AGROPOLIS INTERNATIONAL agriculture • food • environment Agropolis International Agropolis International is an international agricultural campus. brings institutions It represents a significant potential for scientific and technological of research and higher education capability: over 2,200 scientists in more than 110 research units in in Montpellier and Montpellier and Languedoc-Roussillon region including Languedoc-Roussillon 300 scientists in 60 countries. into partnerships with local communities, The scientific community focuses on the major issues related to : companies and enterprises in the • Agronomy in Mediterranean region, and into and tropical agricultural production sectors, close co-operation • Biotechnology and food technology, with international institutions. • Biodiversity, natural resources and ecosystems, • Water, environment and sustainable development, Agropolis International • Rural development and societies, is a world centre open to the stakeholders • Genomics in plant and animal integrative biology, involved in the • Food quality and safety. economic and social development in the following fields: Agropolis International is a centre for the capitalisation and agriculture, food, valorisation of knowledge, for training personnel and for technology environment transfer; it is a hub for visitors and international exchanges; it promotes actions based on multilateral expertise and contributes to the scientific and technological knowledge needed for preparing development policies. Competencies in research in Montpellier Biological control, and the Languedoc- Roussilon region in biodiversity, and ecology biological control, biodiversity, and ecology in plant protection in plant protection Scientific activity by naturalists has Foreword Page 4 become a major issue worldwide with regard to the environment. Characterising biodiversity Page 6 One of the main goals of this research concerns biodiversity in agroecosystems that needs to be urgently analysed, Taxonomic tools preserved, conserved, restored, and improved, all through a sustainable serving biological control Page 8 approach. In agriculture, the challenge Assessment of invasive species Page 12 is to study and preserve biodiversity in agroecosystems and in natural and Legislation and regulatory aspects... Page 20 managed landscapes. Improvement of biological control Understanding and evaluating Page 22 strategies, incorporating the study of diversity and its interactions population ecology and complexity, is realized today using Evaluating host specificity multidiscplinary skills in order to: and interactions Page 24 • understand the role of biodiversity in the equilibrium of ecosystems ; Characterization of genetic diversity Page 26 • set up biocontrol strategies using all available natural resources, from insects to viruses; Controlling populations Page 32 • use appropriate agricultural practices for preventing pest outbreaks ; Classical biological control Page 34 • account for physical and chemical Sustainable plant protection constraints influencing development for sustainable agriculture Page 40 of organisms in ecosystems ; and • analyze the role of landscape Agroecology: another vision structures in the evolutionary of sustainable agriculture Page 44 dynamics of living organisms, and their interactions. Dissemination of Page 52 Within the Agropolis International scientific and technical culture community, about fifty scientists are directly involved in research on biological control as well as several Topics covered Page 54 hundred more indirectly. by research teams This constitutes the premier French scientific campus of its kind and one of the most important in Education and training Page 55 Europe, dealing with various and complementary competencies such at Agropolis International as those covered Glossary Page 56 in the following chapters. List of abbreviations Page 58 summary Foreword Populations of species iological control of alien Inoculative biological control introduced into foreign invasive pests is most provides a more “classical” option for B commonly split into indigenous pests where known native environments without their “classical” and “inundative” natural enemies are inoculatively native natural enemies biological control. Classical biological released into outbreak populations can threaten ecosystems control relies on co-evolved, specific of pests to provide short-term antagonists of the pest from its native suppression of pest population and biodiversity. Biological range, which then are screened for peaks. Furthermore, inoculative control of such invasive pest risks to any prospective non-target biological control can include species covers a multitude native or commercially important applying benefical species that may species in the proposed area of simply pre-empt pest infection or of approaches built around release. In the absence of such risks, persistence on the affected crop. ecological, biotechnological, these antagonists are then released and genetic management into the pest’s invaded range and Conservation biological control effectiveness is dependent on the has developed in recent years as options. Historically, natural enemy establishing itself systems approaches are used in biological control originated and suppressing pest populations to pest management. This includes as a technique to restore provide long term control. Classical activities that improve the capacity biological control is largely restricted of crops to counter attacks from an ecological equilibrium to well-established exotic invasive pests (e.g. manipulating the soil by introducing closely co- species and while costly and slow in or microclimate or mutualisms) evolved natural enemies the developmental stage, potentially or encourage or protect natural provides permanent management enemy populations already present or antagonists (biocontrol with no further inputs and as such is in the crop ecosystem. Examples agents), where the invading typically a non-commercial solution. include increasing biodiversity as food sources and refuges for species had taken advantage Inundative biological control such beneficial species. These of their absence to become parallels classical biological developments have brought most invasive pests. control but is a repetitive approach aspects of the ecology or evolution using mass-reared antagonists of crop-pest-antagonist interactions or commercially developed within the definition of biocontrol- and registered non-persistent based research. biopesticides with the aim of short-term suppression of pest Recent molecular technologies are outbreaks. Use of either indigenous broadening and diversifying the or cosmopolitan antagonists has definition of biological control. allowed inundative biological Now almost any breeding or genetic control in the last 30 years to target manipulation of the crop, antagonist indigenous pests in both the field or mutualist aimed at improving and glasshouse. For example, more pest management (including GM than 150 biopesticides have been crops) can be included. This makes commercialised against insect, biological control a key growth phytopathogen or weed targets area in a pest management world and are based on living agents where public and government goals including fungi (mycoherbicdes), are aimed at decreasing the use of bacteria (e.g. Bacillus thuringiensis), chemicals in the environment. microsporidia, viruses, or nematodes. The term biopesticide is also applied Andy Sheppard to “natural” mixtures of active (C.I.L.B.A) ingredients (e.g. 2º plant compounds, allelochemicals, natural toxins) that are often equally considered as inundative biological control. Biological control Biological 4 © G. Delvare Podagrion pachymerum (Walker) (Hymenoptera, Torymidae), female laying eggs on an ootheca Colony of aphids on a knapweed plant Biological control Biological (Centaurea 5 maculosa) © R. Sforza © R. Sforza Characterising biodiversity in agroecosystems S Parcelled landscape The simple classification of plant and animal organisms at the integrating hedges and genus or species level, whether collected in a far away country borders with high plant or in France, is a challenge in itself. Identifying studied material is diversity in Languedoc- a key step for a successful biocontrol programme. This requires Roussillon. precise and important skills that are becoming increasingly rare in world research institutes and universities. The scientific community of Agropolis International can provide these skills for a number of taxonomic groups that play a role in applied and fundamental research. Biocontrol programmes benefit from this network to identify key pests and their associated natural enemies in a local, regional, national, E.U., and world regulatory framework. Biological control Biological 6 © G. Delvare haracterising biodiversity in biocontrol aims to precisely define the complex relationships between C a pest and its natural enemies. It may involve a two-species complex or a multiple-species scheme including several natural enemies interacting with each other. The biopest concept is commonly used for indiginous or exotic species negatively impacting agro-ecosystems. Invasive species are a major research topic for Agropolis International scientists. Due to the increase of worldwide commercial connections Taxonomic tools by air and sea, the number of newly introduced species serving is continuously rising on all seven continents. These biological control introductions, often accidental