Project: Predicting whitefly population outbreaks in changing environments.
Both climate change and global trade are important drivers of changes in the abundance and distribution of insect pests. Whiteflies (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) are important plant pests and virus vectors in many agricultural systems worldwide. Among them, the sweet potato whitefly, Bemisiatabaci (Gennadius) is considered the most devastating pest of vegetables, ornamentals, and agronomic crops throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, because it can transmit over 200 species of plant viruses. Previous distributions of the species were limited to regions between the 30th latitudes but in the past two decades, it has invaded every continent in the world except Antarctica. Based on climate models, B. tabaci populations are expected to expand to regions where increasing temperatures will eliminate frosts, allowing year round breeding. Due to the extreme polyphagy of the species, the effects of such changes will probably be profound and may lead to substantial ecosystem-wide changes. Many arthropods host one or more inherited bacterial symbionts, the phenotypes of which have important implications for ecologically based pest management strategies. The overall goal of this proposal is to develop novel strategies for reducing the direct and indirect damage inflicted by B. tabaci. It aims to predict the evolution of B. tabaci populations around the Mediterranean, from which diagnostic and preventive measures can be derived.
| Acronym | SWIPE |
| Duration | 01/07/2012 - 30/06/2015 |
| Website | visit project website |
| Network | ARIMNet |
| Call | ARIMNet Call 2011 |