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Abstract
Current intensive agricultural management threatens the sustainability of ecosystem services through increased land use and practices that restrict local and landscape biodiversity. Habitat management has been suggested to restore biodiversity to these systems and improve ecosystem functions such as biological control. We assessed the effects of cover crops on arthropods (predators and pests), their function, and cotton production during the 2017 and 2018 growing seasons. We found that cover crops significantly improved predator abundance and diversity, as well as altering both community composition and prey consumption in the early growing season. Cover crops reduced early thrips pressure and lower boll damage when stink bug pressure was high, as well as maintained competitive levels of cotton production. Our results suggest cover crops are an effective method of improving natural enemy communities and mitigating pest pressure, though the potential for biological control for several pests in this system may be limited.