Hoverfly use for pollination of commercial soft fruit crops

食蚜蝇用于商业软果作物授粉

• 批准号: 2725992
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Greenwich
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2725992
• 关键词: Hoverfly; use; pollination; commercial; soft

Pollination of crops is essential for production of seeds, fruits, vegetables, and plant oils, generating billions of dollars annually in agriculture. The UK berry market itself was valued at £1.27 billion and is growing. However, wild pollination of fruit is often inadequate, especially at certain times of year and in covered crop systems. Insufficient pollination results in lower quality, and misshapen fruit, which is a major industry constraint. Unsaleable fruit must still be harvested to prevent proliferation of the invasive pest, Drosophila suzukii, increasing labour and production costs considerably. Consequently, UK growers supplement wild pollinators with commercially reared insects such as bumblebee hives, but even then, some farms experience 12%-17% fruit waste from misshapes. Olombria are developing a commercial hoverfly pollination system using attractive odour lures under AI control. Aphidophagous hoverflies offer several advantages over bumblebees/honeybees as commercial crop pollinators: - Lower hazard risk (bee stings) - Biocontrol of pest species from larvae feeding - Increased crop yieldUsing an interdisciplinary approach, it should be possible to amplify hoverfly efficacy significantly from base levels. We propose integrating aspects of the Olombria AI system, refining the odour cues, and including visual cues. Hoverflies learn that certain flowers offer superior nectar rewards and are thus more attracted towards them and are also attracted to areas of high pest infestation for ovipositioning purposes. This project would use an interdisciplinary approach to explore the potential to optimise pollinator behaviour to address several knowledge gaps:1. Interspecific differences in responses to odour lures across candidate commercial hoverfly pollinators - will "one size fit all"? This will enable the student to acquire skills in chemical ecology and electroantennography (EAG).2. Does a floral odour or pheromone blend attract more hoverflies and result in better pollination? This will enable the student to acquire skills in behavioural entomology, field and polytunnel trials, and fruit quality assessments and assessing impacts on behaviour of managed and wild pollinators. 3. Can floral odour release devices under computer control be used to direct free-flying hoverflies in the lab and field according to experimenter-driven programming? This will enable the student to develop programming and software skills, working with Olombria's existing AI.4 The effect of multimodal stimuli on hoverflies at different spatial scales, including responses to patterns, and the effect of changing illumination, to optimise attraction into the target crops. This will enable the student to develop skills in visual ecology, including use of spectrophotometry, and use of 3D tracking in wind tunnels.

农作物的种植对于种子、水果、蔬菜和植物油的生产至关重要，每年在农业上产生数十亿美元。英国浆果市场本身的价值为12.7亿英镑，并且正在增长。然而，野生授粉的水果往往是不够的，特别是在一年中的某些时间和覆盖作物系统。授粉不足导致果实质量下降和畸形，这是一个主要的产业限制。卖不出去的水果仍然必须收割，以防止入侵害虫铃木虫（Drosophila suzukii）的扩散，这大大增加了劳动力和生产成本。因此，英国种植者用商业饲养的昆虫（如大黄蜂蜂巢）补充野生授粉者，但即使如此，一些农场仍有12%-17%的水果因畸形而浪费。Olombria正在开发一种商业化的食蚜蝇授粉系统，在人工智能控制下使用有吸引力的气味诱饵。食蚜性食蚜蝇作为商业作物授粉者比熊蜂/蜜蜂提供了几个优势：-较低的危害风险（蜂蜇）-从幼虫喂养中对害虫物种进行生物防治-增加作物产量使用跨学科的方法，应该可以从基础水平显着放大食蚜蝇的功效。我们建议整合Olombria AI系统的各个方面，改进气味线索，并包括视觉线索。食蚜蝇了解到某些花提供上级花蜜奖励，因此更容易被吸引到它们，并且也被吸引到高害虫侵扰的区域以产卵。该项目将使用跨学科的方法来探索优化传粉者行为的潜力，以解决几个知识差距：1。候选商业食蚜蝇传粉者对气味引诱反应的种间差异-“一刀切”吗？这将使学生获得化学生态学和触角电位（EAG）的技能。花香或信息素混合物是否会吸引更多的食蚜蝇并导致更好的授粉？这将使学生掌握行为昆虫学，田间和多通道试验，水果质量评估和评估对管理和野生传粉者行为的影响的技能。3.根据实验者驱动的程序设计，在计算机控制下的花香释放装置能否用于指导实验室和田间的自由飞行的食蚜蝇？这将使学生能够开发编程和软件技能，与Olombria现有的AI一起工作。4多模式刺激对不同空间尺度的食蚜蝇的影响，包括对模式的反应，以及改变照明的影响，以优化对目标作物的吸引力。这将使学生发展视觉生态学的技能，包括使用分光光度计，并在风洞中使用3D跟踪。