Session Information
| Session | Poster Session | | Date | Monday (2008-04-07) | | Time | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM | | Room | Grand Terrace |
Presentation Information
| Presenter | Nicholas Schmidt | | Title | Impact of landscape heterogeneity on soybean aphid and natural enemy abundance in Jasper County, Iowa | | Affiliation | Iowa State University | | Authors | Nicholas Schmidt, Matthew ONeal, Lisa Schulte | | Keywords | Landscape heterogeneity, Natural enemies, Soybean aphid | | Presentation Type | Poster | Abstract:
The soybean aphid Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is a new invasive pest in soybean Glycine max here in the United States. Fortunately, in the last five years research has shown that a natural predator community exists here in the U.S. that is capable of suppressing the soybean aphid below economic populations. Therefore, in the course of a 2-year project from May to September, we aim to determine how landscape heterogeneity impacts the soybean aphid and it’s natural predator community. The study site was located in and around the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge (NSWR) located in the Southwest corner of Jasper County, Iowa. The NSWR is the largest reconstructed tallgrass prairie in the U.S. with >5,000 acres planted. A total of 32 soybean fields were sampled with visual-counts, yellow-sticky cards, and sweep-net samples each week from June – September. From 2006, the first of the 2-year study; we found that soybean aphids have a positive response to more diverse landscapes, contrary to what we predicted. Also, predators did not respond to landscape diversity. Interestingly, 2006 had very low populations of soybean aphids (below economic levels); in contrast, in 2007 we had very high populations of aphids however the data are not analyzed. |
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