Sustainable bioprotection

Opportunities for Real Solutions Presented by the Current Global Recession: Professor Robert Costanza

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Prof Robert Costanza

Prof Bob Costanza, from the Gund Institute at the University of Vermont , is the most well-known ecological economist in the world. He hit the front cover of Nature in 1997 with a paper entitled “The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital”.

Bioprotection for forestry

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Project status: 
In Progress
Project Leader(s): 
Dr Robert Hill, Lincoln University
This image shows how vast the forestry nursery is.

Malaysian forestry losses due to tree disease may be reduced without the use of pesticides, thanks to the assistance of the Bio-Protection Research Centre.

Dr Robert Hill, an expert in forestry and plant disease, is developing a bioprotection system in Malaysia for the crop Acacia mangium.

Smart seeds

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Project status: 
In Progress
Project Leader(s): 
Professor John Hampton
Team Member(s): 
See Read More below
Professor John Hampton

Using "smart seed" technology, this programme is developing a novel approach to pest and disease management in brassicas - using seeds and seed coatings containing naturally-occurring microscopic organisms (microbes).

Ecosystem bioprotection

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Project status: 
In Progress
Project Leader(s): 
Cooperative
Team Member(s): 
See Read More below
Trichoderma atroviride growing from rhizoplane soil on onion root

This is the largest programme co-ordinated by the Bio-Protection Research Centre and our suite of fundamental research on sustainable bioprotection provides the basic science platform.
Funded by the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, the programme has two main goals:

  • enhance New Zealand's land-based industries and avoid export barriers by improving the sustainability of this country's plant production systems

Ecosystem services

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Project status: 
In Progress
Project Leader(s): 
Professor Steve Wratten, Lincoln University
Team Member(s): 
Professor Ross Cullen & Dr Marco Jacometti, Lincoln University
Team Member(s): 
Dr Colin Meurk, Landcare Research
Team Member(s): 
Prof Robert Costanza & Treg Christopher, University of Vermont
Biocontrol agent - ladybird - pictured on buckwheat (Mattias Jonsson)

This research programme contributes to the vital national need for valuing and enhancing ecosystem services in New Zealand by:

1. analysing and modelling the value to New Zealand of ecosystem services for the arable, pastoral and horticultural sectors

2. enhancing ecosystem services and natural capital to improve biological control of pests and diseases, weed suppression, ecotourism and marketing, as well as reflecting matauranga Maori ethics such as kaitiakitanga.

Also known as "nature's services," ecosystem services add value to ecosystems while reducing rel

Microbial Products

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Project status: 
In Progress
Project Leader(s): 
Dr Trevor Jackson, AgResearch
Members of the Microbial Products team from AgResearch and Agrimm Technologies

Headed by AgResearch and the Bio-Protection Research Centre, this six-year programme will help New Zealand agricultural companies cash in on the global demand for pesticide-free agricultural products.

Scientists are developing a range of new products that use beneficial microbes, rather than synthetic chemicals, to boost agricultural productivity. The products all rely on microbes such as bacteria and fungi for their effectiveness and include:

Biodiversity and ecosystem function: capturing the vital role of spatial scale in pest biocontrol

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Project status: 
In Progress
Project Leader(s): 
Professor Steve Wratten - Lincoln University
Team Member(s): 
GIS consultant Brad Case, Lincoln University
Team Member(s): 
Dr Hannah Buckley, Dr Roddy Hale, Lincoln University
Team Member(s): 
Post-doctoral Fellow, Dr Mattias Jonsson, Lincoln University.
Team Member(s): 
Dr Raphael Didham, University of Canterbury
Companion planting in a vineyard

An important factor in understanding the likelihood of successful biological control occurring is likely to be the spatial scale over which biological control manipulations are carried out.

This applies particularly to conservation biological control in which agricultural and horticultural habitats are manipulated to increase the availability of pollen, nectar, alternative prey/hosts, or shelter for pests' natural enemies.

Tracking the fate and dynamics of entomopathogenic fungi in soil

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Project status: 
In Progress
Project Leader(s): 
Dr Michael Brownbridge - AgResearch
Team Member(s): 
Dr Travis Glare - AgResearch
Team Member(s): 
Associate Professor Bruce Chapman, Dr Hayley Ridgway - Lincoln University
Team Member(s): 
PhD student, Celine Blond – Lincoln University
Scanning electron micrograph of Beauveria bassiana conidia and phialides

This project aims to provide information that is essential to improving the performance of fungal biopesticides in the field. We're doing this by addressing fundamental questions relevant to the fate and virulence of fungal inoculum following application to soil.

Fungi play an important role in the natural regulation of insect pests. However, attempts to harness this biocontrol potential have met with limited success, and a better understanding of pathogen ecology is needed to allow these microbes to be utilised more effectively.

Understanding multi-trophic interactions in a biological control context

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Project status: 
In Progress
Project Leader(s): 
Dr Graeme Bourdôt - AgResearch
Team Member(s): 
Professor Alison Stewart and Dr Eirian Jones, Lincoln University
Team Member(s): 
Dr Simon Fowler, Landcare Research
Team Member(s): 
PhD students Michael Cripps and Yonas Wobalem, Lincoln University
Insect biocontrol agent Apion onopordi

Using two model systems, we're investigating the nature of the interactions between resident microflora and introduced biocontrol agents.

Soil-plant-microbe interactions and plant health

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Project status: 
In Progress
Project Leader(s): 
Professor Leo Condron, Lincoln University
Team Member(s): 
Drs Maureen O’Callaghan & Darren Smalley, AgResearch
Team Member(s): 
Professor Alison Stewart & Dr Eirian Jones, Lincoln University
Team Member(s): 
Dr Alan Richardson, CSIRO
Team Member(s): 
Dr Christian Walter, Scion Research
Team Member(s): 
PhD student, Shengjing Shi, Lincoln University
Pinus radiata

Using Pinus radiata as a model system, we're investigating variations in plant root exudates production, and soil microbial diversity and activity, in relation to plant health.

Interactions between plant roots and micro-organisms in the rhizosphere are recognised as a critical component of plant nutrition and health. Plants appear to have the ability to select their own root microflora from the soil and each plant species has a characteristic group of associated microbes. This process is most likely linked directly to the quantity and composition of root exudates.

 
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