Ecology of insects in canola agroecosystems

我的研究项目侧重于了解昆虫在油菜农业生态系统中的生态模式和过程。在加拿大，这些生态系统每年约有400万至500万公顷，与不同营养水平的大量节肢动物有关。我的研究将包括三个主要领域。首先，我正在努力了解驱动油菜籽昆虫在时间和空间上分布模式的机制。通过调查草食动物及其相关的拟寄生物的扩散和迁移模式，并利用地理信息系统技术绘制昆虫密度与导致它们的因素之间的关系，将有可能预测作物内和草食动物密度高的地理区域内的区域。然后，控制活动的时间可以对害虫产生最佳影响，对其天敌的影响最小。其次，研究干旱和低土壤肥力等非生物胁迫对油菜及其食草动物和食草天敌的影响。了解这种关系可以建立资源可利用性与昆虫种群动态关系的预测模型。我的第三个研究方向是调查外来物种入侵油菜的原因和后果。特别是，我将研究景观变量如何影响白菜籽荚象鼻虫的传播速度，以及象鼻虫的入侵如何间接影响本地象鼻虫物种的生物多样性。我目前有学生在这三个研究领域之一工作，如果获得资助，我渴望培养更多的学生。在这个研究领域还有很多工作要做，我认为培养下一代昆虫农业生态学家与研究本身同等重要。

My research program focuses on understanding ecological patterns and processes of insects inhabiting canola agroecosystems.  In Canada, these systems comprise approximately four to five million hectares annually, and are associated with a vast array of arthropods at several trophic levels.  My research will encompass three main areas.  First, I am working to understand the mechanisms that drive distribution patterns of canola insects in time and space.  By investigating dispersal and migration patterns of herbivores and their associated parasitoids, and by using geographical information systems technology to draw relationships between insect densities and factors responsible for them, it will be possible to predict areas within crops and within geographical regions associated with high herbivore densities.  Control activities can then be timed to have optimal impact on the pest and minimal effect on its natural enemies.  Second, I will investigate the role of abiotic stresses like drought and low soil fertility on canola, its herbivores, and herbivore natural enemies.  Understanding this relationship can lead to predictive models of the relationship between resource availability and insect population dynamics.  My third line of research will investigate causes and consequences of invasion of canola by alien species.  In particular, I will study how landscape variables affect the rate of dispersal of the cabbage seedpod weevil, and how invasion of the weevil indirectly affects the biodiversity of native weevil species. I currently have students working in one of these three research areas, and am anxious to train additional students if funding is awarded.  There is much work left to do in this field of research, and I consider training the next generation of insect agroecologists to be equal in importance to the research itself.