Project Overview
Annual Reports
Information Products
Commodities
- Agronomic: soybeans
- Additional Plants: herbs, native plants, trees
Practices
- Crop Production: biological inoculants, continuous cropping, double cropping, multiple cropping
- Education and Training: on-farm/ranch research
- Energy: bioenergy and biofuels
- Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, habitat enhancement
- Pest Management: biological control, cultural control, integrated pest management
- Production Systems: agroecosystems, organic agriculture
Proposal abstract:
Our goals are to provide an effective pest control option for organic soybean growers and
to reduce insecticide inputs in conventional and reduced input soybean production by releasing a
biological control agent of the soybean aphid. This research will identify favorable conditions for
release and establishment of the Asian parasitoid wasp Aphelinus glycinis, a biological control
agent recently approved for release by the USDA (APHIS-PPQ). These goals will be met by
addressing the following objectives: 1) Determine if biodiversity adjacent to soybean fields
improves establishment of A. glycinis; 2) Quantify the biological control impact that A. glycinis
has on soybean aphid populations; 3) Delineate how diversity-provided resources, such as nectar,
are utilized by A. glycinis; 4) Collaborate with organic growers to conduct on-farm and farmerassisted
field releases and evaluations of A. glycinis control of soybean aphid.
Objectives 1-3 will be conducted in experimental fields that include bioenergy crop
treatments: willow, prairie polycultures, alley (willows plus prairie), and soybean (control) plots
nested within 10-acre soybean fields in southeastern Minnesota. To achieve Objective 1, A.
glycinis will be reared in the laboratory and released during the summer of 2014. The abundance
of adult parasitoids and parasitized aphids will be monitored throughout the growing season and
over-wintering success will be assessed the following summer. For Objective 2, the biological
control impact of A. glycinis on soybean aphids will be quantified following the parasitoid
releases using field cages. Objective 3 will be completed by conducting biochemical tests on
field-collected adult parasitoids to screen for the presence of sugars in the insects’ gut and
hemolymph. Finally, Objective 4 will be conducted during the summers of 2015 and 2016 by
working in partnership with organic growers to identify cropping schemes and select on-farm
release sites to maximize natural enemy establishment based on the results from Objectives 1-3.
Success of parasitoid establishment and biological control of soybean aphids will also be
monitored on organic farms following A. glycinis releases.
This project will lead to improved protocols for establishment of A. glycinis, as well as
parasitoids released in other cropping systems. The project will also yield peer-reviewed and
extension publications, plus presentations at research and extension conferences, field days, and
workshops for growers. Sustainable biological control of soybean aphid would lead to increased
profitability, decreased exposure to insecticides, and therefore increased quality of life for
growers.
Project objectives from proposal:
The short-term outcomes of this project will include several pieces of knowledge based
on research conducted, including: 1) whether biodiversity adjacent to soybean fields improves
establishment of the parasitoid wasp Aphelinus glycinis; 2) a quantitative measure of the
biological control impact that A. glycinis has on soybean aphid populations in areas where it has
been released; and 3) an understanding of how diversity-provided resources, such as nectar, are
utilized by A. glycinis. Additionally, a valuable outcome will be collaboration with growers to
conduct on-farm field releases of A. glycinis on organic farms, thereby introducing an alternative
pest control method and fostering grower-researcher relationships.
One intermediate outcome will be an increased knowledge and awareness within the
farming community of importation biological control and how best to incorporate this strategy
within integrated pest management schemes. Farmers will also further understand the role that
parasitoids play in agroecosystems and be able to recognize parasitized aphids in the field. As a
result of this farmer-researcher partnership, the project will also yield improved protocols for the
release and establishment of A. glycinis, as well as other biological control agents, which will be
beneficial for future pest control efforts.
Finally, the primary long-term outcome will be the establishment and widespread
availability of a sustainable soybean aphid control option for soybean growers, which is currently
an un-met need in Minnesota and the surrounding North Central Region. This research would
also be some of the very first field-based work with Aphelinus glycinis in North America,
representing a novel and timely contribution to efforts to control soybean aphid, a damaging pest
found in all 12 states in SARE’s North Central Region.