Systemic approaches to non-chemical pest management at Aarhus University. Tove Steenberg Dept. of Agroecology, Research Centre Flakkebjerg, Denmark

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1 Systemic approaches to non-chemical pest management at Aarhus University Tove Steenberg Dept. of Agroecology, Research Centre Flakkebjerg, Denmark

2 Outline Short presentation of Aarhus University Presentation of the multi-disciplinary team working on ecosystem services and nonchemical pest control at Research Centre Flakkebjerg

3 AU - Locations and statistics 25% of public research in DK 8,500 publications per year 40,000 students 1,800 Ph.D.-students Bachelor educations 81 Master programmes 2,500 courses 1. Aarhus Campus Research Centre Flakkebjerg 10,000 employees Budget 5 billion DKK Research Fund 3 billion DKK Top 100 University

4 Research Centre Flakkebjerg o Opened in 1997 o 100 staff (Dept. of Agroecology) o Experimental area of 175 ha o 6500 m 2 offices and laboratories o 9500 m 2 other facilities

5 Members of the non-chemical pest management team 1. Sabine Ravnskov (Biological management of plant diseases) 2. Annie Enkegaard (Biological control of arthropod pests) 3. Tove Steenberg (Insect pathology and microbial pest control) 4. Bo Melander (Physical and cultural weed control) 5. Gabor Lövei (Ecosystem services in human-dominated habitats) 6. Lise Stengård Hansen (Non-chemical control of pests in stored grain) 7. Mogens Nicolaisen (Molecular diversity of plant pathogens) 8. Niels Holst (Ecological modelling)

6 Biological management of plant diseases (Sabine Ravnskov) Research, basic aspects: Plant-microbe interactions and plant health Functional compatibility in arbuscular mycorrhizal symbioses Interactions between root microbial communities and organic matter Fungus-associated bacteria Mode of action of arbuscular mycorrhiza in biocontrol Microbial community structure and environment

7 Biological management of plant diseases (Sabine Ravnskov) Research, applied aspects: Non-chemical management of soil- and root microbial communities by Biological control of plant pathogens Organic amendments/green manure crop Mechanical/thermal management Integrated Pest Management Integrated control of plant diseases, weeds and pests Integrated chemical and non-chemical control of diseases

8 Biological control of arthropod pests (Annie Enkegaard) Greenhouse crops (vegetables, ornamentals, fruit, herbs, etc. ) High-value field crops (fruit, vegetables) Research, basic aspects: Biology of pests and beneficials (commercial / noncommercial) life history characteristics, functional response, prey preference, influence of temperature/humidity Intraguild predation ao. interactions Tritrophic interactions, including HIPVs

9 Biological control of arthropod pests (Annie Enkegaard) Research, applied aspects: Release strategies (conservation / augmentation) Mass rearing Quality control Release rates/frequencies Combinations of beneficials Improve efficacy (e.g. banker plants) Integration with other methods against arthropod pests / weeds / diseases

10 Insect pathology and microbial pest control (Tove Steenberg) Pests and beneficial arthropods in: Arable crops (cereals, legumes) and pastures Animal production, grain stores, bee hives Greenhouse crops, vegetable crops Research, basic aspects (focus on fungal pathogens): Prevalence studies, epizootiology, natural occurrence Host range studies (including non-target effects) Interactions with other control agents Longevity at different abiotic conditions Sub-lethal effects

11 Insect pathology and microbial pest control (Tove Steenberg) Research, applied aspects: Selection of efficacious isolates Application methods

12 Physical and cultural weed control (Bo Melander) Mechanisms of physical weed control Interactions between preventive, cultural and physical weed control methods Designing weed management strategies for organic crops Weed management in direct-sown row crops Stale seedbed Band-steaming Flaming

13 Physical and cultural weed control (Bo Melander) Weed management in transplanted vegetables Mechanical intra-row weed control Non-selective tools without intelligence Torsion weeding Finger weeding Weed harrowing Finger weeding Succes full application can provide almost complete weed control with little demand for hand weeding of redisual weeds (< 50 hours ha -1 ) Robotic intra-row weeding Selective intra-row weeding with intelligence Does not impact the crop Longer working time Less concentration required Robotic weeding

14 Ecosystem services in human-dominated habitats (Gabor Lövei) Adjunct Professor, CAAS Inst. Plant Protection, Beijing Current research interests: Agroecology & sustainable agriculture Biosafety: ecology of genetically modified organisms Conservation biology Invasion ecology & ecology of urbanisation Ecology of feeding in predatory arthropods Biological control by generalist natural enemies and habitat manipulation Biodiversity theory Bionomics, behaviour and ecology of beneficial arthropods Scientific writing and communication; new methods of graphical data analysis

15 Non-chemical control of pests in stored grain (Lise Stengård Hansen) Granary weevil Non-chemical control methods Biology and population dynamics Monitoring, prevention Confused flour beetle Lariophagus distinguendus Pest density after 26 weeks

16 Molecular diversity of plant pathogens (Mogens Nicolaisen) The effects of molecular diversity on pathogenicity Population structures of pathogens Diagnosis and detection of pathogens Methods PCR,qPCR Microarrays Next generation sequencing Biosensors

17 Molecular diversity of plant pathogens (Mogens Nicolaisen) Workflow of next generation sequencing in complex environmental samples Sample DNA extraction PCR amplification BLAST id 454 sequencing BlastClust (99%) ~ sequences 17

18 Ecological modelling (Niels Holst) Universal Simulator: an open-source modelling tool Simulation of IPM scenarios: crops, pests, beneficials, honey bees GM crop side effects

19 Ecological modelling (Niels Holst) Universal Simulator operation UniSim XML Column text input: model recipe and data UniSim environment Plug-in Plot figures Plug-in Column text computation output software documentation source code online courses Holst (2013). A universal simulator for ecological modelling. Ecological Modelling (submitted)

20 Example of participation in a systemic approach project at Research Centre Flakkebjerg EU funded collaborative project PURE (Pesticide use and risk reduction in European farming systems with integrated pest management) , 12 mio. Euro 6 major farming systems in Europe (winter wheat, grain maize, field vegetables (focus on Brassica), pome fruit, grapevine and protected crops (focus on tomatoes)