Golf courses can expand hundreds of acres, making scouting for both pests and beneficial insect populations a time-consuming task. Scouting for insects is labor-intensive, potentially damaging, but is an integral part of an integrated pest and pollinator management (IPPM) plan. Virginia golf courses are currently using remote sensing and light reflectance to detect non-insect pests in turfgrass. This thesis aims to develop remote sensing and light reflectance methods to aid in a turfgrass IPPM plan, to document the phenology of ABW weevil (Listronotus maculicollis Kirby, Coleoptera: Curculionidae, ABW), and to catalogue pollinator-friendly out-of-play areas. Light reflectance, the measurement of the amount of light reflected, of plants can be used as a proxy for the health of a plant. The light reflectance of turfgrass affected by ABW stress and plants in the out-of-play areas of golf courses was collected proximally and remotely, using a backpack spectrometer and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), respectively. Mathematical light reflectance indices were applied and compared to insect populations in both areas to determine the correlation. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which uses red and near-infrared wavelengths to indicate stress, was found to highlight ABW stressed turfgrass. The Structure Intensive Vegetation Pigment Index (SIPI), which uses red and green wavelengths to highlight flowering plants, was found to highlight potential pollinator- friendly habitats in out-of-play areas. When applied to flights, NDVI could help in the targeted application of insecticides to combat the annual bluegrass weevil, therefore reducing their presence in the environment. The use of SIPI could highlight potential pollinator friendly habitats and therefore assist superintendents in the development of their IPPM plan. / Master of Science in Life Sciences / Scouting, such as completing visual monitoring or taking soil core samples, is an important part in the development of an integrated pest and pollinator management (IPPM) plan for Virginia golf courses; an IPPM plan focuses on control of a pest, while considering the needs of pollinators. The size of golf courses makes scouting for insect pests and beneficial insects a time-consuming task. Golf courses are currently using remote sensing, the use of drones in combination with other technology, to scout for other pests or disease. Light reflectance, the measurement of the amount of light reflected, is often used in combination with remote sensing as a proxy for the health of plants. This thesis developed remote sensing and light reflectance techniques not only to detect a common turfgrass pest, the annual bluegrass weevil (Listronotus maculicollis Kirby, Coleoptera: Curculionidae, ABW), but to also predict the presence of potential pollinator habitats in the out-of-play areas of Virginia golf courses. Instruments such as a spectrometer and a drone were used to collect light reflectance at the ground level and aerially, respectively. Ground data was collected through soap water flushes to detect adult ABW, and visual monitoring of potentially pollinating bees, beetles, butterflies, and flies. The light reflectance and ground data were compared using mathematical indices to determine if there was a relationship between the presence of insects and a particular index. Indices could be applied to drone flights that golf course superintendents are already performing, and they can use this information to highlight potential areas of insect presence. This will help them to take care not to apply insecticides in areas with pollinators or to only apply necessary insecticides where there is likely a presence of ABW. This will reduce the labor, other costs, and the environmental impact of insecticides.

No description available.

<p> Many floral characters have can affect plant fitness by altering the frequency or efficiency of pollinator visits. More frequent pollinator visitation may lead to larger pollen loads and greater outcrossing rates, which in tern may lead to greater numbers of offspring, with higher genetic variability and less inbreeding depression. Mating systems may moderate the strength of natural selection on traits that attract pollinators through its effects on inbreeding depression, and the ability to self-pollinate autogamously. Natural selection is expected to be stronger in largely outcrossing systems where inbreeding depression is high, but reduced in largely selfing systems where deleterious alleles have been purged.</p> <p> Here I investigate the role of floral display height in attracting pollinators, and its consequences for plant fitness in two closely related monocarpic herbs (Hesperis matronalis and Alliaria petiolata) with different mating systems. Though others have looked at height as a potential trait attracting pollinators, no one has yet clearly separated the effects of floral display height from that of plant size. I experimentally altered plant height independently of plant size by placing potted plants into either elevated or non-elevated treatments and observed pollinator foraging behaviour and reproduction.</p> <p> Pollinators preferred taller floral displays in the predominant outcrosser Hesperis matronalis. Elevated plants produced more seeds than control plants although their seeds were smaller, reflecting a strong seed size-number trade-off. Path analysis showed seed number was affected directly by plant height, presumably though greater pollinator visitation, and indirectly by plant mass through increased fruit number.</p> <p> In Alliaria petiolata, a predominant self-pollinating species, pollinators visited taller displays in field observations and experimentally elevated plants had significantly greater seed per fruit. Experimentally outcrossed and self-pollinated plants showed no difference in seed production, but offspring quality was significantly higher in outcrossed plants for early traits. Measures of maternal fitness increased significantly with both maternal and seed mass. For individual seeds, seed mass was the most important factor in seed fitness, where larger seeds germinated sooner, more frequently, and had higher survivorship than smaller seeds, regardless of pollination treatment. Competition strongly affected all seedling traits, with increased density having a significant negative effect on seedling mass, total leaf area, and maximum leaf length; and, a positive effect on hypocotyl length and petiole length. Seedling mass at harvest was not significantly affected by elevation treatment, seed mass, or maternal mass, however, this may have been due to lower competition brought about by low germination and survival; thus, competition did not accentuate the effect of maternal size or elevation treatment on seedling. Taken together, the results of these two studies suggest the importance of height, in attracting pollinators, independent of size in both species. The consequences of pollinator attraction were highly significant in the predominant outcrosser Hesperis matronalis, while maternal size and seed size played more important roles in the fitness of the predominant selfer Alliaria petiolata.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The honey bee is a widely managed crop pollinator that provides the agricultural industry with the sustainability and economic viability needed to satisfy the food and fiber needs of our society. Excessive use of agrochemicals such as the acaricides coumaphos and tau-fluvalinate, and the fungicide, chlorothalonil is implicated in the reduced number of managed bee colonies available for crop pollination services. Here, I report the effects of pesticide exposures on the nutritional and immune health of the honey bee. Total protein concentration was significantly reduced in the coumaphos- and chlorothalonil-treated individuals compared to the pesticide-untreated bees. Total carbohydrate concentration was significantly reduced in the tau-fluvalinate-, coumaphos-, and chlorothalonil-treated individuals compared to the pesticide-untreated bees. Total lipid concentration was significantly decreased in the chlorothalonil-treated individuals compared to the pesticide-untreated bees. Body weight was significantly reduced for the tau-fluvalinate-, coumaphos-, and chlorothalonil-treated individuals, respectively, compared to the pesticide-untreated bees. Head width was significantly reduced for the chlorothalonil-treated individuals whereas the wing length was significantly reduced for the coumaphos and chlorothalonil-treated individuals, respectively, compared to the pesticide-untreated bees. Phenoloxidase activity was significantly increased in the coumaphos-treated individuals compared to the pesticide-untreated bees. Glucose oxidase activity was significantly increased in the chlorothalonil-treated individuals compared to the pesticide-untreated bees. While more research is needed to verify the observed effects of the pesticides on the nutritional and immunity health of the honey bee, it is important for beekeepers to consider alternative methods for control of varroa mites and the use of fungicides near their colonies. / Master of Science in Life Sciences

A hybrid between a highly regenerative diploid clone (BARD 1-3) of Solanum phureja and haploid inducer IVP 101 was transformed with Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain 4404 containing plasmid pHB2892 with genes for green florescent protein (GFP) and kanamycin resistance. Hemizygous primary transformants (To) were produced from three leaf discs: 17 diploid plants from one leaf disc, three and nine tetraploids from the other two leaf discs. GFP expression was observed qualitatively under fluorescence microscopes and quantitatively with a GFP meter. Anther culture of tetraploids produced 29 plants, none with high levels of GFP. Segregation ratios for tetraploid T1 seedlings fit models for single duplex insertions (35 transgenic: 1 non) or double simplex insertions (15 transgenic: 1 non). Diploid T1 seedlings segregated for deleterious traits: dwarfed size and curled leaves, as well as the GFP transgene. Similar segregation patterns in diploid families implied that all diploids may have been from the same transformation event. The cumulative segregation showed the dwarfed and curled plants fit a single recessive gene ratio (3 normal: 1 mutant), and GFP fit a double-copy insertion ratio (15 transgenic: 1 non). There was substantial GFP silencing evidenced by the loss of expression in plants that had originally been selected for high GFP. However, six selections were found to be free of deleterious traits, consistently high expressers of GFP, and producers of stainable pollen with less 2n than IVP 101. / Master of Science

Pollinator-friendly wildflower and native grass plantings are increasingly incentivized by state and federal agencies to improve ecosystem services provided by pollinating insects on farmland. However, the potential ecosystem service benefits, or even disservices, of pollinator-friendly plantings relative to wildlife, such as resident, migratory, and nesting birds (e.g., wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)), resident and migratory bats, and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are of interest to both landowners and conservation managers. First, we studied bird species diversity, presence, density, and nesting on farms planted with and without pollinator-friendly plantings to evaluate the potential value of these plantings to bird-related values, such as cultural, recreational, and pest-regulating ecosystem services. Second, we quantified bat relative activity through recorded echolocation calls and explored how relative nightly activity varied across common cover types on a farm, by survey year, and by maternity (May-August) versus non-maternity season (September-April). Third, we determined whether white-tailed deer and wild turkey camera trap success and occupancy differed between farms with and without pollinator-friendly farmscaped plots, evaluated along with their relationships to percent cover of natural, developed, crop, and water habitats within 1 km of surveyed farms. We conducted bird point counts across 20 farms on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland and the city of Virginia Beach, VA during the Spring and Fall of 2017 and 2018. We searched for bird nests in pollinator-friendly plots during the summers of 2017 and 2018. There were no differences in alpha diversity, defined as the number of species per farm per survey period, between control and pollinator farms in either Spring or Fall. We did find differences in species evenness on farms during Spring surveys, as measured by Simpson's index, with pollinator farms having a higher mean Simpson's index. When examining factors relating to presence/absence of our 15 modeled bird species out of 110 species detected on farms, landscape-level cover types were influential in 14 species and presence of pollinator plots was influential for 5 species. After stratification of density estimates by control and pollinator farm study sites, we found that during Spring surveys, the blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata) and Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) had lower density on pollinator farms. In the Fall, the blue grosbeak (Passerina caerulea) had higher density on pollinator farms. We found nesting in the pollinator-friendly plots by red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus; n=7). These nests were placed in locations within the pollinator plots with higher forb coverage than random points in the same plots without nests. We estimated the presence and relative activity of bats in 4 cover types, including forest trail, a forested pond edge, a crop field on forest edge, and a farmscaped wildflower plot, on the Eastern Shore Agricultural Research Extension Center in Painter, Virginia, from April 2017- November 2019 using acoustic detectors. Of total detections, 20.11% were identified as big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), 17.97% evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis), 15.35% silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans), 7.11% eastern red bats (Lasiurus borealis), 3.66% hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus), 3.1% little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), and 1.38% tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus). Relative activity measured by calls per night varied by cover type, with relative activity highest for all 7 species in the crop field-forest edge and water-forest edge cover types as compared to pollinator plot and forest trail cover types during the maternity season (May-August). All 7 bat species were recorded in the pollinator plot cover type; of the 8,877 calls in pollinator plots, 26.07% were silver-haired bat, 25.21% eastern red bats, 23.78% evening bat, 9.32% hoary bats, 9.11% little brown bat, 5.42% big brown bat, and 1.09% tricolored bat. We used camera trap surveys to measure white-tailed deer and wild turkey occupancy across 20 farms on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and in the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia during the Spring and Fall of 2017 and 2018. Of all wild species photographed, white-tailed deer were most abundant (TS, # captures/100 nights) each survey season, however this varied season to season (Spring 2017 = 98.44 TS, Fall 2017 = 106.01 TS, Spring 2018 = 80.52 TS, Fall 2018 = 99.71 TS). Wild turkey total survey camera trap success was low compared to deer and other wildlife (4.51 TS), and also varied seasonally (Spring 2017 = 1.73 TS, Fall 2017 = 1.50 TS, Spring 2018 = 7.63 TS, Fall 2018 = 5.95 TS). White-tailed deer were detected at all survey locations at least once, and the occupancy of deer decreased as the percentage of developed land within 1km of a farm increased in each survey season. The factors relating to wild turkey occupancy varied by season. In Spring 2017, wild turkey occupancy increased as the percent of natural cover within 1 km of a farm increased. In Spring 2018, wild turkey occupancy decreased as the percent of developed land within 1 km increased. However, landscape variables did not influence wild turkey occupancy in the Fall seasons; rather in Fall 2018 we found that wild turkey occupancy decreased as camera trap success of farm machinery being used increased. Overall, wild turkey had a fairly low presence on all survey sites with an occupancy ranging from 0.18-0.53%, and no clear relationship to explain the change in survey season to season or year to year. Based on these results, pollinator plot presence or absence was not found to influence detection or occupancy of either of these target game species. Rather, other factors, mainly landscape-scale features, were found to have the largest influence on both species' occupancy and presence. Our study is one of just a few in North America to demonstrate some potential benefits of pollinator-friendly plantings to multiple different wildlife species with cultural, recreational, and insect-regulating ecosystem service benefits to landowners. Generally, birds, bats, and our focal game species' presence relied on surrounding landscape variables and forest-edge configurations more than the presence of pollinator friendly plantings. This is probably in part due to the small size of our pollinator plots. We recommend that future work explore potentially increasing the size of pollinator plot plantings or placing pollinator plantings in locations on the landscape with the most surrounding natural area, and least development, to maximize the benefits of this resource to diverse wildlife species with home ranges that are often larger than any one farm. / Master of Science / Pollinator-friendly wildflower and native grass plantings are increasingly used by state and federal agencies to improve benefits from biodiversity such as increases in crop pollinating insects, but the potential benefits of such plantings for vertebrate wildlife are not well studied. We evaluated potential ecosystem services, or even disservices, of pollinator-friendly plantings related to vertebrate wildlife, such as resident, migratory, and nesting birds (e.g., wild turkey), resident and migratory bats, and white-tailed deer. Bird point counts were conducted across 20 farms on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland and the city of Virginia Beach, VA during the Spring and Fall of 2017 and 2018, and we searched for bird nests in pollinator-friendly plots during the summers of 2017 and 2018. Over the entire project, we saw 110 different species; 96 were identified as insectivorous, indicating the potential for insect regulating services from birds. The total number of bird species observed on farms with pollinator plots were higher than farms without (100 > 90). After division of density estimates between control and pollinator farm study sites, we found that during Spring surveys, the Carolina wren had lower density on pollinator farms while in the Fall the blue grosbeak had higher density on pollinator farms. We found 7 nests of red-winged blackbirds (n=7) in the pollinator-friendly plots and birds preferred nesting in locations within the pollinator plots with more dense flowering plants without woody stem coverage than random points without nests in the same plots. We examined the presence and relative activity of bats in 4 cover types, including forest trail, a forested pond edge, a crop field on forest edge, and a farmscaped wildflower plot on one of our farm sites at the Eastern Shore Agricultural Research Extension Center in Painter, Virginia, from April 2017- November 2019 using acoustic detectors that record bat echolocation. All 7 bat species were recorded in the pollinator plot cover type and of total farm detections, 20.11% were identified as big brown bat, 17.97% evening bat, 15.35% silver-haired bat, 7.11% eastern red bats, 3.66% hoary bats, 3.1% little brown bat, and 1.38% tricolored bat. As expected, relative activity varied by cover type, with relative activity highest for all 7 species in the crop field-forest edge and water-forest edge cover types as compared to pollinator plot and forest trail cover types during the maternity season (May-August). We used camera trap surveys to measure white-tailed deer and wild turkey camera trap success and occupancy across 20 farms on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and in the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia during the Spring and Fall of 2017 and 2018. Of all wild species photographed, white-tailed deer had the highest observations. Wild turkey detections were low compared to deer and other wildlife. White-tailed deer and wild turkey presence were not influenced by the presence of pollinator plots, but rather by other factors, mainly landscape features within 1 km. Our study is one of the first in North America to demonstrate some potential benefits of pollinator-friendly plantings to multiple different wildlife with cultural, recreational, and insect-regulating ecosystem service benefits to landowners. Generally, birds, bats, and our focal game specie's presence relied on surrounding landscape variables and forest-edge configurations than the presence of pollinator friendly plantings. This is probably in part due to the small size of our pollinator plots. We recommend that future work explore potentially increasing the size of pollinator plot plantings or placing pollinator plantings in locations on the landscape with the most surrounding natural area, and least development, to maximize the benefits of this resource to diverse wildlife species with home ranges that are often larger than any one farm.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第25144号 / 理博第5051号 / 新制||理||1720(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科生物科学専攻 / (主査)准教授 高山 浩司, 教授 田村 実, 教授 石田 厚 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

Aciphylla species (wild spaniard/speargrass) are an iconic component of the Australasian high country flora, but their reproductive system is enigmatic. They are insect-pollinated dioecious mast seeders (synchronous highly variable seed production), which seems maladaptive. The resource supply to pollinators is highly variable, yet dioecious plants are dependent on pollinators, and dioecious masting requires male and female plants to flower synchronously. Floral display in Aciphylla is relatively large, with tall inflorescences bearing thousands of flowers, suggesting that plants would not have the resources to produce such large stalks every year. But why do they have such huge inflorescences in the first place? I tested whether pollinator attraction is providing an economy of scale which favours intermittent production of very large inflorescences, by manipulating floral display size during a high-flowering year and measuring insect visitation rates and seed set (female reproductive success). Using space-for-time substitution and selective removal of male inflorescences, I also tested whether female seed set was affected by distance to flowering male plants (i.e. changes in local pollen availability) to see if flowering asynchrony would reduce pollination success. Bags were used to exclude pollination by insects and test for wind pollination, and hand pollination was done to test for pollen limitation. Insect surveys suggest that Aciphylla has a generalist pollination system (to avoid satiating a specialist pollinator during 'mast' years'). Male inflorescences received significantly more visits than females, and some seeds were set inside bags (although only 20-30%), suggesting wind pollination may occur at low levels. Seed set rate was higher for taller inflorescences with greater flowering length in A. aurea but tall inflorescences with excess flowers led to a decrease in seed set rates in A. scott-thomsonii. Hand pollination significantly increased seed set rates although these effects were not as large as expected (e.g. 10% increases from natural to hand-pollinated inflorescences were typical). There was no evidence for resource limitation in any species. Female plants in dense flowering populations had higher seed set rates, and individual floral display size in females was particularly important when females were 'isolated' from males. Insect visitation rates were generally higher on inflorescences with a larger floral display, suggesting that display size is important for pollinator attraction. Overall, these results suggest that the pollinator-attraction benefits of such a large floral display (at both the plant and population level) are possibly providing an economy of scale, although the relative effects are small.

Várias podem ser as causas da variação local no sucesso reprodutivo de espécies vegetais, sendo a disponibilidade de recursos abióticos, herbivoria, polinização e dispersão de sementes comumente consideradas. Em espécies distílicas, a variação na disponibilidade de recursos abióticos pode determinar diferenças na quantidade e no período de produção das estruturas reprodutivas, e estas por sua vez podem influenciar a interação planta polinizador, modulando o comportamento de forrageio de visitantes florais. Este trabalho teve como objetivos verificar como alguns fatores poderiam determinar variação na fenologia e no sucesso reprodutivo de Psychotria suterella, uma espécie arbórea distílica comum em florestas no sudeste do Brasil. Os fatores experimentalmente investigados foram água, luz, nutrientes inorgânicos e superfície foliar. Além disto, investigamos a resposta de abelhas Bombus, B. brasiliensis e B. morio, à disponibilidade de recursos florais em quatro escalas espaciais. A variação na oferta de recursos não afetou o padrão temporal sincrônico de emissão de botões e desenvolvimento de flores dos tipos florais de P. suterella, mas condicionou alterações na quantidade das estruturas reprodutivas produzidas de forma distinta em cada tipo floral. Plantas com morfologia floral longistila parecem estar se reproduzindo sob condições ambientais limitantes, em função de responderem positivamente ao aumento na disponibilidade de recursos, enquanto plantas com morfologia floral brevistila parecem estar melhor adaptadas às condições ambientais, uma vez que responderam negativamente a todos os tratamentos. Respostas fisiológicas singulares parecem ser as responsáveis por essas diferenças. Não houve variação no número de flores, energia produzida no néctar das flores e freqüência de visitas a flores e plantas para os tipos florais de P. suterella. A oferta de energia por flor e a freqüência de visitas por flor variaram entre plantas. Bombus morio e Bombus brasiliensis responderam à variação na disponibilidade de recursos florais de P. suterella em escala espacias menores que 5m, visitando com mais freqüência plantas com maior oferta de energia, independente da disponibilidade energética na vizinhança. Porém, a freqüência de visitas média por flor não apresentou relação com a quantidade de recursos florais nas plantas, e não foi influenciada pela densidade de energia nas demais escalas, fato que deve estar relacionado à grande variação na produção de néctar entre as flores dentro de uma mesma planta. / Several factors might cause intrapopulational variation in plant reproductive success, being often mentioned abiotic resource availability, herbivory, pollination and frugivory as possible factors. In distylous species, the variation on abiotic resources availability can determine differences in quantity as well as in the moment of emisssion of reproductive structures. Those structures might influence the plant-pollinator interaction, modeling foraging behaviour of floral visitors. The aims of this study were to identify how variation in some abiotic resources change the phenology and reproductive success of Psychotria suterella, a common distylous species from Brazilian southeastern forests. We experimentally changed the amounts of light, water, inorganic nutrients and foliar surface. In addition, we measured the frequency of Bombus, B. brasiliensis and B. morio, in relation to floral density at four spatial scales. The variation in abiotic resources availability did not change the temporal pattern of flowering in both, pin and thrum morphs, although bud and flower number was different. Pin plants seemed to be under restrict environmental conditions because the addition of resources increased the number of reproductive structures. On the other hand, any alteration in environmental resources affected negativelly thrum plants. We did not register variation in flower number, energy production in nectar, plant and flower visitation rates for both P. suterella floral morphs. Energy supply per flower and flower visitation rates varied among plants. Bombus morio and Bombus brasiliensis responded to availabitity of floral resources in spatial scales smaller than five meters, visiting more frequently plants with more energy reward regardless of neighbourhood energetic availability. The flower visitation rate was not related to flower resource availability in P. suterella plants. This result might be determined by the high variation in flower energy production within plant.

Bumble bees and other wild pollinators are crucial to the support of both natural and agricultural ecosystems. However, unprecedented declines of pollinator populations have been observed all over the world, raising concerns of a looming threat to both the human food supply, as well as sustainability of the biodiversity in local ecological niches. Though declines are well described, the cause behind these still evades scientists. Proposed contributors include anthropogenic-mediated environmental stress, including application of xenobiotics for pest control, and increase of pathogen diversity and abundance due to the shipment of infection human-managed colonies. This research examined these theories and attempted to quantify the threats they may pose. Through development of a chronic, oral toxicity experiment, susceptibility of all Bombus impatiens castes to clothianidin exposure was examined. This exposed a substantial increase in vulnerability of male bumble bees to realistic concentrations of neonicotinoid pesticides, highlighting the crucial need to examine all members of wild bumble bee life cycles before determining pesticide regulations. Additionally, sublethal effects on fitness-related foraging behaviors in Bombus impatiens were examined through development of a voluntary task switching assay. The results of this experiment suggest humoral immune stimulation, through pathogenic infection, leads to significant impairment of cognitive flexibility. Taken together, this data suggests that pesticides and pathogens are capable of causing severe detrimental effects, both lethally and sublethally, in wild bumble bees. I hope this data will eventually contribute to reassessment of environmental regulations and establishment of effective conservation strategies in order to sustain the critical populations of wild bumble bees.