Award details

Insect pest and pollinator ecology

Reference	BBS/E/C/00041240
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Ingrid Williams
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	205,367
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/1998
End date	31/03/1999
Duration	12 months

Abstract

Efficient production of insect-pollinated crops necessitates their protection from insect pests and satisfaction of their pollination requirements. The project objective is to understand the fundamental mechanisms governing the spatial and temporal dynamics, interactions and regulatory processes of pest and beneficial insect populations within crops and the wider arable landscape. Movement related to host-location, mate-finding and resource- partitioning is crucial to the success of insect species and is studied at every scale. Field and laboratory behavioural studies identify the semiochemicals which govern insect-insect and insect-plant interactions and therefore induce movement. 2 The sites of production, the chemical identity and the mode of perception of these semiochemicals will be identified. Production of pure seed crops requires an understanding of the foraging ranges and behaviour of bees and novel techniques are being developed to study pollinator movement and bee-mediated pollen flow between plants, within and between crops and between crops and the semi-natural vegetation of farmland ecosystems. An understanding of the flower-pollinator interactions that influence bee foraging and efficient pollination is essential to the development of new plant cultivars, transgenic plants or for the conservation of wild flowers. The question of how a bee uses flower-derived signals to determine a flower is worth visiting is being investigated using Trifolium spp. as a model. 3 The importance of pheromones in controlling colony cohesion is poorly understood in non-Apis bees, particularly bumble bees which are being used increasingly in crop pollination management programmes. There are considered to be three problem areas to bumble bee rearing and breeding namely incubation, colony cohesion (queen dominance) and mating. The aim of this research is to provide the basic knowledge concerning the use of pheromones in bumble bees to control incubation and colony organisation. To complete study of the population dynamics and effects of pollen beetles on sunflower. To complete study of winter and summer pests of winter lupin. To write a review on flea beetles as pests of linseed and to initiate a study on host- location in these pests. To continue collaborative chemical, histological and behavioural studies on resource-partitioning in the cabbage seed weevil and to publish two papers on the subject. To test new spatial statistical methods for analysis of insect distribution data in oilseed rape. To develop suitable bioassays for testing the putative dominance and incubation pheromones in bumble bees. Using Trifolium spp., to identify key components used by bees during foraging, bioassay them in the bee flight room and investigate the genetics of inheritance of these compounds. To undertake a field trial to investigate differential foraging by bees on these species and hybrids. To continue investigations into bee-mediated pollen and gene flow using isoenzyme genetic markers in white clover; in particular to investigate the relative amounts of cross-and self-pollen transferred by bees of different species during within inflorescence visits, and the roles of pollen carryover and successive visits as mechanisms determining multiple paternity in inflorescences and pods. To develop further flight room and field-based studies on the semiochemical cues used by bees and other flower-visiting insects to identify floral food resources, particularly pollen. To complete investigation of the putative dominance pheromone in the bumble bee Bombus terrestris. To continue development of suitable annual and perennial forage mixtures for bees, based on available commercial mixtures but modified for UK arable needs. To analyse and prepare for publication data on the potential pests and pollination requirements of sunflower and linseed.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
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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