We use cookies on our website. Some are necessary for the operation of the website. You can also allow cookies for statistical purposes. You can adjust the data protection settings or agree to all cookies directly.
Effects of resistance, drought stress and diversity areas on herbivorous insects and their antagonists: Crop damage developments in wheat - a contribution to future yield security (ResisTeD_In)
Project
Project code: JKI-ÖPV-08-1436
Contract period: 01.10.2020
- 30.09.2021
Purpose of research: Applied research
Sustainable agriculture as an objective of the agriculture strategy 2035 requires to reduce the high use of chemicals and fertilizers and to minimize negative impacts on basic ecosystem services in agriculture. This reorientation in arable farming can be achieved by a combination of a) adapted breeding strategies (especially taking into account frequent extreme climatic events and seasonal shifts), b) reduction of pests and promotion of pest antagonists by diversification of crops and arable diversity areas (as ecological infrastructure), as well as by c) a more extensive (integrative) sustainable plant protection. Sustainable plant protection is characterized, among other things, by the development of system-optimized strategies from plant breeding programs and management, in which complex changes in biotic interactions caused by seasonal-climatic weather conditions and plant susceptibility to infestation are taken into account. The aim is to identify, weigh up and minimize risks to yield security. Against this background, the promotion of species diversity while at the same time increasing spatio-temporal structural diversity (e.g. through small structures and diversity areas; crop rotations and spatial mixtures) is just as important a component in the efficiency of functioning integrated plant protection as fundamental findings on the effects of changed cultivation systems - such as breeding progress in cereal varieties with yield optimization - and regional climatic changes on the damage potential of herbivorous insect species.
In order to be able to consider the complex effects of changing crop currents and cultivation conditions on agroecosystems in the context of agronomic strategies, our project aims to demonstrate the effect of optimized varieties and diversity areas on selected groups of organisms and trophic levels (relevant pest insects and their natural antagonists) and to determine their agronomic and agroecological functions, using wheat cultivation as an example. The results will contribute to the development of a sustainable strategy for plant protection (integrated/segregated).
The overall goal of the project is to answer the questions
1. Do new wheat varieties optimized for cultivation according to current cultivation practice compared to older varieties from six decades of breeding progress influence
- directly the population dynamics of important cereal pests and their antagonists? (variety-specific evaluation)
- the interaction plant pest antagonist under climatic stress and without? (in the observation of different species constellations - pairwise species comparison and tritrophic, one and more pests / antagonists in combination)
2. Can selective and optimized diversity areas as ecological infrastructure in the agricultural landscape in combination with the wheat varieties
- guarantee an improvement of the natural pest regulation?
- influence the interactions between plants (a. the diversity area, b. the wheat variety), harmful insects and beneficial organisms via specific plant constituents?
Section overview
Subjects
- Crop Production
- Plant Breeding
- Crop Protection
- Genetic Resources
- Climate Change
Framework programme
Funding programme
Excutive institution
Institute for Ecological Chemistry, Plant Analysis and Stored Products Protection (JKI-ÖPV)