Impacts of climate change on the resilience of natural enemy communities for biocontrol of insect pests

气候变化对害虫天敌群落恢复能力的影响

• 批准号: 2601074
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2601074
• 关键词: Impacts; climate; change; resilience; natural

There are significant challenges to finding new solutions for sustainable agriculture, whilst ensuring agricultural productivity on a global scale. Conservation biological control uses functionally diverse populations of natural enemies (predators, parasitoids, microbes) within agricultural systems to alleviate pest pressure and promote regulating ecosystem services, in the absence of pesticides. Whilst we understand the role of parasitoids/predators and insect pathogens for biological control, and are beginning to acknowledge the importance of beneficial soil bacteria for plant health, less is known about the intricate interactions between these groups of organisms for controlling pests, especially under environmental change. This project will investigate a novel approach of integrating above- and below- ground pest control simultaneously. The student will use a barley-aphid system to investigate the effects of climate change (elevated CO2) on multi-trophic interactions and the potential for increased pest pressures under future conditions. Exploring the impact of environmental changes in CO2 on multi-trophic interactions will bring innovative understanding of how microbial natural enemies may be affected under future environmental scenarios. This has rarely been studied and especially not in the context of a community assemblage of multiple natural enemies where the value of this regulating ecosystem service will be assessed in terms of plant health and crop yield.The PhD will build complexity, from lab-studies, to larger mesocosm greenhouse experiments and transferring to the field. There is also an exciting opportunity to engage with farmers to co-design key questions to address in the PhD and to disseminate outcomes from the studies.ObjectivesThe overarching objectives are to: 1. Determine trade-offs between pest control services provided by soil bacteria and by fungi/parasitoids aboveground. 2. Determine the impact of environmental changes (eCO2) on biocontrol/disease transmission, and plant health. 3. Transfer knowledge from laboratory experiment to the field. 4. Engage end-user farmer groups with research input and outputs

寻找可持续农业的新解决方案，同时确保全球范围内的农业生产力面临着重大挑战。保护性生物防治在没有农药的情况下，利用农业系统中功能多样的天敌（捕食者、拟寄生物、微生物）种群来减轻害虫压力并促进调节生态系统服务。虽然我们了解拟寄生物/捕食者和昆虫病原体在生物防治中的作用，并开始认识到有益土壤细菌对植物健康的重要性，但对这些生物体之间复杂的相互作用（特别是在环境条件下）控制害虫的作用知之甚少。改变。该项目将研究一种同时整合地上和地下害虫防治的新方法。学生将使用大麦蚜虫系统来研究气候变化（二氧化碳浓度升高）对多营养相互作用的影响以及未来条件下害虫压力增加的可能性。探索二氧化碳环境变化对多营养相互作用的影响将为我们对未来环境情景下微生物天敌可能受到的影响提供创新的理解。这很少被研究，特别是在多个天敌的群落组合的背景下，这种调节生态系统服务的价值将根据植物健康和作物产量进行评估。博士将通过实验室研究构建复杂性，到更大的中宇宙温室实验并转移到田间。还有一个令人兴奋的机会与农民一起共同设计博士论文中要解决的关键问题并传播研究结果。 目标总体目标是： 1. 确定土壤细菌提供的害虫防治服务与土壤细菌提供的害虫防治服务之间的权衡由地上真菌/寄生蜂引起。 2. 确定环境变化 (eCO2) 对生物防治/疾病传播和植物健康的影响。 3. 将知识从实验室实验转移到现场。 4. 让最终用户农民团体参与研究投入和产出