IRCN: Coordinating research on bark beetle - fungal interactions in South Africa and the U.S.

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Forests and tree industries around the world are increasingly threatened by invasive pests and diseases, such as wood boring bark beetles and their associated fungi. A better understanding of the mutually beneficial -- or symbiotic -- relationship between bark beetles and fungi is critical for the long-term health and sustainability of global forests. Currently, however, bark beetle-fungal symbioses are poorly understood resulting in a limited number of strategies to control both the spread and impact of bark beetles in forests worldwide. This International Research Coordination Network (IRCN) project, co-funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and South African National Research Foundation (NRF), will coordinate the research activities of forest pathologists, entomologists and mycologists throughout South Africa and the U.S. -- two of the world's most productive forest health research communities. The IRCN will connect 14 institutions, represented by 22 individual researchers, to critically assess how bark beetles and their fungal associates are currently studied and how this research could be improved. U.S. and South African undergraduates and graduate students will be trained broadly as part of a laboratory exchange program to enhance research coordination between the two countries. More than half of the project participants are under-represented in science, including females, minorities, and early-career scientists. Natural resource managers and the public will be engaged to help formulate better management strategies based on newly synthesized data among the network members, and information on bark beetle - fungal symbioses will be disseminated broadly via online videos and other media. This U.S. - South African IRCN project aims to re-evaluate, invigorate and coordinate research on bark beetle - fungus symbioses. Specific aims of the Network include adoption of new data standards to improve mobility of vector-fungus association data, and enhanced sharing of databases among established repositories to facilitate synthesis of diverse bark beetle and fungal data. Exchanges among participating laboratories will facilitate the introduction of new technologies across the Research Network and help reconcile conflicting bark beetle - fungal symbiosis paradigms. The Network will also maintain a publicly available social media portal discussing research on bark beetle/fungal symbioses and publish a synthesis for the global community of researchers studying symbioses.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.