Impacts of climate change on the resilience of natural enemy communities for biocontrol of insect pests

在为可持续农业寻找新的解决方案，同时确保全球范围内的农业生产力方面存在重大挑战。保护性生物控制在没有农药的情况下，利用农业系统内功能多样的天敌（捕食者、寄生虫、微生物）种群来减轻害虫压力，促进调节生态系统服务。虽然我们了解寄生虫/捕食者和昆虫病原体在生物防治中的作用，并开始认识到有益土壤细菌对植物健康的重要性，但对这些生物群体之间控制害虫的复杂相互作用知之甚少，特别是在环境变化下。本计画将探讨一种同时整合地上与地下害虫防治的新方法.学生将使用大麦蚜虫系统来研究气候变化（二氧化碳浓度升高）对多营养相互作用的影响，以及未来条件下害虫压力增加的可能性。探索CO2环境变化对多营养相互作用的影响将带来对微生物天敌在未来环境情景下可能受到影响的创新理解。这很少被研究，尤其是在多个天敌的社区组合的背景下，这种调节生态系统服务的价值将在植物健康和作物产量方面进行评估。博士将建立复杂性，从实验室研究，到更大的中生态系统温室实验和转移到田间。也有一个令人兴奋的机会，与农民共同设计的关键问题，以解决在博士学位和传播的研究成果。确定土壤细菌和真菌/寄生物提供的害虫控制服务之间的权衡。2.确定环境变化（eCO 2）对生物防治/疾病传播和植物健康的影响。3.将知识从实验室实验转移到现场。4.使最终用户农民团体参与研究投入和产出

There are significant challenges to finding new solutions for sustainable agriculture, whilst ensuring agricultural productivity on a global scale. Conservation biological control uses functionally diverse populations of natural enemies (predators, parasitoids, microbes) within agricultural systems to alleviate pest pressure and promote regulating ecosystem services, in the absence of pesticides. Whilst we understand the role of parasitoids/predators and insect pathogens for biological control, and are beginning to acknowledge the importance of beneficial soil bacteria for plant health, less is known about the intricate interactions between these groups of organisms for controlling pests, especially under environmental change. This project will investigate a novel approach of integrating above- and below- ground pest control simultaneously. The student will use a barley-aphid system to investigate the effects of climate change (elevated CO2) on multi-trophic interactions and the potential for increased pest pressures under future conditions. Exploring the impact of environmental changes in CO2 on multi-trophic interactions will bring innovative understanding of how microbial natural enemies may be affected under future environmental scenarios. This has rarely been studied and especially not in the context of a community assemblage of multiple natural enemies where the value of this regulating ecosystem service will be assessed in terms of plant health and crop yield.The PhD will build complexity, from lab-studies, to larger mesocosm greenhouse experiments and transferring to the field. There is also an exciting opportunity to engage with farmers to co-design key questions to address in the PhD and to disseminate outcomes from the studies.ObjectivesThe overarching objectives are to: 1. Determine trade-offs between pest control services provided by soil bacteria and by fungi/parasitoids aboveground. 2. Determine the impact of environmental changes (eCO2) on biocontrol/disease transmission, and plant health. 3. Transfer knowledge from laboratory experiment to the field. 4. Engage end-user farmer groups with research input and outputs