Mario V Balzan

Mario V Balzan

Visiting Scholar, Centre for Environmental Management, University of Nottingham
(July – September, 2014)

Mario is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sustainability at the Institute of Applied Science, Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) in Malta. He is a graduate in biology and chemistry and has read for a Masters in Integrated Resource Management from the University of Malta. He later obtained a PhD in Agroecology from the Institute of Life Sciences at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Italy.  Research carried out in Italy, and later in Belgium where he was a visiting researcher for the R&D Department of the agro-environmental company BioBest N.V., has mainly dealt with habitat management for the conservation of biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services in rural landscapes. Mario has continued his research at the Laboratory of Terrestrial Ecology at MCAST and is also currently working with local authorities on the development of an ecosystem services capacity and flow assessment for the Maltese archipelago.

Publications

Balzan, M.V. (2008) The distribution of two dragonfly species in the Maltese Islands: Orthetrum trinacria Selys and Trithemis annulata Palisot de Beauvois (Odonata: Libellulidae). Bulletin of the Entomological Society of Malta, 1, 91-96.
Balzan, M.V., (2009) A Stakeholders’ Perspective to Insect Conservation in Agricultural Landscapes and Implications for Ecological Resource Management. European IALE Conference. Salzburg (Austria), Bratislava (Slovakia).
Balzan, M.V., 2010. An Ecosystem Management Approach for insect conservation within Mediterranean agricultural landscapes: the case of Odonata in the Maltese Islands. GFOe 40th Anniversary Conference, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen (Germany)
Balzan, M.V., Rouphael S., Bocci G. and Moonen A-C. (2011) Providing resources for diverging ecological needs of natural enemies: biological control in tomato cultivations. 12th European Ecological Federation (EEF) Congress, Ávila (Spain)
Balzan, M.V. & Moonen A-C., (2011) Biological and chemical pest management strategies for the control of Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) and their effectiveness. EPPO/IOBC/FAO/NEPPO Joint International Symposium on management of Tuta absoluta. Agadir (Morocco)
Balzan, M.V. & Moonen, A-C (2012) Management strategies for the control of Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) damage in open-field cultivations of processing tomato in Tuscany (Italy). EPPO Bulletin, 42(2), 217-225.
Balzan, M.V. (2012) Associations of dragonflies (Odonata) to habitat variables within the Maltese Islands: A spatio-temporal approach. Journal of Insect Science, 12, 87.
Balzan M.V., Bocci G., Moonen A-C. (2013) Plant diversity enhances conservation of functional arthropod diversity and crop yield in a field experiment. INTECOL: Into the Next 100 Years. London (UK).
Balzan, M.V. & Wackers, F.L. (2013) Adult feeding by Tuta absoluta and its parasitoid Necremnus artynes. Biological Control, 67(1), 21-31.
Balzan, M.V. (2013) Conservation of vegetation and arthropod functional diversity for multi-pest suppression and enhanced crop yield in tomato cropping systems. Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento, Pisa, Italy. ISBN: 88-901624-4-9
Balzan, M.V., & Moonen A-C (2014) Field margin vegetation enhances biological control and crop damage suppression from multiple pests in organic tomato fields. Entomologia Applicata et Experimentalis, 150(1), 45-65.

Main Projects

Contact

Email: mario.balzan@mcast.edu.mt