| BACKGROUND and RELEVANCE
Large amounts of pesticides are applied to agricultural fields to protect the crops from pests and pathogens. Unfortunately, these pesticides often inflict major damage to non-target organisms and ecological communities both in the field as well as the surrounding area. To reduce damage on environment, the European Commission has decided that the use of pesticides in agriculture should be reduced by 50 % no later than 2030. To reach this ambitious goal we need to develop sustainable methods for pest control that are as efficient as the synthetic pesticides. Natural plant volatiles that deter pest insects or attract natural enemies could play an important role to reduce our dependence on chemical pesticides.
Aim and objectives
In this MSc project, Shah Ahmad Ansari (an Erasmus Mundus student from Nepal) will test if volatile sesquiterpenes which are naturally produced by some strawberry genotypes can protect the strawberries from pests in the absence of pesticides.
Wild strawberry genotypes vary in the amount of sesquiterpenes that they produce/emit. The variation is especially notable for alfa-farnesene. For the purpose of this project Shah will use 10 wild strawberry genotypes that do not produce alfa-farnesene at all and 10 other strawberry genotypes that produce very high amounts of alfa-farnesene. In a series of laboratory and field studies he will test if strawberry genotypes that emit high concentrations of alfa-farnesene experience lower herbivore damage than genotypes that do not produce alfa-farnesene at all.
The specific aim is to answer the following scientific questions:
1. Strawberry genotypes that produce high contrentrations of alfa-farnesene are less attractive to the Drosophila suzikii, which is a severe strawberry pest.
2. Strawberry genotypes that produce high contrentrations of alfa-farnesene are less attractive to aphids, which are severe strawberry pests.
3. Strawberry genotypes that produce high contrentrations of alfa-farnesene are more attractive to insect predators (lacewings) which top-down control the herbivores.
4. The insects mentioned in points 1-3 (above) are attracted to, or repelled by, synthetic alfa-farnesene in controlled olfactometer experiments.
BUDGET
All costs associated with the planned experiment will be covered by SLU.
The stipend from Lammska Stiftelsen will be used to cover parts of the rent for Shah Ahmad Ansari. Shah will rent a student room from SLU in Alnarp. The monthly rent is SEK 4300. Shah will stay in Alnarp for 6 months. Thus, the total rent will be SEK 4300 × 6 = SEK 25800.
The remaining rent (not covered by the stipend) will be paid by Shah himself. Thus, Shah will pay SEK 15800.
Shah is a Nepalese student with a very limited budget. Thus, a stipend from Lammska stiftelsen would be of immense help to him.
TIME PLAN
April: Planning and preparation of the experimental plants.
May: Lab studies with aphids, Drosophila suzukii, and lacewings.
June: Field studies with aphids, Drosophila suzukii, and lacewings.
July: Statistical analyses.
August: Writing the MSc thesis.
September: Writing, examination, and presentation of the thesis + preparations for submission to scientific journal.
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