Location: Pest Management Research
Project Number: 3032-22000-019-003-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Sep 15, 2023
End Date: Sep 14, 2025
Objective:
1. Determine if CRP land impacts biocontrol on local and landscape scales for two key cropping systems in the Northern Great Plains, wheat and alfalfa.
2. Examine the influence of CRP land on parasitoid wasp biodiversity in two key cropping systems in the Northern Great Plains, wheat and alfalfa.
Approach:
Large scale stratefied fields studies will be conducted over two years, to examine the influence of CRP habitats on biocontrol of wheat stem sawfly in wheat and alfalfa weevil in alfalfa. Wheat and alfalfa fields (n=10 of each type in each of two years) will be selected adjacent to CRP fields. Fields will be sampled using sweep netting weekly from June-August to quantify biocontrol parasitoid abundance and diversity both adjacent to the crop edge, and in the center of each crop field. Biocontrol potential will be quantified by collecting target pests in the same locations and dissecting stems or hosts to quantify parasitism levels. Analyses will be conducted to examine the influence of distance to CRP edge and the amount of CRP in surrounding landscape (2000m radii) on biocontrol parasitoid biodiversity, and parasitism of target crop pests.
