Science is the only lasting solution
to pests
New Zealand is under continued threat from invading pests, diseases, and weeds that threaten not only our primary industries, but also our natural heritage.
Last year we had myrtle rust (which has now reached the South Island) and Mycoplasma bovis. This year, we are fighting off the brown marmorated stink bug, which has already been stopped at the border several times. If it becomes established in New Zealand, it threatens not only our horticulture industry, but also the home gardens of many urban Kiwis. Read more
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Emerging aliens threaten New Zealand environment
New Zealand’s environment and primary industries are under threat from pests we don’t even know about yet.
That’s the message from Professor Philip Hulme of the Bio-Protection Research Centre, based at Lincoln University. Read more
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Drought will bring more crop disease
New Zealand’s land-based primary industries need to get ready for more, and more serious, crop disease as climate change causes more and longer droughts, according to new research.
In the journal Australasian Plant Pathology, the authors say that climate change is expected to bring more droughts in many parts of New Zealand, and more droughts are “likely to increase the severity of a wide range of diseases affecting the plant-based productive sectors”. Read more
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2017 Annual Report available to download
The Bio-Protection Research Centre Annual Report, 2017, was published in March 2018.
It outlines progress made during the year on our seven key projects, and on delivering on our strategic outcomes. You can download a copy of the report from our website. For a hard copy, email ashley.campbell@lincoln.ac.nz with your postal address details.
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Kauri dieback older than we thought
Phytophthora agathidicida (PTA), the fungus-like organism that causes kauri dieback, has been in New Zealand much longer than previously thought, a study led by Bio-Protection Research Centre researchers based at Massey University suggests. Read more
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University of Otago becomes a full partner
The University of Otago has formally joined the Bio-Protection Research Centre as a full partner, following the University of Canterbury, which did so in late 2017.
Both universities now share equal place with other partners on our website. This formal agreement brings some very high-calibre researchers within the BPRC fold.
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Centre shares expertise with New Zealand
The discovery of New Zealand's first brown marmorated stink bug, and efforts to keep others out, has been a major biosecurity story. The Centre has been part of it.
Dr Michael Rostás, Dr David Teulon, Dr Nick Waipara and Melanie Mark-Shadbolt all provided expertise for a Science Media Centre Q&A. This led to many news stories, including one in the New Zealand Herald, and an interview on The Project for Melanie Mark-Shadbolt.
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TomatoesNZ seeks biocontrol
New Zealand’s greenhouse tomato industry must move away from sprays and start using biocontrol methods to manage pests, says TomatoesNZ chair Alasdair MacLeod. Read more
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Professor Philip Hulme (pictured) was the recipient of the 2018 Leonard Cockayne Lecture Award, given by Royal Society Te Apārangi. The award is given once every three years. Professor Hulme gave his lecture, Ornamental to detrimental: The invasion of New Zealand by non-native plants, in five centres around New Zealand. It is also available to watch on YouTube.
Assoc Prof Matt Templeton was part of the Plant & Food Research team of more than 100 scientists that won the 2017 Prime Minister’s Science Prize, for their work in reacting to the arrival of Psa.
PhD student Dilani Hettiarachchi received an International Society of Chemical Ecology (ISCE) Student Travel Award to attend the 2018 ISCE meeting in Budapest, Hungary, in August.
Congratulations to the latest Bio-Protection Research Centre travel grant recipients. They are: Jenny Brookes Dr Daniel Berry; Prof Steve Wratten; and Marion Schoof.
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Prof Steve Wratten (pictured) of Lincoln University has been appointed a trustee of the Brian Mason Scientific & Technical Trust. He was also awarded the 2017 Lincoln University Excellence in Teaching Award, in the category of Postgraduate Research Supervision.
Dr David Winter, a postdoctoral research fellow at Massey University, will travel to Japan to attend the 2018 Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) meeting. David won a Young Investigator Travel Award to attend, and was also invited to give a 20-minute talk on “The contribution of transposable elements to the regulation of genes underlying symbiosis in Epichloë”.
PhD student Karla Lopez received Catalyst Fund support to attend Lund University, Sweden for the first workshop of the Catalyst: Seeding project. “The main topic and discussion was centred around vision in pest insects, focused especially on thrips, which is the topic of my PhD research,” says Karla.
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Centre researchers have published the following papers in late 2017 or the first half of 2018:
Allen W, Grant A, Langer L, Shadbolt M, Marzano M, Ogilvie S & Waipara N (2018). Improving risk communication and engagement between biosecurity agencies and their communities. In: Human Dimensions of Forest and Tree Health: Global Perspectives (eds Marzano M, Urquhart J & Potter C). Palgrave-MacMillan: Basingstoke, UK (pp. 16). DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-
76956-1
Brown SD (2018). Redescription of Brachyolus punctatus White, 1846 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), with synonyms and lectotype designations. Zootaxa 4369: 432-442. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4369.3.8
Dumin W, Rostás M & Winefield C (2018). Identification and functional characterisation of an allene oxide synthase from grapevine (Vitis vinifera L. Sauvignon blanc). Molecular Biology Reports 1-15. DOI: 10.1007/s11033-018-4159-y
Godsoe W, Jankowski J, Holt RD & Gravel D (2018). Which coexistence mechanisms should biogeographers quantify? A Reply to Alexander et al. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2018.01.003
Hulme PE & Bernard-Verdier M (2018). Comparing traits of native and alien plants: Can we do better? Functional Ecology 32: 117-125. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.12982
Hulme PE & Bernard-Verdier M (2018). Evaluating differences in the shape of native and alien plant trait distributions will bring new insights into invasions of plant communities. Journal of Vegetation Science, 29: 348-355. DOI: 10.1111/jvs.12625
Lear G, Dickie I, Banks J, Boyer S, Buckley HL, Buckley TR, Cruickshank R, Dopheide A, Handley KM, Hermans S, Kamke J, Lee CK, MacDiarmid R, Morales SE, Orlovich DA, Smissen R, Wood J & Holdaway R (2018). Methods for the extraction, storage, amplification and sequencing of DNA from environmental samples. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 42: 10-50A. DOI: 10.20417/nzjecol.42.9
McGinn KJ, van der Putten WH, Hulme PE, Shelby N, Weser C & Duncan RP (2018). The influence of residence time and geographic extent on the strength of plant-soil feedbacks for naturalised Trifolium. Journal of Ecology 106: 207-217. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.12864
Meffin R, Duncan RP & Hulme PE (2018). Testing weed risk assessment paradigms: Intraspecific differences in performance and naturalisation risk outweigh interspecific differences in alien Brassica. Journal of Applied Ecology 55: 516-525. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.12993
Mohd MH, Murray R, Plank MJ & Godsoe W (2018). Effects of different dispersal patterns on the presence-absence of multiple species. Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 56: 115-130. DOI: 10.1016/j.cnsns.2017.07.029
Nixon LJ, Morrison WR, Rice K, Brockerhoff E, Leskey T, Guzman F., Khrimian A, Goldson SL & Rostás M (2018). Identification of volatiles released by diapausing brown marmorated stink bugs, Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae). PLoS ONE 13: e0191223. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191223
Ocampo-Ariza C, Bufford JL, Hulme PE, Champion PD & Godsoe W (2018). Strong fitness differences impede coexistence between an alien water fern (Azolla pinnata R. Br.) and its native congener (Azolla rubra R. Br.) in New Zealand. Biological Invasions 1-9. DOI: 10.1007/s10530-018-1740-1
Orwin KH, Dickie IA, Holdaway R & Wood JR (2018). A comparison of the ability of PLFA and 16S rRNA gene
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metabarcoding to resolve soil community change and predict ecosystem functions. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 117: 27-35. DOI: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2017.10.036
Perović DJ, Gámez-Virués S, Landis DA, Wäckers F, Desneux N, Wratten SD, You M-S & Gurr GM (2018). Managing biological control services through multi-trophic trait interactions: review and guidelines for implementation at local and landscape scales. Biological Reviews. 93: 306-321. DOI: 10.1111/brv.12346
Rashid M, Hampton JG, Rolston MP, Trethewey JAK & Saville DJ (2018). Forage rape (Brassica napus L) seed quality: Impact of heat stress in the field during seed development. Field Crops Research 217: 172-179. DOI: 10.1016/j.fcr.2017.10.022
Rostás M, Bollman F, Saville D & Riedel M (2018). Ants contribute to pollination but not to reproduction in a rare calcareous grassland forb. PeerJ 6: e4369. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.4369
Seebens H, Blackburn TM, Dyer EE, Genovesi P, Hulme PE, Jeschke JM, et al. (2018). Global rise in emerging alien species results from increased accessibility of new source pools. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115: E2264-E2273. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1719429115
Stark CH, Hill RA, Cummings NJ & Li J-H (2018). Amendment with biocontrol strains increases Trichoderma numbers in mature kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) orchard soils for up to six months after application. Archives of Phytopathology and Plant Protection. DOI: 10.1080/03235408.2018.1438818
Tiwari S, Dickinson S, Saville DJ & Wratten SD (2018). Host plant selection by the wheat bug, Nysius huttoni (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae) on a range of potential trap plant species. Journal of Economic Entomology. 111(2): 586-594. DOI: 10.1093/jee/toy017
Tomasetto F, Cianciullo S, Reale M, Attorre F, Olaniyan O & Goldson SL (2018). Breakdown in classical biological control of Argentine stem weevil: A matter of time. BioControl 1-11. DOI: 10.1007/s10526-018-9878-4
van Kleunen M, Essl F, Pergl J, Brundu G, Carboni M, Dullinger S, Early R, González-Moreno P, Groom QJ, Hulme PE, et al. (2018). The changing role of ornamental horticulture in alien plant invasions. Biological Reviews. DOI: 10.1111/brv.12402
Waipara N, Black A, Shadbolt M, Chetham J, Ngakuru W, Parata H, . . . Woods W (2018). Kia Toi tu He Kauri – adaptive management of New Zealand kauri (Agathis australis) by developing conventional forest biosecurity with indigenous knowledge and cultural practices. In: Human Dimensions of Forest and Tree Health: Global Perspectives (eds Marzano M, Urquhart J & Potter C). Palgrave-MacMillan: Basingstoke, UK (pp. 16). DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-76956-1
Waller LP, Felten J, Hiiesalu I & Vogt‐Schilb H (2018). Sharing resources for mutual benefit: crosstalk between disciplines deepens the understanding of mycorrhizal symbioses across scales. New Phytologist 217: 29-32. DOI: 10.1111/nph.14912
Wakelin SA (2018). Managing soil microbiology: realising opportunities for the productive land-based sectors. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research. DOI: 10.1080/00288233.2018.1428203
Wakelin S, Gomez-Gallego M, Jones E, Smaill S, Lear G & Lambie S (2018). Climate change induced drought impacts on plant disease in New Zealand. Australian Plant Pathology. DOI: 10.1007/s13313-018-0541-4
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