The Project
CLIMLAND was a two year project (2013 - 2015) funded by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF-326943) awarded to Dr Lucy Alford to work with Dr Françoise Burel and Professor Joan van Baaren. The project aimed to understand the effect of climate and landscape on important insect groups in agricultural systems so that we may better inform landscape management to enhance natural biological control in a changing climate.
The pestThe aphids represent one of the most important pests of agriculture worldwide. They are capable of transmitting almost 300 plant virus species - more than 50% of all plant viruses spread by insects. |
The predatorThe carabid beetles and parasitoid wasps are important predators of aphids in cereal fields. They naturally control pest aphid populations and help to reduce the damage caused by aphids to economically important crops. |
the questIn the face of global food insecurity and unpredictable climate change patterns, there is growing interest in how landscape management can increase the natural control of agricultural pests such as the aphids. |
insects in a changing worldInsects will need to tolerate increased temperature fluctuations in the face of global climate change. Studying the survival of insects is important and could be vital to developing landscape management solutions to project beneficial insects and control agriculture pests. |
The detail
CLIMLAND aimed to disentangle the relative effects of climatic conditions and landscape intensification on the natural enemies of the major agricultural pest, the aphids, in cereal fields. The project focused on carabid beetles and parasitoid wasps, and their aphid prey, originating from landscape gradients spanning intensively farmed landscapes to more naturally managed 'bocage' landscapes. Using comparative laboratory techniques to investigate variation in thermal biology and behavioural escape responses, the research aimed to understand the effect of landscape intensification on the ability of insects to withstand unfavourable temperature stresses and what this means for these important insects and the pest control service they provide in the face of climate change. Ultimately, understanding the impact of landscape and climate on these natural enemies would inform landscape management techniques to enhance natural biological control in a changing climate. Read more about the results of this research on the publications page found here.