My research interests revolve around forest pest management. Native insects play important roles in the health and diversity of forests, culling out sick trees, recycling nutrients, pollinating plants and spreading seeds. Insects become pests when they begin to attack healthy and valuable trees. These pest outbreaks can be caused by poor management, changes in the environment (e.g. drought, fire, climate change), and exotic insects. In an increasingly interconnected world, the accidental transportation and introduction in new pests continues to increase and poses significant risks to North American Forests.
Emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennisi (EAB), (Buprestidae: Coleoptera) is one of the most destructive forest pest introduced to North America to date. Since it was accidentally introduced in the mid-1990's (by way of shipping crates), it has spread to more than 30 states and two Canadian provinces, and killed untold millions of ash trees. Recent research now indicates EAB is capable of completing development on a cofamiliar species to ash, white fringe tree, a common ornamental native to the southern US. The spread of EAB and near total extirpation of ash from North America is inevitable, therefore management options are to slow the rate of spread and prevent the loss of ash for as long as possible.
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An important component for the integrated pest management of EAB is biological control (biocontrol for short). Since EAB is exotic to North America, native ash species of ash have limited bottom-up defenses, or natural resistance. Management tools such as systemic insecticides have proven to be very effective in protecting individual trees, but are not economically or ecologically feasible at the landscape level. The insect has also escaped predation in North America, since native predators are naive to EAB. Therefore, predators found in the native east Asian range of EAB were brought to North America and released in order to establish predator populations to control EAB. These highly specialized predators, known as parasitoids, are highly specialized to EAB. Host specifcify tests conducted in the laboratory before they were initially released indicated they would not attack native insects similar to EAB. Even though any biocontrol program has some potential risks, the threat from EAB was considered to great, that the biocontrol program was essential.
My research explores the phenology and behavior of the specialized wasps (parasitoids) that have been introduced form the native range of EAB (east Asia) in order to understand how the wasps develop in the northeast and optimize the efficacy of the biocontrol program. Each species of was was recovered from across the range of EAB. Therefore, some species may be better adapted to southern climates or more northern climates in North America. My research focuses on determining how well the different species develop under environmental conditions in the northeast to determine if they will be suitable for release in more northern climates. Large numbers of parasitoids are reared in laboratories just for the purpose of release. This not only incurs an economic cost, but if parasitoids are released in a climate where they do not function well, they have little impact on EAB populations. The goal of my research is to help optimize the release protocol for EAB parasitoids and create the most efficient and effective program.
My research explores the phenology and behavior of the specialized wasps (parasitoids) that have been introduced form the native range of EAB (east Asia) in order to understand how the wasps develop in the northeast and optimize the efficacy of the biocontrol program. Each species of was was recovered from across the range of EAB. Therefore, some species may be better adapted to southern climates or more northern climates in North America. My research focuses on determining how well the different species develop under environmental conditions in the northeast to determine if they will be suitable for release in more northern climates. Large numbers of parasitoids are reared in laboratories just for the purpose of release. This not only incurs an economic cost, but if parasitoids are released in a climate where they do not function well, they have little impact on EAB populations. The goal of my research is to help optimize the release protocol for EAB parasitoids and create the most efficient and effective program.