento em massa (dredge-up) nos quais todo o Li deveria ser dilu?do e apresentar abund?ncias em torno de log &#491;(Li) &#8764; 1.4 dex, seguindo o modelo padr?o de evolu??o estelar. Na literatura, encontram-se tr?s sugest?es que tentam reconciliar os valores da abund?ncia de Li de forma te?rica e observada nessas gigantes ricas em Li; no entanto, nenhuma dessas traz respostas conclusivas. No presente trabalho, propomos um estudo qualitativo do estado evolutivo das estrelas ricas em Li presentes na literatura. Neste sentido, foi coletado uma amostra de estrelas ricas em Li juntamente com a recente descoberta da primeira estrela rica em Li observada pelo sat?lite Kepler. O objetivo principal deste trabalho ? de promover uma s?lida discuss?o sobre o estado evolutivo baseado nas caracter?sticas obtidas a partir da an?lise s?smica do objeto observado pelo sat?lite Kepler. Utilizamos tra?ados evolutivos e simula??es feitas com o c?digo de s?ntese de popula??o TRILEGAL com o intuito de avaliar t?o preciso quanto poss?vel o estado evolutivo e a estrutura interna deste grupo de estrelas. Os resultados apontam para um tempo caracter?stico muito curto, quando comparado com a escala evolutiva, referente ao enriquecimento destas estrelas