Plant and Invertebrate Ecology

Insect Population Genetics and Ecology

Whiteflies

Leader: Dr Ian Denholm

A major challenge facing agricultural research is to predict how changes in land use, climate and crop management practices are likely to affect the structure and resilience of agro-ecosystems. This programme employs long-term and large-scale datasets, modern data handling procedures, and novel radar-based techniques to investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics of invertebrates in farmland and associated habitats, the cues that influence migratory and foraging behaviour, and the functional and trophic links between different components of farmland biodiversity. Genetic approaches complement ecological work by addressing intra-specific variation and the adaptation of invertebrates to agricultural practices. Insecticide resistance, which is of immediate practical concern but also serves as a model for investigating rapid micro-evolutionary change, is perhaps the best documented example of the latter. As well as supporting research on agro-ecology, two unique resources within the programme - the Rothamsted Insect Survey and the Rothamsted Radar Entomology Unit - are proving increasingly relevant to concerns in the conservation and public health arenas. Our involvement in the important Farm-Scale Evaluations of GM crops project equips us well to contribute to models capable of describing the impact of land use on biodiversity over time, and over large spatially-heterogeneous environments.

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Staff and their interests

Mr David Brooks

Assessing the effect of environmental change on the population dynamics, species diversity and community ecology of farmland invertebrates at semi-field, field and landscape scales. Biodiversity risk assessment of novel farming systems, especially for GM crops. Plant-insect interactions and ecosystem level effects of herbicide management. Conservation of beneficial insects within integrated pest management strategies. Agro-ecology of carabid beetles and their use as environmental indicators.

Dr Jason Chapman

Insect migration, especially Lepidoptera, and the use of entomological radar for studying migration. Conservation biology and chemical ecology of Stag Beetles; and the costs and benefits of cannibalism in larval insects.

Dr Ian Denholm

Genetic and ecological aspects of insecticide resistance. Dynamics of insecticide resistance genes and the development and evaluation of resistance management tactics for aphids, whiteflies and leipdoptera.

Dr Stephen Foster

Genetic and ecological aspects of the evolution of insecticide resistance mechanisms (primarily in aphid pests). Studying the selective advantages, in the presence of insecticides, and fitness costs in the absence of insecticides (genes conferring insecticide resistance can exert physiological and behavioural side-effects on the fitness of their carriers particularly during times of stress). Formulating these data into resistance management guidelines for growers and advisors.

Dr Richard Harrington

Use of long term, spatially extensive data and associated experimentation to understand and predict i) insect, and especially aphid, population dynamics with respect to the impact of environment and expected environmental changes; ii) the epidemiology of aphid-borne viruses in order to support vector control decisions; iii) the dynamics of British mosquitoes with respect to the risk of West Nile virus.