Sustainable Management of Pestiferous Arthropods and Weeds Affecting Cultivated and Wildland Plants Grant uri icon

abstract

  • The grand challenge to meet the increasing demands for food and fiber by a rapidly growing global population requires innovative solutions. A key component to meeting these demands will be protecting crops from pest losses while conserving limited natural resources and maintaining environmental quality through ecologically and economically sound integrated pest management (IPM) practices. Biological control (BC) is a key ecosystem service and an underlying pillar of IPM. Biological control and IPM have important economic consequences associated with control options, including control costs, production outcomes, and environmental and societal effects. Understanding this array of values is central to the adoption of novel management strategies that are important among all stakeholders of agriculture, including those who make funding decisions that spur needed innovations. We will address these issues by: 1) developing robust, user-friendly sampling methods; 2) conducting discovery and translational research to develop and implement sound pest management technologies and methodologies; and 3) study the biological underpinnings associated with pest outbreaks and their managment.

date/time interval

  • 2016 - 2021