Analysis of Control and Regulation of an Insect by its Parasitoid

0089515。威廉·默多克当代生态学的中心目标是了解植物、食草性昆虫及其天敌之间高度复杂的相互作用。这些直接和间接的互动对自然和受管理的人口和社区产生了深远的影响。加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的威廉·默多克和他的同事们正在进行长期调查，以了解寄生蜂是如何将以柑橘为食的加州赤甲昆虫的种群维持在低种群密度的。了解这种生物种群控制是如何在保持稳定的情况下如此迅速地发生的，是该项目的主要目标。几个假设将得到实证检验，例如随着规模密度的增加，寄生虫率和寄生蜂干扰相应增加。这项研究被许多生态学家认为是昆虫种群动态和生物防治方面最好的研究之一。该项目具有很强的理论和经验成分，并在多个时间和空间尺度上将建模与假设检验相结合。虽然这项工作侧重于一种特定的植物-昆虫-天敌模型，但生态相互作用和种群动态的基本原理广泛适用于其他自然和农业系统。这种基础生态学研究对农学和人类生活质量都有直接的应用。从这个项目中获得的知识可以帮助减少杀虫剂的使用，并建立更环保的方法来控制主要农作物和果园害虫。

0089515. William MurdochA central objective of contemporary ecology is to understand the highly complex interactions between plants, plant-feeding insects, and their natural enemies. These direct and indirect interactions have profound impacts on natural and managed populations and communities. William Murdoch and his colleagues at the University of California-Santa Barbara are conducting long-term investigations to understand how parasitic wasps maintain populations of citrus-feeding California red scale insects at low population densities. Understanding how this biological population control occurred so quickly, while remaining stabile, is the primary objective of the project. Several hypotheses will be tested empirically, such as a corresponding increase in parasitism rates, and parasitoid interference, as scale densities rise. This research is considered by many ecologists to be one of the best studies of insect population dynamics and biological control. The project has strong theoretical and empirical components and blends modeling with hypothesis testing at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Although this work is focused on a specific plant-insect-enemy model, the principles underlying the ecological interactions and population dynamics are broadly relevant for other natural and agricultural systems. This basic ecological research has direct applications for agronomy, as well as the quality of human life. Knowledge gained from this project can help reduce pesticide use and establish more environmentally friendly methods of controlling major crop and orchard pests.