Growing food almost year round in the mountains of Colorado is a green solution for localized food. It's a bit beyond farming -- this cozy dome greenhouse, the plants are growing happily. Take a grand tour with Buckhorn Gardens manager this cozy dome greenhouse, the plants are growing happily. Take a grand tour with Buckhorn Gardens manager.
Recently in Pest Control Category
I've always suspected that a family of living beings that are as
prolific as plants must be smarter than we give them credit for being.
After all, we can't even communicate very well with animals that we
KNOW are intelligent. Science is finally catching up with a gardener's
intuition.
Plants engage in self-recognition and can communicate danger to their
"clones" or genetically identical cuttings planted nearby, says
professor Richard Karban of the Department of Entomology, University of
California, Davis, in groundbreaking research published in the current
edition of Ecology Letters.
Karban and fellow scientist Kaori Shiojiri of
the Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Japan, found that
sagebrush responded to cues of self and non-self without physical
contact.
The sagebrush communicated and cooperated with other branches of
themselves to avoid being eaten by grasshoppers, Karban said. Although
the research is in its early stages, the scientists suspect that the
plants warn their own kind of impending danger by emitting volatile
cues. This may involve secreting chemicals that deter herbivores or
make the plant less profitable for herbivores to eat, he said.
Sagebrush exhibits communication only when air contact is allowed, says Rick Karban, shown here bagging sagebrush. When air contact is blocked with plastic bags there is no indication that communication has occurred. |
What this research means is that plants are "capable of more sophisticated behavior than we imagined," said Karban, who researches the interactions between herbivores (plant-eating organisms) and their host plants.
"Plants are capable of responding to complex cues that involve multiple stimuli," Karban said. "Plants not only respond to reliable cues in their environments but also produce cues that communicate with other plants and with other organisms, such as pollinators, seed disperses, herbivores and enemies of those herbivores."
In their UC Davis study, Karban and Shiojiri examined the relationships between the volatile profiles of clipped plants and herbivore damage They found that plants within 60 centimeters of an experimentally clipped neighbor in the field experienced less leaf damage over the season, compared with plants near an unclipped neighbor. Plants with root contact between neighbors, but not air contact, failed to show this response.
"We explored self-recognition in the context of plant resistance to herbivory," he said. "Previously we found that sagebrush (Artemisa tridentata) became more resistant to herbivores after exposure to volatile cues from experimentally damaged neighbors."
The ecologists wrote that "naturally occurring herbivores caused similar responses as experimental clipping with scissors and active cues were released for up to three days following clipping. Choice and no-choice experiments indicated that herbivores responded to changes in plant characteristics and were not being repelled directly by airborne cues released by clipped individuals."
In earlier research, Karban found that "volatile cues are required for communication among branches within an individual sagebrush plant. This observation suggests that communication between individuals may be a by-product of a volatile communication system that allows plants to integrate their own systemic physiological processes."
The scientists made cuttings from 30 sagebrush plants at the UC Sagehen Creek Natural Reserve and then grew the cutting in plastic pots. They grew the cuttings at UC Davis and then placed the pots near the parent plant or near another different assay plant (control group) in the field.
The research, "Self-Recognition Affects Plant Communication and Defense," is online. Their grant was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Hatch Project and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).
"The Plight of the Bumble Bees"
Monday, June 22
10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Baird Auditorium of the National Museum of Natural History.
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C.
Native pollinator specialist and researcher Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, is one of the key speakers at a public symposium on "The Plight of the Bumble Bees" at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Thorp, a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences since 1986, will speak on "Western Bumble Bees in Peril."
He recently spoke at a UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar on Franklin's bumble bee, a bumble bee historically found only in southern Oregon and northern California that he fears may be extinct. View the Bumblebee Webinar.
The symposium, themed "Plight of the Bumble Bees" and part of the National Pollinator Week activities June 22-28, will take place from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Baird Auditorium of the National Museum of Natural History. The Smithsonian is located at the corner of 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW.
Other speakers are:
Moderator is Michael Ruggiero, senior science advisor, Integrated Taxonomic Information (IT IS) of the Smithsonian Institution.
The event is sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey, Smithsonian Institution, National Biological Information Infrastructure, Pollinator Partnership and ITIS.
Monday, June 22
10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Baird Auditorium of the National Museum of Natural History.
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C.
Native pollinator specialist and researcher Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, is one of the key speakers at a public symposium on "The Plight of the Bumble Bees" at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Thorp, a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences since 1986, will speak on "Western Bumble Bees in Peril."
"The loss of a native pollinator could strike a devastating blow to the ecosystem, economy and food supply," he says.
He recently spoke at a UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar on Franklin's bumble bee, a bumble bee historically found only in southern Oregon and northern California that he fears may be extinct. View the Bumblebee Webinar.
The symposium, themed "Plight of the Bumble Bees" and part of the National Pollinator Week activities June 22-28, will take place from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Baird Auditorium of the National Museum of Natural History. The Smithsonian is located at the corner of 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW.
Other speakers are:
- Stephen Buchmann, University of Arizona, "USA Native Bee Diversity: Rarity, Threats and Conservation Ideals"
- Paul Williams, Natural History Museum, London, 'A Global View of Bumble Bees and Their Conservation Status"
- Sydney Cameron and Jeff Lozier, University of Illinois, "Status and Trends of Midwestern and Southern Bumble Bees"
- Leif Richardson, Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, "Bumble Bee Trends in Northeastern North America.'
- Buchmann received his doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 1978. Thorp was his major professor.
Moderator is Michael Ruggiero, senior science advisor, Integrated Taxonomic Information (IT IS) of the Smithsonian Institution.
The event is sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey, Smithsonian Institution, National Biological Information Infrastructure, Pollinator Partnership and ITIS.
The same generic lure can attract three species of mealybugs, which would cut costs for growers by allowing them to deploy a single pheromone trap rather than three.
The only scouting tool nurseries currently use for mealybugs is labor-intensive visual inspection of crops. Mealybugs are cryptic pests that conceal themselves in cracks and crevices of plant material. Without careful and regular sampling, mealybugs can reach economically damaging levels before growers realize plant-material infestation has occurred.
During the past two years, University of California, Riverside, researchers, including graduate student Rebeccah Waterworth, who is studying with UC Riverside entomologist Jocelyn Millar, has worked in several nurseries in Riverside and San Diego counties, deploying pheromone-baited traps to detect and follow citrus, longtailed and obscure mealybug populations.
"Fortunately our experiments determined that there is no major interference among these pheromones so a combination lure containing the pheromones of all three mealybug species can be used," Waterworth said.
The synthetic pheromone lures are deployed in sticky traps, where male mealybugs are then captured and counted. Some of the practical questions involved in developing pheromones for trapping mealybugs include the dose and longevity of the pheromone lures and how to monitor the seasonality of field populations of the three species.
Waterworth's results show longtailed mealybugs have clearly seasonal trends in their activity with populations increasing October through early spring and falling to low levels during the hotter summer months.
"The major peak in activity during the cooler winter months was counterintuitive, because most other insect pests show declines in their activity through fall and winter," Millar said. "The seasonality of this species is also apparent in other crops at this production location."
In addition, researchers are assessing the reproductive biology of the three mealybug species to determine whether pheromone-based control measures, such as mating disruption, are likely to be successful. They examined whether females can reproduce asexually as well as sexually, the number of times both males and females can mate, and details of their reproductive behaviors that might have implications for the use of pheromones for monitoring or controlling these insects.
"With citrus mealybug, we found that males and females can mate multiple times, as long as matings occur rapidly," Millar said. "However, one day after mating the first time, females become unreceptive to further mating attempts, suggesting that materials transferred to the female during mating have triggered changes in the female's physiology. Similar studies are in progress with the other two mealybug species."
The UC Integrated Pest Management Competitive Grants Program funded this study.
The only scouting tool nurseries currently use for mealybugs is labor-intensive visual inspection of crops. Mealybugs are cryptic pests that conceal themselves in cracks and crevices of plant material. Without careful and regular sampling, mealybugs can reach economically damaging levels before growers realize plant-material infestation has occurred.
During the past two years, University of California, Riverside, researchers, including graduate student Rebeccah Waterworth, who is studying with UC Riverside entomologist Jocelyn Millar, has worked in several nurseries in Riverside and San Diego counties, deploying pheromone-baited traps to detect and follow citrus, longtailed and obscure mealybug populations.
"Fortunately our experiments determined that there is no major interference among these pheromones so a combination lure containing the pheromones of all three mealybug species can be used," Waterworth said.
The synthetic pheromone lures are deployed in sticky traps, where male mealybugs are then captured and counted. Some of the practical questions involved in developing pheromones for trapping mealybugs include the dose and longevity of the pheromone lures and how to monitor the seasonality of field populations of the three species.
Waterworth's results show longtailed mealybugs have clearly seasonal trends in their activity with populations increasing October through early spring and falling to low levels during the hotter summer months.
"The major peak in activity during the cooler winter months was counterintuitive, because most other insect pests show declines in their activity through fall and winter," Millar said. "The seasonality of this species is also apparent in other crops at this production location."
In addition, researchers are assessing the reproductive biology of the three mealybug species to determine whether pheromone-based control measures, such as mating disruption, are likely to be successful. They examined whether females can reproduce asexually as well as sexually, the number of times both males and females can mate, and details of their reproductive behaviors that might have implications for the use of pheromones for monitoring or controlling these insects.
"With citrus mealybug, we found that males and females can mate multiple times, as long as matings occur rapidly," Millar said. "However, one day after mating the first time, females become unreceptive to further mating attempts, suggesting that materials transferred to the female during mating have triggered changes in the female's physiology. Similar studies are in progress with the other two mealybug species."
The UC Integrated Pest Management Competitive Grants Program funded this study.
