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Kirsten Pearsons

IPM Entomology Farm Advisor
Cooperative Extension Monterey County
1432 Abbott Street
Salinas, CA 93901
(831) 759-7359
kapearsons@ucanr.edu Create VCard

Also in:
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Statewide Program
Santa Cruz County
San Benito County

Biography

Kirsten started as the CE IPM Entomology Farm Advisor based in Monterey County in November, 2022. She also covers Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, and will focus on IPM of insect pests of leafy greens and Cole crops. 

Previously, Kirsten was the CE Small Farm Advisor covering San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

Her background is primarily in pesticide toxicology and soil health. She has worked in both conventional and organic field crop systems in the mid-Atlantic, and she is excited to support specialty crop producers on the central coast.

She is particularly interested in identifying how insect pest management decisions interact with other aspects of farm management, i.e., soil fertility, water quality, and weed pressure.

Education

Ph.D. Entomology, Pennsylvania State University. 2020
B.S. Environmental Toxicology, University of California, Davis. 2015

Discipline

Entomology

Areas of Expertise (click to see all ANR academics with this expertise)

Bibliography

Peer Reviewed

  • Pearsons, Kirsten A.; Omondi, Emmanuel C., et al. (2023). A tale of two systems: Does reducing tillage affect soil health differently in long-term, side-by-side conventional and organic agricultural systems? Soil and Tillage Research. 226, 9. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167198722002483
  • Pearsons, Kirsten A.; Chase, Craig, et al. (2023). Reducing tillage does not affect the long-term profitability of organic or conventional field crop systems. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 10, 1-15. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2022.1004256/full
  • Rowen, Elizabeth K.; Pearsons, Kirsten A., et al. (2022). Early-season plant cover supports more effective pest control than insecticide applications. Ecological Applications. 32:5, 12. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/eap.2598
  • Pearsons, Kirsten A.; Omondi, Emmanuel C., et al. (2022). Reducing Tillage Affects Long-Term Yields but Not Grain Quality of Maize, Soybeans, Oats, and Wheat Produced in Three Contrasting Farming Systems. Sustainability. 14:2, 631. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020631
  • Tooker, Jonhn F; Pearsons, Kirsten A. (2021). Newer characters, same story: neonicotinoid insecticides disrupt food webs through direct and indirect effects. Current Opinion in Insect Science. 46, 50-56. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2021.02.013
  • Pearsons, Kirsten A.; Tooker, John F. (2021). Preventive insecticide use affects arthropod decomposers and decomposition in field crops. Applied Soil Ecology. 157:103757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2020.103757
  • Pearsons, Kirsten A.; Rowen, Elizabeth K., et al. (2021). Small-Grain Cover Crops Have Limited Effect on Neonicotinoid Contamination from Seed Coatings. Environmental Science & Technology. 55:8, 4679-4687. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c05547
  • Pearsons, Kirsten A.; Lower, Sarah E., et al. (2021). Toxicity of clothianidin to common Eastern North American fireflies. PeerJ. 9, e12495. https://peerj.com/articles/12495
  • Jones, Asher G.; Hoover, Kelli, et al. (2020). Potential Impacts of Translocation of Neonicotinoid Insecticides to Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum (Malvales: Malvaceae)) Extrafloral Nectar on Parasitoids. Plant-Insect Interactions. 49:1, 159-168. https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvz157
  • Pearsons, Kirsten A.; Tooker, John F. (2017). In-Field Habitat Management to Optimize Pest Control of Novel Soil Communities in Agroecosystems. Insects. 8:82, 1-14. http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/8/3/82
  • Pearsons, Kirsten A.; Mikó, István, et al. (2017). The cyanide gland of the greenhouse millipede, Oxidus gracilis (Polydesmida: Paradoxosomatidae). RIO. 3:e12249. http://riojournal.com/articles.php?id=12249

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