Award details

Aphid ecology and population dynamics

Reference	BBS/E/C/00004957
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Richard Harrington
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	820,543
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2008
End date	31/03/2012
Duration	48 months

Abstract

Many insects are pests of agriculture, horticulture and forestry and vectors of plant, animal and human diseases. Many others are beneficial, contributing to ecosystem services such as pollination, biological control and enjoyment of the countryside. The long-term datasets from the Rothamsted Insect Survey suction and light trap networks provide unmatched opportunities for investigating impacts of climatic change on the phenology, abundance and distribution of a range of species. Objectives: The objectives of this project are to investigate and predict the impacts of climate change on the dynamics of pest and beneficial insects within the wider framework of predicting climate change impacts on agricultural systems. Methods Data from the suction and light trap networks will form the basis of this project. Correlative analyses examining relationships between aspects of population dynamics (phenology, abundance, distribution) of a range of insect taxa, and both exogenous drivers (especially climate) and endogenous drivers (e.g. Density dependent feedback mechanisms) will be undertaken. Responses of different groups will be compared and a traits-based approach used to examine the transferability of results between taxa and to predict the results for taxa not specifically examined. Climate change scenarios will be substituted into resulting models and predictions of insect dynamics made on the basis of such scenarios. Hypotheses will be generated to explain the mechanisms behind observed relationships between datasets, and these hypotheses will be tested.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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