CAREER: Leaf microclimates and plant-insect interactions

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。植食性昆虫占所有宏观生物体的四分之一以上，它们捕食的植物占四分之一。然而，人们对影响哪些昆虫发生在哪些植物上的因素知之甚少。这项拟议的研究考察了一系列关于树叶小气候--树叶表面附近的温度和相对湿度--如何影响昆虫-植物联系的问题。特别是，这些研究由三个问题构成。首先，树叶的小气候与附近的大气候(气象学家称之为“气候”的条件)有何不同？第二，昆虫如何与可用的小气候相互作用？这一部分的重点是雌虫寻找产卵的地方，以及不同小气候下的卵和幼虫。第三，其他更广为人知的植物防御系统(次生化合物和毛状体)的有效性如何取决于叶片的小气候？环境生物物理学在植物-昆虫相互作用研究中的应用将阐明昆虫生态学的基本问题，并将为理解全球气候变化对包括农作物害虫在内的食草昆虫的影响提供一个平台。这项工作将在蒙大拿大学一项新的教育倡议-蒙大拿州昆虫在环境中的项目，或M-PIE的背景下进行。M-PIE将专注于三个领域。首先，MPIE的核心课程将是关于植物-昆虫相互作用的环境生物物理学的高年级本科生课程。这个一年一度的课程将培养学生成为项目的积极合作者。其次，M-PIE将与蒙大拿大学的项目培训(培训美国印第安人环境生物学)建立正式联系，萨利什·库特奈学院的一名环境科学专业学生将每年参加M-PIE。第三，M-PIE将通过在2-4年级培训2名教师来支持米苏拉当地的高中，目标是帮助他们发展昆虫-植物生物学的教学单元。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)." Plant-eating insects make up over one quarter of all macroscopic organisms, and the plants they eat another quarter. Little is known, however, about the factors influencing which insects occur on which plants. The proposed studies examine a set of questions about how leaf microclimates - the temperature and relative humidity adjacent to a leaf's surface - influence insect-plant associations. In particular, the studies are structured by three questions. First, how different are leaf microclimates from nearby macroclimates (the conditions that a meteorologist would call "climate")? Second, how do insects interact with available microclimates? This section focuses both on females searching for places to lay eggs and on eggs and larvae in different microclimates. Third, how does the effectiveness of other, better-known plant defenses (secondary compounds and trichomes) depend on leaf microclimate? This application of environmental biophysics to the study of plant-insect interactions will illuminate basic questions about insect ecology, and it will serve as a platform for understanding effects of global climate change on insect herbivores, including crop pests. The work will be carried out in the context of a new educational initiative at the University of Montana - the Montana Program on Insects in the Environment, or M-PIE. M-PIE will focus on three areas. First, MPIE's core will be an upper-division undergraduate class on the environmental biophysics of plant-insect interactions. This yearly class will prepare students to be active collaborators on the projects. Second, M-PIE will establish formal ties to University of Montana's Project TRAIN (Training American Indians in Environmental Biology), and one environmental sciences student from Salish Kootenai College will participate in M-PIE every year. Third, M-PIE will support local high schools in Missoula by training 2 teachers in Years 2-4, with the goal of helping them develop teaching units on insect-plant biology.