Azteca chess: Gamifying a complex ecological process of autonomous pest control in shade coffee

• Published in: Agriculture, ecosystems & environment Vol. 232; pp. 190 - 198
• Main Authors: García-Barrios, Luis, Perfecto, Ivette, Vandermeer, John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 16.09.2016
• Subjects: adults; agroecosystems; Arthropoda; arthropods; Autonomous pest control; Azteca; Coleoptera; Ecological complexity game; Educational board-game; extinction; Formicidae; games; Hymenoptera; insect larvae; natural history; oviposition; parasitic wasps; people; pest control; scale insects; Shade cofee; Trait mediated interactions; Shade cofee; Ecological complexity game; Educational board-game; Trait mediated interactions; Autonomous pest control
• ISSN: 0167-8809; 1873-2305
• DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2016.08.014

⿢Cascading trait mediated interactions (CTMI) can be critical for shade-coffee pest control.⿢Learning CTMI dynamically can help social actors grasp their complexity and importance.⿢Fascinating arthropod behaviors implied in CTMI need to be appropriately simulated.⿢Azteca Chess gamifies such behaviors, CTMI dynamics and pest control consequences.⿢Azteca Chess is proved statistically to enhance understanding and application of autonomous pest control based on CTMI. Science-based board games can help people grasp the ecological complexity of autonomous pest control (APC) in the shade-coffee agroecosystem. Azteca Chess is a board-game that captures in a stylized way the fascinating natural history and the dynamics of a complex network of direct, indirect and cascading trait-mediated interactions among five species of arthropods dwelling in shade coffee bushes (a coffee-scale, an ant, an adult and larval lady beetle, a parasitoid wasp and a parasitoid fly). In exchange for honey-dew, the Azteca ant protects scale-insects that help control the devastating coffee-rust disease. The ant repels the adult ladybeetle but inadvertently protects its larvae, which devour scales to local extinction. The head-hunting fly paralyzes Azteca and opens a window of opportunity for the adult beetle to oviposit under scales, but also for a parasitoid wasp to kill the beetle larvae. Interactions can cascade or not towards APC. Experimental test-driving shows Azteca Chess meets good modeling and game-design standards and is proved statistically to enhance understanding and application of relevant complex ecological processes.