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

There are significant barriers 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 effects of environmental changes of elevated CO2 on multi-trophic interactions, to 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. There is an exciting opportunity to engage with farmers to co-design key questions to address in the PhD and to disseminate outcomes from the studies. This will be led by our innovation partner at Mamoré Research and Innovation Limited.

Objectives: 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. Identify farmer needs for a successful uptake of conservation biological control methods.