Submission Form for NCERA Impact Statements
(Final impact submission MUST NOT exceed two pages!)
Migration and Dispersal of Agriculturally-Important Biota (2009-2014)
(Title of Project)
213
(Project #)
Impact Nugget: (This section is a one-sentence abstract of the IMPACT reported in detail in
the impact section of the impact statement.)
The mission of NCERA: 213 (formerly NCERA: 148) is to improve management strategies for
migratory and dispersing biota based on an increased understanding of the biotic and abiotic
processes directly influencing their movement.
Issue: (Who Cares and Why?)
Dispersal of harmful and beneficial organisms impacts the health of plants, animals, and
humans in agricultural, forest, and natural landscapes. Biota disperse actively, by flying,
walking, or swimming, or passively with the wind or hitchhiking in cargo, for example. These
processes govern both the movement of native species and the introduction of exotic pests.
Immigration and emigration of species are critical to the population dynamics of many
organisms and can explain why some species seasonally appear, cause damage, and
disappear. Rapid detection of and response to pest introductions and outbreaks is critically
important for effective pest management and our nation’s biosecurity. Substantial knowledge
gaps remain regarding the initiation, transport, and termination of dispersal and migration of
biota over a range of scales. An interdisciplinary team approach is needed to adopt and adapt
new technologies and techniques for research of biotic migration and dispersal systems.
What has the project done so far?:
Since 1984, the Committee has met annually to provide a forum for exchanging information
about technologies, techniques, and research results on migration and dispersal of arthropods,
birds, bats, seeds, pollen, and spores. Members representing the disciplines of entomology,
plant pathology, meteorology, bacteriology, plant virology, agronomy, botany, mycology,
geography, and palynology have productively collaborated across disciplines, commodities, and
agency affiliations, resulting in hundreds of publications and several private and publically
funded projects. The Committee has been credited with establishing several important
cooperative efforts including the formation of the Alliance for Aerobiology Research,
establishment of the ESCOP PMSS Movement and Dispersal Working Group, and sponsorship
of numerous interdisciplinary research studies and national and international workshops and
symposia. The Soybean Rust PIPE brought together scientists from Penn State University,
APHIS, private industry, and soybean growers to develop a system to monitor and predict longdistance dispersal of soybean rust spores and risk of infection of soybean.
Impact Statements: (The economic, social, health, or environmental consequences derived as
benefits for the intended users. These short, concise statements are usually quantitatively
measured either directly or indirectly as indicators of benefits. (An example of an impact would
be improved human nutrition for so many individuals through genetically engineering rice to
contain the precursors to vitamin A.) NOTE: impact statements SHOULD NOT include
publications, meetings/conferences/program held, meeting/conference/program attendance, or
results of research. THESE ARE OUTPUTS!)
See following pages for Impact Statements
Research Needs for Future Impacts:
Further progress is anticipated toward understanding and predicting migration and dispersal of
biota across a broad range of scales, from atmospheric transport processes to plant-to-plant
movement. Knowledge gained and technologies developed from these studies will be useful for
detection and management of diverse biota in agricultural and natural resource systems.
Capability to predict and detect migration and dispersal of biota will be critical in detecting and
responding to exotic pest introductions whether inadvertent or advertent; developing
management plans to avert resistance or transgenic gene flow; developing areawide IPM; and
assessing ecological value. Landscape ecological approaches will be emphasized for identifying
weak links in pest population dynamics and dispersal, and for conserving beneficial organisms.
Genetic technologies and remote sensing systems for mapping land use, plant distributions,
atmospheric properties, and airborne biota are becoming increasingly available for
interdisciplinary research on migration and dispersal of biota. Continued cooperative research
on migration and dispersal and enhanced technology transfer will benefit plant and animal
production systems, human health, natural resource management, and economic viability. The
lack of migration and dispersal information limits national biosecurity, effective implementation
of IPM, IRM, and ecological management. The goal of the project is to increase the capability to
detect, predict, and assess the impact of dispersal and migration of biota.
Contact Information: (Administrative Advisor’s name and email address)
F. William Ravlin, ravlin.1@osu.edu
Title: Engagement of international scientists (e.g., from Mexico) in pest dispersal modeling to
improve our understanding of migration and dispersal of biota, particularly invasive species or
tropical biota with northerly expanding distributions.
Summary: Collaborative work between U.S. and Mexican scientists on pest tracking and
modeling systems has led to an improved understanding of pest invasions and savings in
management costs.
Situation: A number of migratory invasive pests require cooperation between U.S. and Mexican
agencies and universities in order to track their movement and/or migration. A pertinent
example is Asian soybean rust which overwinters in Mexico and southern United States.
Response: Pest tracking technologies including the IPM Pest Information Platform for
Extension and Education IPM (PIPE) and the Mexican Coordinated System of Pest Information
(SCOPE). The systems included password restricted sites that allow for the uploading of
observations, editing of records and for dissemination of products to users. Products include
maps created by day degree, infection; and atmospheric transport models. Each of these sites
includes a publicly available map with summarized data and products.
Impact: The IPM PIPE has had a major impact in reducing sprays applied for Asian soybean
rust. IPM PIPE increased producers’ profits by between $11 and $299 million. The
development of SCOPE has greatly improved pest surveillance in Mexico and is expected to
provide benefits to U.S. agencies and producers through a better understanding of the
movement of migratory or invasive pests. The greatest benefit is the development of
infrastructure with common standards that can be deployed in the event of the incursion of a
high impact, atmospherically transported pest.
Title: Tower traps: A unique insect/pathogen trapping device
Summary: Sampling devices abound for collecting insects from the air to track their movement
through space and time. One result of climate change is the expectation of altered geographic
ranges for keystone agricultural pests and pathogens. Homoptera are the most important
arthropod vectors for viral pathogens in crops and an improved tool and method for detecting
changes in, effective, the "disease pyramid" (i.e., the 4-sided interaction of; environment, host,
vector, and pathogen that result in disease) is needed. So a new tool, the tower trap, was
designed and built.
Situation: Climate changes is predicted to have vast impacts on agriculture and may threaten
U.S. food security. Homoptera have been shown to not only cause direct damage to crop, but
they also transmit plant viruses of global importance (e.g., the Russian wheat aphid and Barley
yellow dwarf virus). By their nature, homopterans probe or "taste" plants as they explore for new
hosts. This activity can benefit viruses as their vector (e.g., an aphid) explores new hosts, new
host-virus relationships can develop. In this sense, essentially, new disease pyramids develop.
We postulate that as climate change alters geographic and host ranges of Homoptera, so will it
affect the same for important plant viruses and thus a heightened need to detect this process is
evident.
Response: A sampling system was developed that can stratify samples vertically with the air
column. The system uses 1x1ft sticky screens that (through the use of a pulley system
constructed onto a semi-portable, 60-foot special communications tower) can discretely subsample a large volume of air for small, migrating insects. The towers were erected at multiple
locations in western Nebraska.
Impact: At least of 51 species of aphids (as well as potato psyllids and leafhoppers) have been
collected in a given year. Some important vector species (e.g., the bird cherry-oat aphid) were
captured in high abundance and, based on our stratified sampling, appeared to have a
preferred, average flight-layer preference. This flight layer could be impacted by environmental
patterns and may provide another useful predictor for the affects of climate change on pest
species. Additionally, potato pysilids (a vector for the zebra chip pathogen in potato) were
extracted from sticky screens and the insect and its pathogen were successfully sequences -providing proof of concept for sampling both migratory vectors and their pathogen. This
information will greatly enhance producers’ ability to detect important disease vectors and make
informed decisions.
Title: Predictive modeling and mitigation of the effects of climate change on migration and
infestation patterns of semi-tropical/tropical crop pests
Summary: A national monitoring network will be developed to collect specimens for molecular
analysis, which will be used in the construction of meteorological models to forecast climateinduced changes in infestation patterns of a migratory agricultural pest species.
Situation: Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) (FAW) is a pest of corn and other row and
vegetable crops that migrates each year from southern areas to the north-central and
northeastern U.S. It is anticipated that climate change will expand the distribution of warmclimate agricultural pests.
Response: A permanent, self-sustaining monitoring system, using Penn State’s PestWatch as
a framework, will be established to collect specimens at appropriate times and locations.
Molecular markers have been developed that can be used to delineate the borders of FAW
migratory pathways, and this information will be analyzed over a multi-year period and used to
adapt air trajectory models for predicting FAW dispersal patterns under different climate change
scenarios.
Impact: By knowing that FAW has similar behaviors as other migratory Lepidoptera and
PestWatch can be used as a model species to predict the expansion and northward distribution
of semi-tropical agricultural pests.
Title: Molecular resources for tracking soybean aphid dispersal
Summary: The development of molecular resources for the soybean aphid will lead to an better
understanding of how these insect pests adapt and overcome aphid –resistant soybean
Situation: The invasive soybean aphid is the most important insect pest of soybean in the
Midwest and eastern Great Lakes. Soybean aphid populations, termed biotypes, have been
discovered that can overcome plant resistance, which threatens the efficacy and sustainability
of these soybean varieties. Molecular resources are needed to understand the dispersal and
spread of resistant biotypes.
Response: Using modern sequencing approaches, hundreds of genetic markers were
developed, validated, and used to estimate dispersal patterns of soybean aphid during the
soybean growing season.
Impact: Our research suggests that soybean aphids can disperse over wide distances,
increasing the potential for rapid spread of resistant biotypes. Insect resistance management
can now be improved knowing this risk.