Automated computed tomography based parasitoid detection in mason bee rearings

In recent years, insect husbandry has seen an increased interest in order to supply in the production of raw materials, food, or as biological/environmental control. Unfortunately, large insect rearings are susceptible to pathogens, pests and parasitoids which can spread rapidly due to the confined nature of a rearing system. Thus, it is of interest to monitor the spread of such manifestations and the overall population size quickly and efficiently. Medical imaging techniques could be used for this purpose, as large volumes can be scanned non-invasively. Due to its 3D acquisition nature, computed tomography seems to be the most suitable for this task. This study presents an automated, computed tomography-based, counting method for bee rearings that performs comparable to identifying all Osmia cornuta cocoons manually. The proposed methodology achieves this in an average of 10 seconds per sample, compared to 90 minutes per sample for the manual count over a total of 12 samples collected around lake Zurich in 2020. Such an automated bee population evaluation tool is efficient and valuable in combating environmental influences on bee, and potentially other insect, rearings

Design and planning of a transdisciplinary investigation into farmland pollinators: rationale, co-design, and lessons learned

To provide a complete portrayal of the multiple factors negatively impacting insects in agricultural landscapes it is necessary to assess the concurrent incidence, magnitude, and interactions among multiple stressors over substantial biogeographical scales. Trans-national ecological field investigations with wide-ranging stakeholders typically encounter numerous challenges during the design planning stages, not least that the scientific soundness of a spatially replicated study design must account for the substantial geographic and climatic variation among distant sites. ‘PoshBee’ (Pan-European assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of Stressors on the Health of Bees) is a multi-partner transdisciplinary agroecological project established to investigate the suite of stressors typically encountered by pollinating insects in European agricultural landscapes. To do this, PoshBee established a network of 128 study sites across eight European countries and collected over 50 measurements and samples relating to the nutritional, toxicological, pathogenic, and landscape components of the bees’ environment. This paper describes the development process, rationale, and end-result of each aspect of the of the PoshBee field investigation. We describe the main issues and challenges encountered during the design stages and highlight a number of actions or processes that may benefit other multi-partner research consortia planning similar large-scale studies. It was soon identified that in a multi-component study design process, the development of interaction and communication networks involving all collaborators and stakeholders requires considerable time and resources. It was also necessary at each planning stage to be mindful of the needs and objectives of all stakeholders and partners, and further challenges inevitably arose when practical limitations, such as time restrictions and labour constraints, were superimposed upon prototype study designs. To promote clarity for all stakeholders, for each sub-component of the study, there should be a clear record of the rationale and reasoning that outlines how the final design transpired, what compromises were made, and how the requirements of different stakeholders were accomplished. Ultimately, multi-national agroecological field studies such as PoshBee benefit greatly from the involvement of diverse stakeholders and partners, ranging from field ecologists, project managers, policy legislators, mathematical modelers, and farmer organisations. While the execution of the study highlighted the advantages and benefits of large-scale transdisciplinary projects, the long planning period emphasized the need to formally describe a design framework that could facilitate the design process of future multi-partner collaborations

Addressing dairy industry's scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by efficiently managing farm carbon footprints

Corporate climate action is increasingly considered important in driving the transition towards a low-carbon economy. Especially in the food processing industry indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions upstream in a producer's value chain (scope 3 emissions) often represent the largest portion of the GHG inventory. In order to manage those GHG emissions efficiently there is a need for simple GHG calculation models ready for large scale application on supplying farms. The aim of this study is to describe a procedure for the development of a simplified GHG calculation model specific for dairy farms based on detailed GHG emission calculations. The results presented are obtained from a case study of supplying farms of a Bavarian organic dairy. The simplified model shall reduce the number of input parameters significantly while representing the variations in GHG emissions across farms and allowing the quantification of GHG mitigation measures. The median farm carbon footprint (CCF) of the case study farms calculated with the detailed calculation model is 441.7 t CO2e/a (mean number of dairy cows per farm is 57). The total GHG mitigation potential per farm ranges from 6.51 t CO2e/a to 112.29 t CO2e/a. The simplification of the calculation model results in a less complex and time consuming questionnaire covering 57 parameters instead of up to 467 in the detailed model. The total CCF results of the simplified model give highly comparable results to the detailed calculation model (R2 = 99.7% , standard error = 2.3% of the mean CCF). The correlation between the total mitigation potential calculated per farm by the simplified and detailed calculation model is also high (R2 = 98.92%, standard error = 7.0% of the mean total mitigation potential per case study farm). For the quantification of some mitigation measures with the simplified model, attention must be paid to the question whether calculated GHG emission reductions are significantly higher than the standard error of GHG emissions calculated for the relevant life cycle stage. Summarizing the procedure for the development of a simplified GHG calculation model proposed in this paper, leads to a model that meets the defined requirements

Aphid honeydew quality as a food source for parasitoids is maintained in Bt cotton

<p>Supplemental Data set for PLOS ONE Paper:</p> <p>Aphid honeydew quality as a food source for parasitoids is maintained in Bt cotton</p> <p>The rar-files:</p> <p>Terpenoids: raw data of all terpenoid data from the paper.</p> <p>Lysiphlebus: raw data containing all collected data concerning the parasitoid L. testaceipes.</p> <p>Eretmocerus: raw data containing all collected data concerning the parasitoid E. eremicus.</p> <p> </p> <p>xls-File:</p> <p>Heliothis and Plant Damage: raw data concering survival, weight gain and leaf consumption of H. vierscens.</p

Terpenoid concentrations (ng/mg fw) in the honeydew of <i>Aphis gossypii</i> feeding on cotton.

<p>Values are means ± SE, n = 7–10. Honeydew was collected from aphids on Bt and non-Bt cotton plants that were uninfested or infested with larvae of <i>Heliothis virescens</i> (3^rd instar) for 7 days. HGQ: hemigossypolone; G: gossypol; H1/H4: heliocide 1 and 4; H2/H3: heliocide 2 and 3.</p><p>ND- not detectable.</p><p>Terpenoid concentrations (ng/mg fw) in the honeydew of <i>Aphis gossypii</i> feeding on cotton.</p

Parasitoid longevity when fed with gossypol or honeydew from <i>Aphis gossypii</i>.

<p>Longevity (hours ± SE) of (A) female <i>Eretmocerus eremicus</i> (n = 27–30) and (B) female <i>Lysiphlebus testaceipes</i> (n = 28–30) when fed with: Water, 1 M sucrose solution (Suc), 1 M sucrose+1% DMSO (DMSO), or sucrose/DMSO solutions containing different concentrations of gossypol (G1: 0.000001% gossypol; G2: 0.00001%, G3: 0.0001%; G4: 0.001%). Longevity (hours ± SE) of (C) female <i>Eretmocerus eremicus</i> (n = 24–30) and (D) female <i>Lysiphlebus testaceipes</i> (n = 27–30) when fed with: Water, 1 M sucrose solution (Suc), or honeydew from <i>Aphis gossypii</i> that were kept on Bt or non-Bt cotton that were uninfested (Uninf) or infested (Inf) with a <i>Heliothis virescens</i> larva. Within each panel, different letters above bars indicate statistically significant differences (Tukey HSD test, <i>P</i><0.05). The water control was not included in the statistical analysis.</p

<i>Lysiphlebus testaceipes</i> reproduction as affected by <i>Aphis gossypii</i> honeydew.

<p>Values are means ± SE, n = 26–31. Female parasitoids were fed for 24 h with 1 M sucrose or with honeydew produced by <i>Aphis gossypii</i> feeding on Bt and non-Bt cotton plants that were uninfested or infested with larvae of <i>Heliothis virescens</i> (3^rd instar). The females were then allowed to parasitize <i>Aphis gossypii</i> for 4 h.</p><p><i>Lysiphlebus testaceipes</i> reproduction as affected by <i>Aphis gossypii</i> honeydew.</p

Heliothis and Plant Damage

“Heliothis and Plant Damage” contains two sheets, one given the survivial and weight in mg of H. virescens on Bt an non-Bt cotton. The second the leaf damage in cm2 caused by H. virescens on both plant types. NOTE: The lower number of data entries in the plant damage sheet is caused by loss of raw data due to a camera malfunction

Data from: Pest tradeoffs in technology: reduced damage by caterpillars in Bt cotton benefits aphids

The rapid adoption of genetically engineered (GE) plants that express insecticidal Cry proteins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has raised concerns about their potential impact on non-target organisms. This includes the possibility that non-target herbivores develop into pests. Although studies have now reported increased populations of non-target herbivores in Bt cotton, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. We propose that lack of herbivore-induced secondary metabolites in Bt cotton represents a mechanism that benefits non-target herbivores. We show that, because of effective suppression of Bt-sensitive lepidopteran herbivores, Bt cotton contains reduced levels of induced terpenoids. We also show that changes in the overall level of these defensive secondary metabolites are associated with improved performance of a Bt-insensitive herbivore, the cotton aphid, under glasshouse conditions. These effects, however, were not as clearly evident under field conditions as aphid populations were not correlated with the amount of terpenoids measured in the plants. Nevertheless, increased aphid numbers were visible in Bt cotton compared with non-Bt cotton on some sampling dates. Identification of this mechanism increases our understanding of how insect-resistant crops impact herbivore communities and helps underpin the sustainable use of GE varieties

Summary_Plants infested with Spodoptera

“Summary_Plants infested with Spodoptera” contains the data of the field experiment plants there were artifically infested with S. exigua. The File contain three sheets detailing the aphid population per plant and sample date, the damage of each plant per screening data and the final terpenoid concentration of each plant at the end of the experiment. NOTE: Plant identifiers are consistent for each data set. Missing entries are caused by problems during data collection, e.g. corrupted or blurred jpeg files during plant damage assessment