Analysis of Control and Regulation of an Insect by its Parasitoid

昆虫寄生蜂的控制与调节分析

• 批准号: 0089515
• 负责人: William Murdoch
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-01-01 至 2004-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0089515&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Analysis; Control; Regulation; Insect; its

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.

0089515. 当代生态学的中心目标是了解植物、以植物为食的昆虫及其天敌之间高度复杂的相互作用。这些直接和间接的相互作用对自然和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，以了解寄生蜂如何在低种群密度下维持以柑橘为食的加州红鳞虫的种群。了解这种生物种群控制如何发生得如此之快，同时保持稳定，是该项目的主要目标。一些假设将得到实证检验，例如随着鳞片密度的增加，寄生率相应增加，以及寄生蜂的干扰。该研究被许多生态学家认为是昆虫种群动态和生物防治的最佳研究之一。该项目具有很强的理论和实证成分，并将建模与多时空尺度的假设检验相结合。虽然这项工作主要集中在一个特定的植物-昆虫-敌人模型上，但生态相互作用和种群动态的基本原理与其他自然和农业系统广泛相关。这项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农药的使用，并建立更环保的方法来控制主要作物和果园的害虫。