Examining climate change impacts on insect pest-crop plant interactions

Project background:
Many insect pest are predicted to increase in the UK under future climate warming leading to reduced crop yields and increased pesticide use. Our research has shown that insects are shifting their distributions northwards (i.e. becoming more common in the UK), advancing their phenologies (e.g. developing through more generations per year), and altering the range of larval host plants in their diet (i.e. having the potential to feed on a wider range of crop plants). However, the biochemical basis of these insect-plant interactions are poorly known making impacts of climate change on crop yields and pest incidence hard to predict. Our recent metabolomics studies have revealed how variation in plant secondary compounds varies among a group of plants used by a single herbivore species, the challenge now is to determine how this variation affects insect diet choice, growth and development, and interactions with environmental factors.

Objectives
The project will examine the degree to which insect larval host diet is affected by climate change (temperature and CO2). The project will study Lepidoptera (Silver Y moth Autographa gamma, small white butterfly Pieris rapae) feeding on brassicales species, and focus on examining the consequences of variation in plant secondary metabolites under elevated temperature and CO2 and their impacts on insect growth and survival.

Novelty & Timeliness
Understanding climate change impacts on plant secondary metabolites is poorly understood yet is likely to have a considerably impact on their insect pests. The project will capitalise on brassicales seed lines (e.g. oil seed rape varieties) available at York, which have different levels of secondary compounds – the impacts of this variation for pests has not been examined yet is likely to be considerable. More importantly, the impacts of this variation are likely to vary in relation to abiotic growth conditions (temperature and CO2).

The project will interest someone wanting to carry out research on the ecological and biochemical impacts of climate change. The project will focus primarily on understanding mechanisms and consequences of the observed changes in host plant use by insects. The project will involve lab work, but there will also be some field work. Skills and experience will be gained in insect sampling and rearing, experimental design, statistics, and analysis of plant secondary compounds. The student will work in research labs of Jane Hill (working on ecological impacts of climate change) as well as the labs of Sue Hartley (York Environmental Sustainability Institute YESI; working on impacts of climate on crop plants).