Abstract
A model for the corn rootworm Diabrotica spp. combined with a temporally explicit model for development of corn roots across the soil profile was developed to link pest ecology, root damage and yield loss. Development of the model focused on simulating root damage from rootworm feeding in accordance with observations in the field to allow the virtual testing of efficacy from management interventions in the future. We present the model and demonstrate its applicability for simulating root damage by comparison between observed and simulated pest development and root damage (assessed according to the node injury scale from 0 to 3) for field studies from the literature conducted in Urbana, Illinois (US), between 1991 and 2014. The model simulated the first appearance of larvae and adults to within a week of that observed in 88 and 71 % of all years, respectively, and in all cases to within 2 weeks of the first sightings recorded for central Illinois. Furthermore, in 73 % of all years simulated root damage differed by <0.5 node injury scale points compared to the observations made in the field between 2005 and 2014 even though accurate information for initial pest pressure (i.e. number of eggs in the soil) was not measured at the sites or available from nearby locations. This is, to our knowledge, the first time that pest ecology, root damage and yield loss have been successfully interlinked to produce a virtual field. There are potential applications in investigating efficacy of different pest control measures and strategies.
Highlights
We present the model and demonstrate its applicability for simulating root damage by comparison between observed and simulated pest development and root damage for field studies from the literature conducted in Urbana, Illinois (US), between 1991 and 2014
In 73 % of all years simulated root damage differed by \0.5 node injury scale points compared to the observations made in the field between 2005 and 2014 even though accurate information for initial pest pressure was not measured at the sites or available from nearby locations
Summary of Field Crop Insect Management Trials ‘‘On Target’’ from the University of Illinois Extension and Department of Crop Sciences. Results of these trials were used to evaluate simulations of root damage against field observations; the simulations were undertaken assuming that the pest pressure observed in Monticello in 2014 was representative of pest pressure for all studies
Summary
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10340-016-0788-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is a univoltine pest in corn [Zea mays subsp. Mays (L.)] production which has become a pest of international importance due to its presence in the USA, Canada, Mexico and Europe (Meinke et al 2009). Yield loss and expenses associated with rootworm damage exceed costs of $1 billion per year in the USA alone (Tinsley et al 2015). Adult beetles lay eggs from the middle of the summer to late autumn into the upper 30 cm of soil (Vidal et al 2005).
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