Pest insect movement and dispersal as an example of applied movement ecology: Comment on “Multiscale approach to pest insect monitoring: Random walks, pattern formation, synchronization, and networks” by Petrovskii, Petrovskaya and Bearup

Abstract

Over the past decade there has been a revolution in the development of new affordable sensing and tracking technology, and this has led to the deployment of a vast array of location sensors and data loggers for monitoring and recording animal movement [1,2]. This revolution has led to an enormous amount of animal movement data being collected and much of this is now freely available [3]. Alongside the technological revolution, by necessity there has also been a rapid development of new mathematical and statistical tools and techniques for analysing the enormous data sets collected [4–6]. Movement ecology has subsequently been recognised as an important research field in its own right [7,8]. Nevertheless, there are still many open problems remaining. In particular, Petrovskii et al. [9] highlight an important question about how the movement and dispersal of pest insects relates to their population abundance, dynamics and spatial spread. Such a question can be considered an example of “applied movement ecology”. As well as serving as an important case study to develop and test movement analysis and spatial modelling techniques, there are obvious direct economic, societal, and conservation benefits to be had from better understanding of pest insect dispersal and subsequent population dynamics at different spatial and temporal scales. Outbreaks of pest insect species (such as Tipula paludosa, as discussed in [9]) are known to cause serious damage to crops. Outbreaks can occur at a range of spatial scales: from a small localised outbreak affecting part of a field, through to a regional outbreak or invasion of a pest species [10,11]. Many millions of dollars are lost globally every year because of lost or reduced crop yields caused directly by pest insect damage [10]. Hence it is important that we can develop better knowledge of pest insect movement and dispersal in order to properly implement integrated pest management (IPM) [11]. Because of their life-cycle, size, abundance, and tendency to reside partially or fully underground for at least part of their life history, it is usually not practical to use the types of sensors and loggers that are now frequently used on larger animals to track large numbers of pest insects simultaneously over extended periods of time [12]. Instead, entomologists have had to implement alternative techniques to track insects on the move. Radio-frequency