Sarah Beynon
Dr Beynon's Bug Farm Ltd, Saint David's, Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom
E-mail: sarah@drbeynonsbugfarm.com
Twitter: @The_Bug_Farm
Ecosystem services provided by dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in agro-ecosystems
Ecosystem functions can be defined as the biogeochemical activities of an ecosystem or the flow of
materials and processing of energy. Ecosystem functions deemed important to humanity are
referred to as “ecosystem services”. Dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) are some of the most
important agents of dung removal in tropical and temperate agro-ecosystems. Through feeding
activity and re-location of dung, they deliver a suite of economically valuable ecosystem services.
These services have been rudimentarily valued to save the US cattle industry >$380 million per year.
Dung beetles incorporate nutrient-rich dung into the soil, potentially reducing the need for chemical
fertilisers. They can also reduce pasture fouling, encourage palatable grass growth, reduce dungassociated parasites, improve soil hydrological properties and reduce greenhouse gas emissions
from dung. Dung beetles may also condition dung for earthworm-mediated decomposition and
increase fungal growth in dung, improving nitrogen mineralisation. However, many of these services
need to be quantified more accurately. Widespread declines of dung beetles, largely due to
agricultural intensification and the associated practice of treating livestock with parasiticides, mean
that it is vital that farmers are made aware of these benefits to facilitate informed on-farm decision
making to benefit dung beetles and the ecosystem services they deliver.
Biosketch
I am an insect ecologist and agricultural conservation biologist, with a particular interest in beneficial insects in
agricultural systems and the ecosystem services they can deliver. I was brought up on a farm in Pembrokeshire
and went on to study Biology at the University of Oxford, where my fascination with insects was ignited by the
inspirational Darren Mann at the Hope Entomological Collections. I also completed my doctorate at the
University of Oxford. My doctoral thesis, which investigated the impact of livestock anthelmintics (wormers)
on dung beetles and rates of dung decomposition, won the Royal Entomological Society's 2013-2014 Wallace
Award for the best entomological thesis written in the English language. After I completed my doctorate, I was
keen to carry on with research, but also wanted to enthuse kids about insects, work with farmers and decisionmakers and live on a farm in Pembrokeshire! Surprisingly, no job opportunity arose that ticked all these boxes!
I therefore founded my company, Dr Beynon’s Bug Farm Ltd, in February 2013 to deliver ‘conservation through
research, innovation and education’. In December 2013, I bought back the original family farm in St Davids and
buildings are currently being converted into a laboratory, lecture theatre and insect zoo/museum! I am now a
Senior Research Associate of the University of Oxford and the Bug Farm is already up and running as a research
centre, having recently won a number of innovation and research grants. I also run Dung Beetles Direct as a
business arm of The Bug Farm. Dung Beetles Direct promotes the importance of dung beetles to farmers,
horse owners and vets and advises on non-target impacts of anthelmintics on dung beetles. Dung Beetles
Direct also breeds native dung beetles to sell to farmers and horse owners. In my spare time, I work as a
television presenter.
Thomas Bolger
School Of Biology & Environment Science, Science Centre, Belfield, Dublin 4
E-mail: tom.bolger@ucd.ie
Twitter:
The delivery of ecosystem services by soil arthropod communities – management and conservation
activities at different spatial scales.
Many groups of insects and other arthropods spend some or all of their life cycles in soil. Through
their burrowing and feeding activities they contribute significantly to the decomposition process.
Comminution and redistribution of dead plant material, and direct grazing stimulate microbial
activity. Selective grazing and the direct supply of nutrients in urine and faeces and dispersal of
inocula lead to impacts on fungal community composition thus affecting microbially mediated
ecosystem services such as decomposition C and N cycling. The arthropods represent several
functional groups and, thus, the effects are dependent not only on the on the biodiversity in the
system but also the spatial distribution of these fauna. In this paper we will discuss the spatial scale
of species activities and the potential effects of management and conservation activities on the
assembly ability of arthropod communities to deliver ecosystem services at scales ranging from cm2
to landscape levels.
Biosketch
Thomas Bolger is Professor of Zoology at University College Dublin. Having completed a B. Sc. And a Higher
Diploma in Education he gained a Ph. D. in Agricultural Zoology and later studied computer modelling. He has
been a member of staff at UCD since 1981. His primary research interests are the measurement of biodiversity
and in the effects of land use and climate change on biodiversity and nutrient fluxes. He is interested in
community assembly and determination of contribution to ecosystem function and the provision of ecosystem
services He has been involved with EU projects in these areas since 1988 and was a Fulbright Scholar, at the
Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, examining the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem
function. He also has a particular interest in experimental design and statistical models and has published in
these areas.
Jerry Cross, Michelle Fountain, et al.
East Malling Research, New Road, East Malling
E-mail: jerry.cross@emr.ac.uk
Twitter:
Arthropod ecosystem services in apple orchards and their economic benefits
Apple is grown as a long term perennial crop and apple orchards provide relatively stable ecological
habitats. Key features include a semi-permanent canopy, undisturbed soil with no or sparse herbage
in the weed free strip under the trees, grass in the inter-row alleys and hedgerows/windbreaks with
a plant species composition ranging from single to diverse. Only a small proportion of the vast fauna
of arthropods that can inhabit the orchard ecosystem are important pests but many species are
beneficial or benign. The arboreal arthropod fauna is greatly affected by insecticide applications. In
this paper, the interacting ecosystem services provided within the orchard by naturally occurring
arthropod groups will be reviewed and their economic benefits broadly quantified. The
consequences of disruption of these services by inappropriate use of pesticides, and measures that
need to be taken to avoid such disruption will be overviewed. The principal arthropod
groups/interactions covered will include:
•
Pesticide resistant Phytoseiid predatory mites and their role in naturally regulating
phytophagous mites including fruit tree red spider mite (Panonychus ulmi) and apple rust
mite (Aculus schlechtendali)
•
The common European earwig Forficula auricularia and its key role in regulating several
important apple pests including woolly aphid (Eriosoma lanigerum) and other aphids, scale
insects and codling moth (Cydia pomonella)
•
Mutualism between the common black ant Lasius niger and important pest aphids, the
ecosystem services provided by grass root aphids and competing ant species and how
disrupting mutualism by ant excluding or competitive feeding can foster biocontrol of aphids
by generalist predators including Syrphids, Coccinnelids, F. auricularia and Araneae.
•
The role of bumble bees and solitary bees in providing apple pollination services.
•
Beneficial epigeic arthropods including carabids, staphylinids and Araneae and their role in
predating the soil dwelling life stages of insect pests.
Biosketch
Jerry Cross is a fruit entomologist at East Malling Research (EMR), Kent, UK, where he leads the Pest and
Pathogen Ecology for Sustainable Crop Management science programme. He is experienced in research and
development on Integrated Pest Management and spray application to fruit crops. Particular interests include
development of sampling, assessment and forecasting methods for pests, identification and exploitation of
pheromones of fruit pests, biological control by microbial agents and natural enemies of fruit pests, developing
and evaluating whole Integrated Pest Management systems for fruit crops and optimising spray application
methods. He has close contacts with the UK fruit industry. He has served successive long terms as convenor of
the Association of Applied Biologists Pesticide Application Group followed by convenor of IOBC Working Group
on Integrated Plant Protection in Fruit Crops and is now principal editor of the journal Crop Protection. He was
appointed visiting professor of Horticultural Entomology at the University of Greenwich in 2008.
Dave Goulson
University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9RH, United Kingdom
E-mail: d.goulson@sussex.ac.uk
Twitter: @DaveGoulson
Global threats to insect pollination services
The causes of pollinator decline remains controversial. Here I will provide a review of the evidence,
with a particular focus on the interactions between stressors. Pollinators are likely to be
simultaneously and chronically exposed to multiple stressors including insecticides, synergistic
fungicides, novel pathogens and parasites, and a lack of continuity and paucity of abundance of
flowers. The complex interactions between dietary stress, diseases and pesticides exposure, and the
difficulties of controlling these in the field, make it hard to perform convincing field experiments
with free flying bees, posing a great challenge to the ingenuity of researchers.
Biosketch
Professor Dave Goulson studied biology from Oxford University, followed by a doctorate on butterfly ecology
at Oxford Brookes University. Subsequently, he lectured in biology for 11 years at the University of
Southampton, and it was here that he began to study bumblebees in earnest, a subject that has been the focus
of his research for the last 20 years. He subsequently moved to Stirling University in 2006, and then to Sussex
in 2013. He has published more than 210 scientific articles on the ecology and conservation of bumblebees
and other insects. He is the author of Bumblebees; Their Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation, published in
2010 by Oxford University Press, of the Sunday Times bestseller A Sting in the Tale, a popular science book
about bumble bees, published in 2013 by Jonathan Cape, and of A Buzz in the Meadow, published by Jonathan
Cape in 2014. Goulson founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in 2006, a charity which has grown to 8,000
members. He was the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s Social Innovator of the Year in
2010, was given the Zoological Society of London’s Marsh Award for Conservation Biology in 2013, and was
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2013.
Simon Leather
Crop and Environment Sciences, Harper Adams University, Newport, Shropshire, TF10 8NB
E-mail: simonleather@harper-adams.ac.uk
Twitter: @Entoprof
Influential entomology – the scientific, societal, economic and educational services provided by
entomology and entomologists: a review
The role that entomologists and entomology have played in the development of science, literature,
the arts and global economic and ecological well-being is reviewed. A brief history of everything
entomological that highlights the often over-looked and unappreciated role that entomology has
had on human health and well-being
Biosketch
Simon Leather is an applied entomologist, focusing mainly on problems in agricultural, horticultural and forest
crops. He has worked on aphids since 1977 with a particular interest in forecasting and monitoring. He was
responsible for the development of an early warning system for the bird cherry aphid in Finland during the
early 1980s which is still used to this day.
He joined the Forestry Commission in 1982 based at their Research station just outside Edinburgh where he
was responsible for improving the forecasting and control of a major forest pest, the pine beauty moth. He
spent the next ten years working on forest pests all over Scotland and northern England, developing control
strategies and advising landowners, foresters and the general public about their pest problems. His main
strategy was to develop environmentally friendly ways of managing pests by changing planting practice and
encouraging biodiversity within commercial plantations.
From 1992 until 2012 he worked for Imperial College London, based at their Silwood Park campus near Ascot,
continuing his interests in agricultural and forest entomology and beginning a twenty year study on the
biodiversity associated with sycamore trees. In 1998 he developed an interest in urban ecology and began
investigating the biodiversity of Bracknell roundabouts in relation to how urban green spaces can aid
conservation.
In September 2012 he moved to Harper Adams University to become Professor of Entomology in the
Department of Crop & Environment Sciences and to head up the newly launched Centre for Integrated Pest
Management. He teaches at undergraduate and MSc level, and runs the only Entomology degree in the UK.
He believes passionately in outreach and regularly speaks at schools as well as to local Natural History
Societies, the WI, U3A and others. He blogs at Don’t Forget the Roundabouts and can be found on Twitter as
@Entoprof.
Sarina Macfadyen
CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Clunies Ross Street, Black Mountain, GPO Box 1700, Acton ACT 2601,
Australia
E-mail: Sarina.Macfadyen@csiro.au
Twitter:
Temporal patterns in plant growth and pest populations across agricultural landscapes in Australia
We know that there are large changes in the temporal patterns of pest populations at the landscape
level. Large peaks in populations at this higher spatial scale can increase the risk of pest outbreaks in
crop fields and associated crop damage. Changes in the configuration and composition of habitat
patches across a landscape can facilitate pest population growth. However, it is really the plants in
these patches that support these species, not the habitat-patches per se. So whilst the spatial
arrangement of crop fields in a landscape may change little within and between years, the plant
species and plant biomass that support pests does. I will use data from an Australian study across
three very different agricultural regions to illustrate the temporal patterns in plant growth using
remote-sensed data. Secondly I will characterize temporal patterns in pest populations at the
landscape-scale, and assess if there is a relationship between plant growth and pest population
growth at this large spatial scale.
Biosketch
Dr. Sarina Macfadyen is a research scientist based in Australia’s federal government research organization,
CSIRO. She is a community ecologist with strong interest in spatial patterns of ecosystem services. Her
research combines two main themes:
1.
How local management decisions influence invertebrate community structure and function on farms.
2.
How landscape structure and configuration influences biodiversity and therefore the provision of
ecosystem services such as natural pest control.
She uses food web techniques and network analysis to describe community structure and the link between
structure and function. She conducted her PhD research at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia,
before moving to the UK to work on a postdoc. project in Jane Memmott’s community ecology laboratory at
the University of Bristol. Her current research is based in grain production landscapes in southern Australia,
and she gets to work every day with a few of her favorite things: insects, farmers and other scientists.
Michael D. Ulyshen
USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, 320 Green Street, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA
E-mail: mulyshen@fs.fed.us
Twitter:
Wood decomposition and nutrient cycling as influenced by insects
Despite more than two centuries of speculation, the ecosystem services provided by saproxylic
insects (i.e., those dependent on dying or dead wood) remain largely unmeasured. The literature
suggests four broad and inter-related mechanisms by which these organisms may influence wood
decomposition: enzymatic digestion, substrate alteration, biotic interactions and nitrogen
fertilization. While the effects of individual insect taxa or functional groups can be positive or
negative, the net cumulative effect of all insects is almost certainly positive—with recently estimated
contributions ranging from 10-20%. The activities of these organisms are also thought to affect
nutrient cycling in woody debris by accelerating the nutrient sink-source transition and by promoting
nitrogen fixation. The potential for a connection between saproxylic insect activity and forest
productivity is briefly considered and some preliminary results from a field study aimed at
addressing this question are presented.
Biosketch
Michael Ulyshen is an entomologist with the USDA Forest Service with broad interests in biodiversity, species
invasions and forest ecology. Recurring themes in his research include the diversity and ecology of saproxylic
insects and the vertical stratification of forest insect communities. His research currently focuses largely on the
ecological roles of termites and other insects associated with dying and dead wood. This includes efforts to
quantify the contributions of these organisms to wood decomposition and their importance to plantation
forest productivity.