Do food webs studies in apple orchards reveal buffering ability of key natural enemies against plant pests?

The project explores insect food webs in apple orchards with new molecular biological methods based on DNA fragments from the gut of predatory insects. These fragments are used to identify prey species by referencing the library for DNA-based species identification (BOLD). When feeding relationships have been established, food webs will be constructed using current community ecology techniques. Studying the gut content of several predators will broaden the assessment of the web of feeding interactions within the insect community. These studies will tell us about the organisms using the vegetation in and around the apple orchard and thus which plants are important providers of alternative food for maintaining predators at times when pests do not occur in the main crop. These results can then be used to plan for optimal agri-biodiversity. The project is led at LUKE by Senior Researcher Anne Nissinen and at UH by Professor Ian Hardy.