Award details

Movement and spatial ecology in agricultural landscapes

Reference	BBS/E/C/00005195
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Andrew Reynolds
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	3,380,072
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2012
End date	31/03/2017
Duration	59 months

Abstract

Research in this project is focused on the movement ecology and spatial patterning of populations of pests (insects & pathogens) and beneficials (natural enemies & pollinators). Many pests and their natural enemies are highly mobile (which affects their ability to colonise and damage crops), while the quantity and quality of seed and fruit production in many crops is dependent on the spatial structuring of the crop and the movement patterns of pollinators. This project seeks to tackle all aspects of spatial scaling from national and regional dynamics through to landscape and farm-scale patterns and individual movements, in an attempt to better understand how sustainable food production and high levels of biodiversity can co-exist in agricultural landscapes. The research tackles the following questions: 1. Are invasive species and their migration pathways predictable, and can models be developed that elucidate a mechanistic understanding of observed spatial patterns of pests? 2. Do pest species exhibit spatial synchrony over large scales, and does this synchrony facilitate area-wide suppression given additional management interventions? 3. At what scale should pests, pathogens and natural enemies be managed (monitored and controlled) for maximum yield? 4. Does the spatial patterning of floral resources of differing nutritional quality affect the search strategies, foraging success, colony fitness and pollination services of bees? 5. How do sub-lethal infections of diseases and parasites affect the navigational capabilities, foraging success, and fitness of infected versus uninfected hives? These questions will be tackled with a variety of approaches, including exploitation of Rothamsted’s long-term datasets and classical experiments; purpose-built entomological radars for studying long-range migration and short-range foraging movements; and mathematical models to predict and explain spatio-temporal dynamics in pest and beneficial populations.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
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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