The Rothamsted Insect Survey - National Capability
Lead Research Organisation:
Rothamsted Research
Department Name: UNLISTED
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Technical Summary
The Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS) is tasked over the long-term to detect changes in whole organism population dynamics. Recently, the remit of the RIS has broadened to detect genotypic changes in pest insects as part of the RIS group's activities to both reduce 'noise' in the RIS forecasts and detect important biotypes harmful to agriculture. The work of the RIS in collaboration with the research into insecticide resistance at Rothamsted (under the Smart Crop Protection strategic programme) aims to identify emerging resistance mechanisms and study their evolution. Rothamsted suction-traps are located worldwide thereby providing a world view of pests for use by researchers enabling internationally-excellent research. The RIS will run a number of tasks that will include: i) Annual forecasts by pest species ii) Virus vector monitoring iii) Daily trapping, alerts & bulletins and newsletters These tasks run alongside a number key activities which underpin the science, which include: i) Trap servicing, sample processing, ID and curation ii) Presentations, technical demos and training iii) Servicing data requests, interpretation and publications.
Planned Impact
unavailable
Organisations
- Rothamsted Research (Lead Research Organisation)
- United States Fish and Wildlife Service (Collaboration)
- Cosmonio (Collaboration)
- University of Kansas (Collaboration)
- University of Oxford (Collaboration)
- Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Collaboration)
- NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY (Collaboration)
- The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (Collaboration)
- MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY (Collaboration)
- IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF LINCOLN (Collaboration)
- Crop Health and Protection (Collaboration)
- French National Institute of Agricultural Research (Collaboration)
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Collaboration)
- QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON (Collaboration)
- Victoria University of Wellington (Collaboration)
- THE PIRBRIGHT INSTITUTE (Collaboration)
- International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) (Collaboration)
Publications
Archer, M.
(2018)
The social wasp Vespula germanica (Fabricius) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) population dynamics in England over 39 years
in Entomologist's Monthly Magazine
Bell J
(2017)
Aphids as crop pests
Bell JR
(2020)
Are insects declining and at what rate? An analysis of standardised, systematic catches of aphid and moth abundances across Great Britain.
in Insect conservation and diversity
Bell JR
(2019)
Spatial and habitat variation in aphid, butterfly, moth and bird phenologies over the last half century.
in Global change biology
Blumgart D
(2023)
Floral enhancement of arable field margins increases moth abundance and diversity.
in Journal of insect conservation
Blumgart D
(2022)
Moth declines are most severe in broadleaf woodlands despite a net gain in habitat availability
in Insect Conservation and Diversity
Bourhis Y
(2023)
Explainable neural networks for trait-based multispecies distribution modelling-A case study with butterflies and moths
in Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Bourhis Y
(2021)
Artificial neural networks for monitoring network optimisation-a practical example using a national insect survey
in Environmental Modelling & Software
| Description | Global warming has advanced the timing insect migration, potentially leading to disruption across trophic levels. Using our standardised traps for five decades to examine annual counts, we show that declines are either more moderate (moths 31%) or absent (aphids 3%). In some cases, such as social wasps, they continue to be volatile without any clear, overall trend |
| Exploitation Route | These finding are part of a hotly debated topic in both academia and the media. We expect our findings to heavily influence policy, particularly agricultural and non-crop habitats. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Environment Government Democracy and Justice |
| Description | RIS science activities reduce negative environmental impacts such as a reduction in the prophylactic use of insecticides, the loss of biodiversity and contribute to a greater understanding of biological systems (e.g. trophic-links between viruses and vectors, migration, symbionts and parasitoids etc). The RIS also provides medium and long-term forecasts of phenology, abundance and distributional changes under prevailing weather conditions as well as under climate change scenarios. RIS information on pest threats are communicated to thousands of growers through independent web sites (e.g. AHDB), newsletters, magazines, technical meetings, field demonstration days, and attendance at major agricultural events as well as online via Twitter. The rise of resistance mechanisms within aphid and moth genotypes is understood through the work of the RIS and its collaborators using molecular diagnostics to provide spatio-temporal resistance data and used by the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee (IRAC), the agro-chemical industry generally and levy boards to track the effectiveness of insecticides. In doing all these activities, the RIS produces more than 100 critical communiqués to levy boards, farmers and industry concerning pest population dynamics and trends per annum. Rothamsted 12.2 m suction-traps have now been located at 129 sites in 17 countries providing a world view of pests for use by researchers enabling internationally-excellent research, thus addressing BBSRC's strategic priority and the cross-government Global Food Security Programme. This award ended on 31 March 2023 and future outputs from 1 April 2023 will be reported in the successor BBSRC National Bioscience Research Infrastructure: Rothamsted Insect Survey award (BBS/E/RH/23NB0006). |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | Climate change and evolutionary adaptation: a policy perspective for conservation, Science for Policy Workshop led by Prof Jane Hill, York, 4th December 2019 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Defra economic analysis evidence report on the impacts of virus yellows on sugar beet production |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Impact | Executive summary The impact of virus yellows is highly variable from year to year. There was a high infection level in 2020 but a low level in 2021 following a relatively cold winter. In the absence of low winter temperatures, we would expect a moderate to high level of virus yellows infection in 2022. In 2021, the emergency authorisation was granted subject to a threshold for the percentage of the sugar beet crop area affected by virus yellows which had to be met before the treatment could be used. The threshold was set at the point at which the cost of crop losses from the virus would be equal to the seed treatment cost. It was compared against a forecast made by Rothamsted Research in March that predicted the affected area by the end of August. If we were to use the same approach for 2022 use would only be triggered if the forecast were higher than the threshold level set under the authorisation. |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neonicotinoid-product-as-seed-treatment-for-sugar-beet-em... |
| Description | Defra's UK Biodiversity Indicators 2020 report: contributed data to index of relative abundance of priority species assessment |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| URL | https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/9265... |
| Description | Formal Meeting with Daniel Zeichner MP (Cambridge), Shadow Environment Minister, and Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Labour's Shadow Environment Minister to discuss Neonicotinoids, Aphid Forecasts and Sugar Beet (1st Feb 2022). |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| URL | https://whatson.parliament.uk/event/cal37424 |
| Description | Formal Meeting with Daniel Zeichner MP (Cambridge), Shadow Environment Minister, and Baroness Jones of Whitchurch to discuss Neonicotinoids, Aphid Forecasts and Sugar Beet (8th March) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neonicotinoid-product-as-seed-treatment-for-sugar-beet-em... |
| Description | Neonicotinoid derogation for 2022 sugar beet season |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Description | Neonicotinoid derogation for 2023 sugar beet season |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Impact | Basically, as before, this discussion informs the virus yellows trigger threshold (previously 9, and 19%) above which a derogation to use neonic seed will be authorised. |
| Description | Office of National Statistics (ONS) Semi-natural habitat natural capital accounts, UK: 2021 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| URL | https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/bulletins/seminaturalhabitatnaturalcapitalaccou... |
| Description | Rebecca Robertson, POST Fellow, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, wrote a POST note on 'Understanding Insect Decline: Data and Drivers' |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Description | Rothamsted Insect Survey Forecasts affected policy decision: emergency authorisation for use of Biscaya (thiacloprid) has been granted |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Impact | Emergency approval granted for thiacloprid in beet News03 Apr 2020 Marianne Curtis Farmers Weekly With the worst virus yellows forecast issued by Rothamsted for 50 years, it will come as a relief to sugar beet growers that emergency authorisation for use of Biscaya (thiacloprid) has been granted. This allows for two applications (2 x 0.3l/hectare) to the English sugar beet crop from between April 2 to July 31. Dr Simon Bowen of BBRO says the exceptionally warm temperatures over the winter period has significantly increased the risk of virus in 2020 crops. "Without insecticides, 80 per cent of the crop could have been affected," he said. "It is the second year without neonicotinoid seed treatments. Before these we did have bad years but we had colder winters where the frost would kill aphids. This year aphids have been active right through the winter period. The first migration into crops could occur in the second week of April - it is usually a month later than this. "Until now we thought we would only have one spray of Teppeki but with the emergency authorisation we also have two sprays of Biscaya which is what we effectively had last year. "With just one spray we available we would struggle to control aphids, particularly if they are coming in at such an early stage." When monitoring their crops, growers should look for a threshold of one wingless aphid per four plants before spraying, says Dr Bowen. |
| URL | https://www.fginsight.com/news/news/emergency-approval-granted-for-thiacloprid-in-beet-107439 |
| Description | Rothamsted Virus Yellows Forecasts: Neonicotinoids |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| Impact | Our Rothamsted virus yellows forecasting model is being used by the sugar beet industry to advise them on the incidence of virus yellows. The official document states: "The applicant (i.e. BBRO) proposed use of a virus forecasting model to determine whether treatment is needed, setting a threshold for the level of virus infection above which economic impacts would be incurred. If this threshold is not met the seed will not be treated." |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neonicotinoid-product-as-seed-treatment-for-sugar-beet-em... |
| Description | State of Nature 2019 report: UK moth trends from Rothamsted Insect Survey light trap network (1968 to 2016). |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in systematic reviews |
| URL | https://nbn.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/State-of-Nature-2019-UK-full-report.pdf |
| Description | Statement of reasons for the decision on the application for emergency authorisation for the use of Cruiser SB on sugar beet crops in 2022 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Impact | The Secretary of State has directed that the following key conditions should be attached to the emergency authorisation (in addition to standard requirements that HSE would apply to the product): use is only permitted if the predicted virus incidence level is 19% or above, as determined on 1 March 2022 by the Rothamsted YV forecast model. |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neonicotinoid-product-as-seed-treatment-for-sugar-beet-em... |
| Description | https://insectsurvey.com/ - a new visualization tool and data portal to reduce insecticide use, used widely in agricultural systems |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The insectsurvey.com is a visualisation tool and data portal that provides information on 1) Near real time pest threats by cropping system and region to reduce prophylactic use of insecticide and improve timing and intervention of control measures. 2) Biodiversity trends analysis that uses long term data and a new type of modelling to contribute to the debate about insect declines 3) Shortly, we shall issue real-time data that will report on the flow of insect biomass data. |
| URL | https://insectsurvey.com/ |
| Description | (IPM Decisions) - Stepping-up IPM decision support for crop protection |
| Amount | € 4,998,096 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | 817617 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | 05/2019 |
| End | 05/2024 |
| Description | A Comprehensive Sugar Beet Virus Yellows Model |
| Amount | £218,517 (GBP) |
| Organisation | British Beet Research Organisation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2019 |
| End | 08/2023 |
| Description | Aphid News |
| Amount | £151,960 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Agricultural and Horticulture Development Board |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2019 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | Colaborative research: Modelling and inference for spatiotemporal climate impacts on complex ecosystems |
| Amount | $426,000 (USD) |
| Organisation | National Science Foundation (NSF) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 08/2017 |
| End | 08/2020 |
| Description | Drivers and Repercussions of UK Insect Declines (DRUID) |
| Amount | £2,000,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NE/V00686X/1 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 12/2024 |
| Description | Envision DTP "Reclaiming the night sky for moths: what drives the flight-to-light response and how can this be mitigated?" |
| Amount | £90,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2023 |
| End | 04/2027 |
| Description | Fast-Tracked Surveillance of the Peach-Potato Aphid: Vector Forecasting, Virus Yellows and Insecticide Resistance |
| Amount | £59,877 (GBP) |
| Organisation | British Beet Research Organisation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2018 |
| End | 03/2019 |
| Description | Forecasting and monitoring the vectors of virus yellows and their resistance to neonicotinoids |
| Amount | £71,197 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 17/03 |
| Organisation | British Beet Research Organisation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2017 |
| End | 04/2018 |
| Description | Rothamsted Research-CSIRO Linkage Proposal |
| Amount | £3,800 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Rothamsted Research |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2019 |
| End | 08/2020 |
| Description | SWBIO DTP: Long-term changes in the abundance and phenology of migrating insects as potential drivers of population change in insectivorous birds and bats |
| Amount | £90,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2021 |
| End | 10/2025 |
| Description | SWBIO-DTP Flight-to-light and the decline in British moths |
| Amount | £90,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2019 |
| End | 09/2023 |
| Description | Smart Armyworm Surveillance (SAS) |
| Amount | $100,000 (USD) |
| Funding ID | OPP1199447 |
| Organisation | Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 11/2018 |
| End | 03/2020 |
| Title | Client-Orientated Data Warehouse for Servicing Data Request |
| Description | We have created a data warehouse that will service online data requests for all RIS daily data from 1990-2017 - i.e. millions of insect records. Currently, the warehouse exists as a prototype on our intranet and is undergoing extensive testing before release. This warehouse communicates with our database without the intervention of RIS staff, and provides the most comprehensive data to academics, growers and industry. A query can be called which creates a derived catch data file and an associated meta data file. Currently, we are working on the protocols to deliver a file to the client and should release the first version online in 2021 |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The impact could be profound in that we expect the warehouse to ease pressure on Rothamsted Insect Survey staff who have provided data to clients in the past. We also expect that data from the RIS will increase in use, given the simplicity of deriving data in an automated way. |
| URL | https://insectdatabase.rothamsted.ac.uk/login |
| Title | Complete revision of our database Paul version 1.0 in line with historic records and new taxonomies. Upgrade to Paul version 2.0 |
| Description | The RIS runs two national trap networks comprising ˜80 light-traps and ˜16 suctions traps that generate half a million new records annually. The RIS hosts the most comprehensive standardised long-term data on insects in the World, with 50 million insect records held in its database named 'Paul'. During lockdown, and in readiness for the data warehouse, we embarked on a data cleaning and validation exercise for RISdb. We revised the aphid taxonomy that was featured in our Journal of Animal Ecology paper in 2015 and provided a new British checklist for psyllids published in the Entomologist's Gazette in 2021. Moth taxonomy is more stable and is regularly updated, but the extensive metadata associated with the light trap network required further validation. A forensic analysis of our database records indicated that we did not have all 'missing days' noted where a trap was not operational for some reason. An exhaustive examination of our paper records against all the database records revealed that there were some 78,000 non trapping days missing from the database, mostly from the 1960s and 1970s. We have corrected these records and removed duplicated data, |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Paul is a our database that drives our new https://insectdatabase.rothamsted.ac.uk/login behind the scenes. Now that is launched, Paul will continue to feed data into that resource and provide an essential back-up for all data requests. |
| URL | https://insectsurvey.com/ |
| Title | A New Comprehensive Virus Yellows Model to Inform Defra/Health & Safety Executive's Sugar Beet Derogation |
| Description | The statistical model, driven by Rothamsted Insect Survey's long term aphid data, predicted that 8.37 % of the national sugar beet area will be affected by virus yellows by the end of August 2021. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The statistical model was used to inform the decision not to apply Cruiser SB (a neonicotinoid) to Sugar Beet Seed for the 2021 Crop. The model showed that with February temperatures fluctuating from very cold to unseasonably warm conditions, especially during the last three weeks of the month, the 9% trigger threshold, cited in the derogation for the use of Cruiser SB, was not met. This has profound implications for future agriculture because it sets the bar for the way in which forecasts can be used by regulatory bodies. The forecast had national impact |
| URL | https://bbro.co.uk/media/50468/21-advisory-bulletin-no-2.pdf |
| Title | Data from: Contrasting population structure and demographic history of cereal aphids in different environmental and agricultural landscapes |
| Description | Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms files and phylogonetic trees of S. miscanthi samples collected in China and S. avenae from the UK used to study the population genetics analyses of these species. These are: China_samples_vcf.zip: dataset of SNPs from S. miscanthi sampled in 10 populations of China obtained using FreeBayes (in vcf format). China_samples_vcf_filtered.zip: SNPs from S. miscanthi after filtering the file China_samples_vcf.zip using vcftools (max-missing 0.75, minDP 3, mac 3, minQ 30, remove-indels, thin 2000, max-missing 0.9, thin 5000). This file was used in all population genetic analyses of the Chinese populations in the paper, transforming to the appropriate formats. China_samples_SNPs.fas: fasta file of phased SNPs used to estimate the phylogeny of S. miscanthi haplotypes using RAxML. China_RAxML_phylogeny_newick.tre: RAxML phylogenetic tree in newick format obtained with China_samples_SNPs.fas. England_samples_vcf.zip: dataset of SNPs from S. avenae sampled in 12 populations of England obtained using FreeBayes (in vcf format). England_samples_vcf_filtered.zip: SNPs from S. avenae after filtering the file England_samples_vcf.zip using vcftools (max-missing 0.5, mac 3, minQ 30, minDP 3, max-missing 0.5, exclude individuals with 50% missing data, max-missing 0.75, remove-indels, thin 2000). This file was used in all population genetic analyses of the English populations in the paper, transforming the vcf to the corresponding formats. England_samples_SNPs.fas: fasta file of phased SNPs. England_samples_SNPs_polymorphic.fas: fasta file of phased SNPs used in the phylogenetic reconstruction of S. avenae haplotypes using RAxML. This file is the same as England_samples_SNPs.fas after removing sites which were not polymorphic (e.g. a site that contains N and T in different samples is not considered polymorphic for RAxML and has to be removed) England_RAxML_phylogeny_newick.tre: RAxML phylogenetic tree in newick format obtained with England_samples_SNPs_polymorphic.fas. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.k0p2ngf5x |
| Title | Evidence for nutrient-specific foraging of predators under field conditions |
| Description | Fieldwork Money spiders (Araneae: Linyphiidae) and wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) were visually located along transects in two adjacent barley fields at Burdons Farm, Wenvoe in South Wales (51°26'24.8"N, 3°16'17.9"W) and collected from occupied webs and the ground between April and September 2018. Each belt transect was adjacent to a randomly selected crop tramline and were distributed across the entire field and ran its length. The areas searched were 4 m2 quadrats at least 10 m apart and all observed linyphiids and lycosids were collected. Spiders were taken from 64 randomly selected locations along the aforementioned transects. Following collection of spiders, 4 m2 of ground and crop stems was suction sampled for approximately 30 seconds, with the collected material emptied into a bag and any organisms immediately killed with ethyl-acetate. Suction sampling used a 'G-vac' modified garden leaf-blower. All material was later frozen at -20 ºC for storage before sorting in the lab. These invertebrates were collected for background population densities and not for any molecular work. All invertebrates were identified to family level. Further identifications were not carried out due to the inability to identify some of the invertebrate groups further via the associated metabarcoding-derived dietary data (e.g., Sciaridae), and the difficulty associated with finer taxonomic resolution of many damaged or immature specimens. The only taxa not identified to family level were springtails of the superfamily Sminthuroidea (Sminthuridae and Bourletiellidae, which were often indistinguishable following suction sampling and preservation due to the fine features necessary to differentiate them) which were left at super-family, mites (many of which were immature or in poor condition, or lacked appropriate taxonomic keys) which were identified to order level and wasps of the superfamily Ichneumonoidea (which were identified no further due to obscurity of wing venation due to damage); in these cases, these taxonomic assignments were pooled to family-level for later analyses. Extraction and high-throughput sequencing of spider gut content DNA Given their prevalence in field collections, dietary analysis was carried out for the linyphiid spider genera Erigone, Tenuiphantes, Bathyphantes and Microlinyphia (Araneae: Linyphiidae), and Pardosa (Araneae: Lycosidae). Spiders were transferred to and washed in fresh 100% ethanol to reduce external contaminants prior to identification via morphological keys(1). Abdomens were removed from spiders and again transferred to and washed in fresh 100% ethanol. DNA was extracted from the abdomens via Qiagen TissueLyser II and DNeasy Blood & Tissue Kit (Qiagen) as per the manufacturer protocol, but with an extended lysis time of 12 hours to account for the complex and branched gut system in spider abdomens(2). For amplification of DNA, two primer pairs were used. BerenF-LuthienR(3) amplified a broad range of invertebrates including spiders, and TelperionF-LaureR, amplified a range of invertebrates with the exception of some spiders (modified from TelperionF-LaurelinR(3) (via one base-pair change to decrease host DNA amplification; 5'-ggrtawacwgttcawccagt-3'). These two primer pairs amplified 314 bp (BerenF-LuthienR) and 302 bp (TelperionF-LaureR) regions of COI. Primers were labelled with unique 10 bp molecular identifier tags (MID-tags) so that each individual had a unique pairing of forward and reverse for identification of each spider post-sequencing. PCR reactions of 25 µl volumes contained 12.5 µl Qiagen PCR Multiplex kit, 0.2 µmol (2.5 µl of 2 µM) of each primer and 5 µl template DNA. Reactions were carried out in the same thermocycler, optimized via temperature gradient, with an initial 15 minutes at 95 °C, 35 cycles of 95 °C for 30 seconds, the primer-specific annealing temperature for 90 seconds and 72 °C for 90 seconds, respectively, followed by a final extension at 72 °C for 10 minutes. BerenF-LuthienR and TelperionF-LaureR used annealing temperatures of 52 °C and 42 °C, respectively. Within each PCR 96-well plate, 12 negative controls (extraction and PCR), 2 blank controls and 2 positive controls were included (i.e. 80 samples per plate), based on Taberlet et al.(4). Positive controls were mixtures of invertebrate DNA comprised of non-native Asiatic species in four different proportions (Table S1) and blanks were empty wells within each plate to identify tag-jumping into unused MID-tag combinations. PCR negative controls were DNase-free water treated identically to DNA samples. A negative control was present for each MID-tag to identify any contamination of primers. All PCR products were visualized in a 2 % agarose gel with SYBR®Safe (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Paisley, UK) and placed in categories based on their relative brightness. The concentration of these brightness categories was quantified via Qubit dsDNA High-sensitivity Assay Kits (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) with at least three representatives of each category per plate. The PCR products were then proportionally pooled according to these concentrations. Each pool was cleaned via SPRIselect beads (Beckman Coulter, Brea, USA), with a left-side size selection using a 1:1 ratio (retaining ~300-1000 bp fragments). The concentration of the pooled DNA was then determined via Qubit dsDNA High-sensitivity Assay Kits and pooled together into one library per primer pair. Library preparation for Illumina sequencing was carried out on the cleaned libraries via NEXTflex Rapid DNA-Seq Kit (Bioo Scientific, Austin, USA) and samples were sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq via a V3 chip with 300-bp paired-end reads (expected capacity =25,000,000 reads). Bioinformatic analysis The Illumina run generated 11,165,405 and 10,959,010 reads for BerenF-LuthienR and TelperionF-LaureR, respectively, which were quality-checked and paired via FastP(5) to retain only sequences of at least 200 bp with a quality threshold of 33, resulting in 10,561,874 and 9,355,112 paired reads. The paired reads were demultiplexed and assigned to their respective spider sample according to their MID-tags via the "trim.seqs" command in Mothur v1.39.5(6), leaving 7,854,610 and 7,437,929 reads with exact matches to the primer and MID-tags. Replicates were removed, and denoising and clustering to amplicon sequence variants (ASVs; clustered without % identity to avoid multiple species represented within a single operational taxonomic unit (OTU)) completed via Unoise3 in Usearch11(7). The resultant sequences were assigned a taxonomic identity from GenBank via BLASTn v2.7.1(8) using a 97% identity threshold(9). The BLAST output was analyzed in MEGAN v6.15.2(10). Where the top BLAST hit, determined by lowest e-value, was resolved at a higher taxonomic level than species-level, the results were checked; where possibly erroneous entries were preventing species-level assignment (e.g., poorly resolved identifications on GenBank), finer resolution was assigned based on the next-closest match. Where ASVs were assigned the same taxon, these were aggregated. Data clean-up followed the protocol described as optimal by Drake et al.(11). The maximum value for an ASV present in blank or negative controls was identified and subtracted from all read counts for that ASV to remove background contaminants. Simultaneously, known lab contaminants (e.g., German cockroach Blattella germanica), artefacts and errors of the sequencing process, unexpected reads in positive controls and positive control taxon reads in dietary samples were identified. These were calculated as a percentage of their respective sample's read count and any read counts lower than the highest of these percentages for their respective sample were removed to eliminate additional instances of contamination. These thresholds were defined as 0.38% and 0.39% for BerenF-LuthienR and TelperionF-LaureR, respectively. The data from the two libraries (i.e., from each primer pair) were then aggregated together by sample and aggregated again by taxon. Non-target taxa (e.g., fungi) and instances in which predator DNA was amplified (i.e. ASVs with high read counts matching the individual's morphological identity) were removed. All remaining read counts were converted to presence-absence. Macronutrient determination Specimens were taken for macronutrient analysis from the same suction samples collected for invertebrate community identification. Representatives were taken from each family found in the community samples for which specimens were intact, in visually good condition and relatively clean of soil and other contaminants. If specimens were from a relatively uncommon family but unclean, soil and other surface contaminants were physically removed, and the specimen then momentarily dipped in water to remove remaining surface contaminants without greatly dislodging surface lipids. Macronutrient contents were determined following the MEDI protocol(12, 13) with minor alterations to account for the small size of most of the invertebrates processed(14). During extraction, half volumes (i.e. 500 µl) of solvents were used. For the lipid assays, 15 µl of sulfuric acid was added for a 15 min incubation, followed by only 200 µl of vanillin reagent to increase the concentration and development of analyte for more accurate readings from smaller invertebrates. Lipid and protein standard series were diluted to 50% of the concentration specified in the original protocol (i.e. 0-1 mg ml-1). Carbohydrate assays used 140 µl of reagent with 30 min incubation at 92 °C followed by a further 30 min at room temperature. Carbohydrate standard series were diluted to 1% of the concentrations specified in the original protocol (i.e. 0-0.02 mg ml-1) to ensure signals overcame the higher limit of detection relative to typical invertebrate carbohydrate content. Statistical analysis All analyses were conducted in R v.4.0.3(15). In situ spider prey choice was analyzed using network-based null models in econullnetr(16) with the 'generate_null_net' command. A bespoke set of functions was used alongside econullnetr to randomly generate an "expected diet" for each individual spider based on local prey communities determined via suction sampling. Macronutrient data were allocated to each dietary taxon and the mean macronutrient proportions calculated. The mean macronutrient contents were compared between expected and observed diets using a multivariate linear model (MLM) via mvabund(17) and significant differences visually represented through ternary plots using ggtern(18) and ggplot2(19). The observed mean nutrient proportions of spider diets were compared between spider genera, life stages and sexes using a MLM. To ascertain how prey choice factors into these dietary differences, the difference in macronutrient proportions between expected and observed spider diets were also compared between spider genera, life stages and sexes in a MLM. To group taxa into tropho-species, mean macronutrient values for each taxon were first determined to prevent splitting of taxa across clusters; these were represented at the family, order and class levels to allow tropho-species assignment for families for which macronutrient content was not determined, but was at a higher level. Macronutrient values were scaled by subtracting the mean of each column from each contained value and dividing it by the column standard deviation using the 'scale' function. A Euclidean distance matrix was calculated using the 'dist' function. Hierarchical clustering of scaled macronutrient distance matrix used the 'hclust' function. Optimal clustering solutions were determined by comparison of Dunn's index between methods and k values; this was calculated using the 'dunn' function in the "clValid" package(20) for each cluster k value above five until the Dunn index decreased, the first instance of the value preceding the decrease deemed the maximum value, thus optimal solution. Clustering solutions based on 'average', 'complete', 'single', 'median', 'centroid' and 'mcquitty' linkages were compared, and the "complete" method selected for subsequent analysis as it resulted in the smallest number of clusters (20; thus, the most efficient simplification of the taxa analyzed). Three uncommon families (present in small numbers in one community sample each, but no dietary detections) were removed from further tropho-species analyses due to the lack of class-level macronutrient data (Arionidae, Lithobiidae and Polydesmidae). To name the tropho-species, a second clustering stage was used in which the tropho-species were grouped according to their mean macronutrient content for each of the three nutrients separately. 'Single' linkage clustering was found to be the optimal method for this step and created ten, seven and six groups for carbohydrate, lipid and protein, respectively. These clusters were labelled from one to the total number of clusters for each macronutrient to represent low-to-high content of that nutrient relative to other tropho-species. Names used the structure 'CxLyPz' to denote the relative content of each tropho-species (x, y and z replaced with the cluster number for carbohydrate, lipid and protein, respectively). Clusters were henceforth termed 'tropho-species', with all taxa within a single cluster representing a single aggregated tropho-species. Heatmap dendrograms were produced using the 'heatmap.2' function in the 'gplots' package(21), with cluster colors assigned with the 'Accent' palette of 'RColorBrewer'(22) and relative macronutrient content color scaling produced using the 'viridis' package(23). Ternary plots were produced to visualize the macronutrient content of taxa within each cluster, and differences in mean macronutrient contents between tropho-species. Tropho-species were assigned to each taxon present in dietary and prey community samples. Where family-level macronutrient data were not obtained (usually low abundance and poor condition invertebrates or families identified in the diet that were not subsequently observed in community samples), order-level tropho-species assignment was used, or class where order-level data were not available (12 and 2 instances of uncommon taxa, respectively). In situ spider prey choice with respect to tropho-species was analyzed using network-based null models in econullnetr(16) with the 'generate_null_net' command, visually represented with the 'plot_preferences' command. Standardized effect sizes of prey choice for each combination of spider genus, sex and life stage, indicative of the extent of deviation from random, were extracted from the null models and compared between genera, sexes and life stages using permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PerMANOVA) via the 'adonis' function in vegan(24). To determine any tropho-species-specific differences, these data were further analyzed via similarity percentages analysis (SIMPER), also in vegan. 1. M. J. Roberts, The Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland (Compact Edition) (Harley Books, Colchester, UK, ed. 3rd, 1993). 2. H. Krehenwinkel, S. Kennedy, S. Pekár, R. G. Gillespie, A cost-efficient and simple protocol to enrich prey DNA from extractions of predatory arthropods for large-scale gut content analysis by Illumina sequencing. Methods Ecol. Evol. 8, 126-134 (2017). 3. J. P. Cuff, L. E. Drake, M. P. T. G. Tercel, J. E. Stockdale, P. Orozco-terWengel, J. R. Bell, I. P. Vaughan, C. T. Müller, W. O. C. Symondson, Money spider dietary choice in pre- and post-harvest cereal crops using metabarcoding. Ecol. Entomol. 46, 249-261 (2021). 4. P. Taberlet, A. Bonin, L. Zinger, E. Coissac, Environmental DNA (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2018). 5. S. Chen, Y. Zhou, Y. Chen, J. Gu, Fastp: An ultra-fast all-in-one FASTQ preprocessor. Bioinformatics. 34, i884-i890 (2018). 6. P. D. Schloss, S. L. Westcott, T. Ryabin, J. R. Hall, M. Hartmann, E. B. Hollister, R. A. Lesniewski, B. B. Oakley, D. H. Parks, C. J. Robinson, J. W. Sahl, B. Stres, G. G. Thallinger, D. J. Van Horn, C. F. Weber, Introducing mothur: open-source, platform-independent, community-supported software for describing and comparing microbial communities. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75, 7537-7541 (2009). 7. R. C. Edgar, Search and clustering orders of magnitude faster than BLAST. Bioinformatics. 26, 2460-2461 (2010). 8. C. Camacho, G. Coulouris, V. Avagyan, N. Ma, J. Papadopoulos, K. Bealer, T. L. Madden, BLAST+: architecture and applications. BMC Bioinformatics. 10, 1-9 (2009). 9. A. Alberdi, O. Aizpurua, M. T. P. Gilbert, K. Bohmann, Scrutinizing key steps for reliable metabarcoding of environmental samples. Methods Ecol. Evol. 9, 1-14 (2017). 10. D. H. Huson, S. Beier, I. Flade, A. Górska, M. El-Hadidi, S. Mitra, H. J. Ruscheweyh, R. Tappu, MEGAN Community Edition - interactive exploration and analysis of large-scale microbiome sequencing data. PLoS Comput. Biol. 12, 1-12 (2016). 11. L. E. Drake, J. P. Cuff, R. E. Young, A. Marchbank, E. A. Chadwick, W. O. C. Symondson, Post-bioinformatic methods to identify and reduce the prevalence of artefacts in metabarcoding data. Authorea. April 13 (2021), doi:https://doi.org/10.22541/au.161830201.18684167/v1. 12. J. P. Cuff, S. M. Wilder, M. P. T. G. Tercel, R. Hunt, S. Oluwaseun, P. S. Morley, R. A. Badell-Grau, I. P. Vaughan, J. R. Bell, P. Orozco-terWengel, W. O. C. Symondson, C. T. Müller, MEDI: Macronutrient Extraction and Determination from invertebrates, a rapid, cheap and streamlined protocol. Methods Ecol. Evol. 2021, 1-9 (2021). 13. J. P. Cuff, S. M. Wilder, MEDI: Macronutrient Extraction and Determination from Invertebrates. Protocols.io (2021), p. 49505. 14. J. P. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/record/5738016 |
| Title | Explainable neural networks for trait-based multi-species distribution modelling |
| Description | We demonstrate the use of a time distributed layer as a simple yet solid solution to account for traits in an artificial neural network (ANN), an example of machine learning approach to understand insect declines. This feature brings ANNs unmatched learning abilities to multi-species distribution models, enabling non-linear and interactive behaviours in a field otherwise dominated by generalized linear models. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The model's predictions are being tested with experts using a Shiny App, identified in the links below. https://yo-b.shinyapps.io/survey_orthoptera/ https://yo-b.shinyapps.io/survey_odonates_GB/ https://yo-b.shinyapps.io/survey_carabids/ |
| URL | https://yo-b.shinyapps.io/survey_orthoptera/ |
| Title | Extracted features from opto-acoustic audio recordings of aphids and beetles |
| Description | Opto-acoustic recorders have been utilised to record the flight of weak-flying insects including aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and beetles (Coleoptera). These data include 52 extracted features from 4928 audio recordings collected in 2019 and 2020 of 8 distinct species. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/item/981w8/extracted-features-from-opto-acoustic-audio-recording... |
| Title | Insect Survey Data Requests |
| Description | The Rothamsted Insect Survey's long-term data are of unquestionable importance providing information on aphids, larger moths and many other migrating insects to academia, growers, conservation organisations and individuals. As such these data have a wide range of fundamental and applied uses. As of 2016, we now record and track RIS data. In the last 12 months, 11,006,109 records have been sent to 15 recipients from UK, and USA. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Researchers have data from which to do their research. Outputs are many including independent talks, papers and support for responsive mode grants by applicants. |
| Title | Insect Survey Data Requests |
| Description | The Rothamsted Insect Survey's long-term data are of unquestionable importance providing information on aphids, larger moths and many other migrating insects to academia, growers, conservation organisations and individuals. As such these data have a wide range of fundamental and applied uses. As of 2016, we now record and track RIS data. In the last 12 months, 6,757,769 records have been sent to 17 recipients from UK, France and Germany. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Researchers have data from which to do their research. Outputs are many including independent talks, papers and support for responsive mode grants by applicants |
| Title | Moth declines are most severe in broadleaf woodlands despite a net gain in habitat availability - data and code for analysis |
| Description | This collection of datasets and R code contains all that is necessary to repeat the analysis in the publication "Moth declines are most severe in broadleaf woodlands despite a net gain in habitat availability" - Blumgart et al. 2022. It contains moth abundance data collected in the UK by the Rothamsted Insect Survey from 1968 to 2016, and datasets derived from this data. Also included is habitat data derived from the Land Cover Map 2015 provided by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and moth species traits. The R scripts can be run on the data provided to carry out the analysis which examines the effect of habitat and species traits on the long-term trends in moth abundance, richness, diversity and biomass. For a full description of each file, see the README file. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/item/98852/moth-declines-are-most-severe-in-broadleaf-woodlands-... |
| Title | Moth trends for Britain and Ireland from the Rothamsted Insect Survey light-trap network (1968 to 2016) |
| Description | The dataset contains abundance trends for 432 species of moths (mostly macro-moths) estimated using the data collected by Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS) from their light-trap network between the years 1968 and 2016. The trends were calculated using a Generalized Abundance Index (GAI) model. The trends are presented as year coefficients from the statistical model, Annual Growth Rates (AGR), and the total percentage changes over the time series for each species. For each trend metric 95% and 90% confidence intervals are provided. Two versions of the trends are presented: one using data from all traps in the Britain & Ireland over the period of 1968-2016 and a second dataset restricted to traps in Great Britain over the period of 1970-2016. The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) under research programme NE/N018125/1LTS-M ASSIST - Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems. The Rothamsted Insect Survey, a National Capability, is funded by the BBSRC under the Core Capability Grant BBS/E/C/000J0200. The research builds upon model development supported by NERC award number NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCAPE programme delivering National Capability. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/0a7d65e8-8bc8-46e5-ab72-ee64ed851583 |
| Title | Moths individual |
| Description | Abstract This dataset contains Moth light trap abundance data from Rothamsted Insect Survey from 1964 to 2018. Methods Moths were sampled using light traps (average of 84 traps per year), one of the two trap networks operated by the Rothamsted Insect Survey throughout the United Kingdom that sample aphids and moths using suction traps and light-traps, respectively. More information about the network and data collection processes can be found at https://insectsurvey.com/. Technical Information For this dataset, each trap per year combination was treated as a separate assemblage for the corresponding analysis. In total, 730 (of the 1675) species were included as these were the ones for which it was possible to obtain dry mass estimates. These species, which tend to be more common, represent most (85%) of the records. Species names and light trap locations have been anonymised. Collection Start Date 1964-01-01 Collection End Date 2018-12-31 |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | None to date |
| URL | https://data.rothamsted.ac.uk/dataset/e98a514d-ca6a-4ade-b742-dde19d57afe1 |
| Title | Quantifying inherent predictability and spatial synchrony in the aphid vector Myzus persicae - field-scale patterns of abundance and regional forecasting error in the UK |
| Description | Data set contains daily Myzus counts recorded at Brooms Barn for the permutation entropy analysis as detailed in section 2.4.4 of the published paper in Pest Management Science. p. 7292. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/item/98qvq/quantifying-inherent-predictability-and-spatial-synch... |
| Title | Rothamsted Insect Survey Data requests (April 2020-Mar 21) |
| Description | The Rothamsted Insect Survey's long-term data are of unquestionable importance providing information on aphids, larger moths and many other migrating insects to academia, growers, conservation organisations and individuals. As such these data have a wide range of fundamental and applied uses. As of 2016, we now record and track RIS data that we send to clients. In the last 12 months, 16,911,142 records have been sent to 15 recipients from UK, and USA. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Researchers have data from which to do their research. For example, in 2020 two notable publications were Van Klink et al. (2020) Meta-analysis reveals declines in terrestrial but increases in freshwater insect abundances. Science 368, 417-420. Ghosh, S., Sheppard, L.W., Holder, M.T., Loecke, T.D., Reid, P.C., Bever, J.D., Reuman, D.C., (2020) Copulas and their potential for ecology. Advances in Ecological Research 62, 409-468. Other outputs include independent talks and support for responsive mode grants by applicants. |
| Title | Rothamsted Insect Survey Online Database |
| Description | The Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS) has been running two trap networks since 1964. Its long-term data are unique providing information on aphids, larger moths and many other migrating insects to scientists, growers, conservation organisations, individuals and policy makers. As such, the networks represent the most comprehensive standardised long-term data on insects in the World and have a wide range of fundamental and applied uses. The Rothamsted Insect Survey is supported by a wide variety of organisations and individuals. We recognise contributions made by research institutes, universities, non-governmental organisations, private volunteers and Rothamsted staff past and present, who have either provided administrative and software support, hosted light-traps or suction-traps or identified the catch. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/item/987q7/rothamsted-insect-survey-online-database |
| Title | Rothamsted Insect Survey, Moth and Aphid catch abundance data |
| Description | This dataset contains Moth and Aphid catch abundance data from the Rothamsted Insect Survey light-trap and suction trap networks. The dataset is a supplement to Bell et al (2020) (https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12412) and can be used to reproduce the R analyses presented. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/item/975qz/rothamsted-insect-survey-moth-and-aphid-catch-abundan... |
| Title | Swift manuscript dataset |
| Description | Abstract: The common swift, Apus apus, is an obligate aerial, migratory, insectivorous bird, that has experienced significant declines in the UK since the 1990s. Reductions in the availability of prey during their summer breeding season in the UK are likely to be a key factor in this decline. This dataset is part of a short communication that aims to contribute new insights into the current foraging behaviours of adult swifts feeding their nestlings, as a means of provoking new conversation and stimulating further work. Methods: Food bolus samples are small ball-like structures containing the insect prey that is regurgitated to nestlings. Boluses from adult swifts provisioning their nestlings were collected incidentally at a breeding colony in Suffolk, UK. These were taxonomically identified and compared to corresponding daily insect catches from a nearby Rothamsted Insect Survey suction-trap operating within the foraging area of common swifts. There was a distinction between contents of the bolus samples and the suction-trap samples, whereby larger bodied aerial invertebrates appeared in greater numbers in bolus samples. This was evidenced by the relatively high numbers of agriculturally important species, pollen beetles and cabbage stem flea beetles, in bolus samples compared to low numbers in suction-traps. Smaller invertebrates such as aphids (Aphididae), parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera), and thrips (Thysanoptera) were not frequent in the bolus samples, relative to the high numbers identified from the suction-trap catch. Technical Information Spatial Information Geolocation Point (Latitude, Longitude) : ( 52.2219, 0.9404 ) |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | None to date |
| URL | https://data.rothamsted.ac.uk/dataset/f8be70f5-c039-4643-8155-bf20cb6305cc |
| Title | Temporal variation in spider trophic interactions is explained by the influence of weather on prey communities, web building and prey choice |
| Description | Materials and Methods Fieldwork and sample processing Field collection and sample processing has been described previously by Cuff, Tercel, et al., (2022), but is briefly described in Supplementary Information 1. In short, money spiders (Araneae: Linyphiidae) and wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) were collected from occupied webs and the ground in barley fields between April and September 2018. Linyphiids occupying webs (n = 78) were prioritised for collection, but ground-active linyphiid and lycosid spiders were also collected. For each linyphiid taken from a web, the height of the web from the ground (mm) and its approximate dimensions were recorded, the latter calculated as approximate web area (mm2). To obtain data on local prey density, ground and crop stems were suction sampled using a 'G-vac' for approximately 30 seconds at each 4 m2 quadrat from which spiders were collected. Extraction, amplification and sequencing of DNA, and bioinformatic analysis is described by Cuff, Tercel, et al. (2022) and Drake et al. (2022), and is also detailed in Supplementary Information 2. Amplification was carried out using two complementary PCR primer pairs: one targeting invertebrates generally, and one intended to exclude amplification of spider DNA to reduce the prevalence of 'host' reads in the data output (Cuff et al. 2023). Amplicons were sequenced via Illumina MiSeq V3 with 2x300 bp paired-end reads. The resultant sequencing read counts were converted to presence-absence data of each detected prey taxon in each individual spider. Given the prevalence of sequencing reads associated with each spider analysed and the impossibility of disentangling these from detections of intraspecific predation (i.e., cannibalism), all such reads were removed (Cuff et al. 2023), although intrageneric and intrafamilial predation were still detected. Weather data Weather data were taken from publicly available reports from the Cardiff Airport weather station (6.6 km from the study site) via "Wunderground" (Wunderground, 2020), to represent local weather conditions. This does not necessarily reflect smaller-scale effects (e.g., microclimate-scale; Bell, 2014; Holtzer et al., 1988), but the timescale of detection for dietary metabarcoding reduces the value of that resolution given that spiders may forage across multiple microclimates. We collated data from 1st January 2018 to 17th September 2018 (the last field collection). Weather data were also separately extracted for the week preceding each of the two 2017 collection dates (3rd to 9th August and 29th August to 4th September 2017). Specifically, daily average temperatures (°C), daily average dew point (°C), maximum daily wind speed (km h-1), daily sea level pressure (hPa) and day length (min; sunrise to sunset) were recorded. Precipitation data were downloaded via the UK Met Office Hadley Centre Observation Data (UK Met Office, 2020) as regional precipitation (mm) for South West England & Wales. Weather data were converted to mean values for seven days preceding the collection of spider samples to correspond with the longevity of DNA in the guts of spiders (Greenstone et al., 2014). Statistical Analysis All analyses were conducted in R v4.0.3 (R Core Team, 2020). To assess how weather affects spider trophic interactions over time, we analysed dietary changes across weather gradients using multivariate models. To identify whether this was likely to be driven by changes in prey abundance, we assessed the corresponding changes in the prey communities and then used null models to ascertain whether spiders were responding to prey abundance changes through prey choice. Given the dependence of linyphiid spiders on webs for foraging, we also compared web height and area over weather gradients to assess whether this may be a component of adaptive foraging. To assess the inter-annual consistency of prey choices in response to weather conditions, we also assessed whether prey preference data could be used to improve the predictive power of prey choice models. For this, we generated null models for 2017 data with prey abundance weighted by prey preferences estimated with the 2018 data. This allowed us to assess the consistency of prey choice under similar conditions, but also provides insight as to whether this framework can be used to predict predator responses to diverse prey communities under dynamic conditions. We detail the specific stages of this analytical framework in the below sections. Sampling completeness and diversity assessment To assess the diversity represented by the dietary analysis and the invertebrate community sampling, and the completeness of those datasets, coverage-based rarefaction and extrapolation were carried out, and Hill diversity calculated (Chao et al., 2014; Roswell, Dushoff, & Winfree, 2021). This was performed using the 'iNEXT' package with species represented by frequency-of-occurrence across samples (Chao et al., 2014; Hsieh et al., 2016; Figures S4 & S6). Relationships between weather, spider trophic interactions and prey community composition Prey species that occurred in only one spider individual were removed before further analyses to prevent outliers skewing the results. Spider trophic interactions were related to temporal and weather variables in multivariate generalized linear models (MGLMs) with a binomial error family (Wang, Naumann, Wright, & Warton, 2012). Trophic interactions were related to temporal variables and their pairwise interactions (including spider genus to account for any confounding effect), weather variables and their pairwise interactions, and weather variables and their interactions with spider genus and time (to account for any confounding effects) in three separate MGLMs. These variables were separated into different models (Temporal model, Weather interaction model and Confounding effects model) to improve model fit and reduce singularity. Invertebrate communities from suction sampling were related to temporal and weather variables in identically structured MGLMs (excluding the spider genus variable) with a Poisson error family. All MGLMs were fitted using the 'manyglm' function in the 'mvabund' package (Wang et al., 2012). 'Temporal model' independent variables were calendar day (day), mean day length in minutes for the preceding week (day length), spider genus (for dietary models only, to ascertain any effect of spider taxonomic differences on dietary differences over time and day lengths) and all two-way interactions between these variables. 'Weather interaction model' independent variables were mean temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, wind speed and pressure for the preceding week, and pairwise interactions between weather variables. 'Confounding effects model' independent variables were day (to investigate the interaction between time and weather), spider genus (for dietary models only, to ascertain any effect of spider taxonomic differences on dietary differences over time and day lengths), mean temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, wind speed and pressure for the preceding week, and two-way interactions of each weather variable with day and genus. Trophic interaction and community differences were visualised by non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) using the 'metaMDS' function in the 'vegan' package (Oksanen et al., 2016) in two dimensions and 999 simulations, with Jaccard distance for spider diets and Bray-Curtis distance for invertebrate communities. For the dietary NMDS, outliers (n = 21; samples containing rare taxa) obscured variation on one axis and were thus removed to facilitate separation of samples and achieve minimum stress. For visualization of the effect of continuous variables against the NMDS, surf plots were created with scaled coloured contours using the 'ordisurf' function in the 'ggplot' package (Wickham, 2016). Relationships between web characteristics and weather variables Web area and height were compared against weather and temporal variables using a multivariate linear model (MLM) with the 'manylm' command in 'mvabund' (Wang et al., 2012). Log-transformed web area and height comprised the multivariate dependent variable, and day, spider genus, temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, wind, pressure and two-way interactions between each of these and day and genus comprised the independent variables. Variation in spider prey choice across weather conditions To separately represent spiders from different weather conditions in prey choice analyses, sample dates for every spider were clustered based on the mean weather conditions (temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, wind and pressure) of the week before collection (7 days, to align approximately with spider gut DNA half-life; Greenstone et al., 2014). Alongside data from 2018 (n = 24 collection dates), two sampling periods from 2017 were included in the clustering to ascertain similarity of weather conditions for additional inter-annual prey choice analyses described below. The clustering process is described in Supplementary Information 3. Five clusters were generated: High Pressure (HPR), Hot (HOT), Wet Low Dewpoint (WLD), Dry Windy (DWI), Wet Moderate Dewpoint (WMD), and 2017 (2017 sampling periods). Prey preferences of spiders in each of the weather clusters was analysed using network-based null models in the 'econullnetr' package (Vaughan et al., 2018) with the 'generate_null_net' command. Consumer nodes in this case represented spiders belonging to each of the weather clusters. Econullnetr generates null models based on prey abundance, represented here by suction sample data, to predict how consumers will forage if based on the abundance of resources alone. These null models are then compared against the observed interactions of consumers (i.e., interactions of spiders within each weather cluster with their prey) to ascertain the extent to which resource choice deviated from random (i.e., density dependence). The trophic network was visualised with the associated prey choice effect sizes using 'igraph' (Csardi & Nepusz, 2006) with a circular layout, and as a bipartite network using 'ggnetwork' (Briatte, 2021; Wickham, 2016). The normalised degree of each weather cluster node was generated using the 'bipartite' package (Dormann, Gruber, & Fruend, 2008) and compared against the normalised degree of the same node in the null network to determine whether spiders were more or less generalist than expected by random. Prior to the prey choice analysis, an hemipteran prey identified no further than order level through dietary analysis was removed due to the inability to pair it to any present prey taxa with certainty. Validating and predicting relationships between years To test how generalisable the results are and the extent to which weather drives prey preferences, we used a measure of prey preference (observed/expected values; observed interaction frequencies divided by interaction frequencies expected by null models) from the above prey choice analysis to assess whether we could more accurately predict observed trophic interactions under similar weather conditions for data from a linked study at the same location in 2017. These additional data represent a subset of the spider taxa analysed above (Tenuiphantes tenuis and Erigone spp.) collected using the same methods by the same researchers and in the same locality (Cuff, Drake, et al., 2021). The similarity in weather conditions between the 2017 study period and each of the five 2018 weather clusters was determined via NMDS of the weather data in two dimensions with Euclidean distance. Centroid coordinates for each 2018 weather cluster and the 2017 data were extracted and pairwise distances calculated between weather clusters: In order, the most proximate weather clusters to the 2017 weather data were HPR (mean Euclidean distance = 8.845), HOT (9.290), WMD (13.626), DWI (13.817) and WLD (18.682; Figure S3). To facilitate comparison between the two years, observed/expected values from the 2018 prey choice models were extracted separately for each of the weather clusters and scaled between 0.1 and 1. For this, 0.1 was used as a minimum since 0 would result in interactions being excluded altogether in the null models, and one as a maximum given the limits of econullnetr but also because this is a multiplier applied to the prey abundances, so greater values would skew prey abundances beyond realistic proportions. Scaling was achieved by the following equation: Missing values (e.g., prey that were absent in certain weather conditions) were represented as 1 to prevent transformation of their abundances in the null models; this treats prey for which data were absent naively, but could increase perceived preferences for them. The scaled values were used to weight the abundance of prey available to the spiders in the 2017 data using the weighting option in econullnetr, whereby values less than 1 proportionally reduce the probability of that taxon being predated in the null models. This effectively redistributes the 2017 relative prey abundance data according to the preference effect sizes generated for each of the 2018 weather clusters. If prey preferences are similar between the 2017 spiders and those from the weather cluster being used to weight the model, the composition of simulated diets should more closely resemble observed diets and fewer significant deviations from the null model should be found. Null models were generated as above (Variation in spider prey choice across weather conditions) but based on the prey availability and trophic interactions from 2017 samples. Three types of model were run: i) a conventional model based on observed prey abundances; ii) a model with prey abundances set to be equal across all prey taxa; and iii) observed prey abundances weighted by prey preferences determined for each of the weather clusters in the 2018 prey choice analysis. A separate model was run for each 2018 weather cluster with abundances weighted by the corresponding scaled observed/expected values. The unweighted conventional model was compared against weighted models to ascertain whether the prey preference weightings from 2018 improved the predictive power of the null models. To compare effect sizes between the unweighted and each other null model for each resource taxon, mean standardised effect size (SES) values were calculated from the paired 'pre-harvest' and 'post-harvest' data from each model, and paired t-tests were carried out with these between the unweighted and each weighted model. The SES values were plotted for each model and joined between taxa to visualise these paired differences using 'ggplot' (Wickham, 2016). Null model-predicted trophic interactions were generated via a modified 'econullnetr' function (generate_null_net_indiv) which produces outputs at the individual level to generate simulated diets for individual spiders to compare dietary composition between null model predictions and observed data. These models were run with 2300 simulations to represent 50 simulations per individual spider in the 2017 dataset (n = 46). Null diets were associated with sample IDs by aggregating the 50 simulations per sample and retaining a mean incidence of prey (i.e., mean occurrence across all 50 simulations). A visualisation of the per-sample differences in null model and observed data was generated via NMDS. Mean centroid coordinates for the observed 2017 data and the predicted diets of each model were extracted and the Euclidean distance between the observed data centroid and that of each model was calculated (as above for weather conditions). Supplementary Information 1: Field collection and sample processing Money spiders (Araneae: Linyphiidae) and wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) were visually located along transects in two adjacent barley fields at Burdons Farm, Wenvoe in South Wales (51°26'24.8"N, 3°16'17.9"W) and collected from occupied webs and the ground, between April and September 2018 (five visits per week of which spiders from 24 collection dates were used). Transects were randomly distributed across the entire field. Along these transects, 64 separate 4 m2 quadrats, at least 10 m apart, were searched and all observed linyphiids and lycosids were collected. Spiders were placed in 100 % ethanol using an aspirator, regularly changing meshing to limit potential cross-contamination. Linyphiids occupying webs were prioritised for collection, but ground-active linyphiid spiders were also collected. For each spider taken from a web, the height of the web from the ground (mm) and its approximate dimensions were recorded, the latter calculated as approximate web area (mm2). Spiders were taken to Cardiff University, transferred to fresh ethanol, adults identified to species-level and juveniles to genus, and stored at -80 °C in 100 % ethanol until DNA extraction. To obtain data on local prey density, ground and crop stems were suction sampled using a 'G-vac' for approximately 30 seconds at each 4 m2 quadrat (n = 64) from which spiders were collected. The collected material was emptied into a bag, any organisms immediately killed with ethyl-acetate and material frozen for storage before sorting into 70 % ethanol in the lab. All invertebrates were identified to family level to match the resolution of the least resolved of the metabarcoding-derived trophic interaction data, and due to difficulties associated with identification to finer taxonomic resolution for many taxa. Exceptions included springtails of the superfamily Sminthuroidea (Sminthuridae and Bourletiellidae were often indistinguishable following suction sampling and preservation due to the fine features necessary to distinguish them) which were left at super-family, mites (many of which were immature or in poor condition) which were identified to order level, and wasps of the superfamily Ichneumonoidea which were identified no further due to obscurity of wing venation due to damage. Supplementary Information 2: Molecular analysis and bioinformatics Extraction and high-throughput sequencing of spider gut DNA Given their prevalence in field collections, dietary analysis was carried out for the linyphiid genera Erigone, Tenuiphantes, Bathyphantes and Microlinyphia (Araneae: Linyphiidae), and the Lycosidae genus Pardosa. Spiders were transferred to and washed in fresh 100 % ethanol to reduce external contaminants prior to identification via morphological key (Roberts, 1993). Abdomens were removed from spiders and again transferred to and washed in fresh 100 % ethanol. DNA was extracted from the abdomens via Qiagen TissueLyser II and DNeasy Blood & Tissue Kit (Qiagen) as per the manufacturer protocol, but with an extended lysis time of 12 hours to account for the complex and branched gut system in spider abdomens (Krehe |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/record/7844574 |
| Title | Temporal variation in spider trophic interactions is explained by the influence of weather on prey communities, web building and prey choice |
| Description | Materials and Methods Fieldwork and sample processing Field collection and sample processing has been described previously by Cuff, Tercel, et al., (2022), but is briefly described in Supplementary Information 1. In short, money spiders (Araneae: Linyphiidae) and wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) were collected from occupied webs and the ground in barley fields between April and September 2018. Linyphiids occupying webs (n = 78) were prioritised for collection, but ground-active linyphiid and lycosid spiders were also collected. For each linyphiid taken from a web, the height of the web from the ground (mm) and its approximate dimensions were recorded, the latter calculated as approximate web area (mm2). To obtain data on local prey density, ground and crop stems were suction sampled using a 'G-vac' for approximately 30 seconds at each 4 m2 quadrat from which spiders were collected. Extraction, amplification and sequencing of DNA, and bioinformatic analysis is described by Cuff, Tercel, et al. (2022) and Drake et al. (2022), and is also detailed in Supplementary Information 2. Amplification was carried out using two complementary PCR primer pairs: one targeting invertebrates generally, and one intended to exclude amplification of spider DNA to reduce the prevalence of 'host' reads in the data output (Cuff et al. 2023). Amplicons were sequenced via Illumina MiSeq V3 with 2x300 bp paired-end reads. The resultant sequencing read counts were converted to presence-absence data of each detected prey taxon in each individual spider. Given the prevalence of sequencing reads associated with each spider analysed and the impossibility of disentangling these from detections of intraspecific predation (i.e., cannibalism), all such reads were removed (Cuff et al. 2023), although intrageneric and intrafamilial predation were still detected. Weather data Weather data were taken from publicly available reports from the Cardiff Airport weather station (6.6 km from the study site) via "Wunderground" (Wunderground, 2020), to represent local weather conditions. This does not necessarily reflect smaller-scale effects (e.g., microclimate-scale; Bell, 2014; Holtzer et al., 1988), but the timescale of detection for dietary metabarcoding reduces the value of that resolution given that spiders may forage across multiple microclimates. We collated data from 1st January 2018 to 17th September 2018 (the last field collection). Weather data were also separately extracted for the week preceding each of the two 2017 collection dates (3rd to 9th August and 29th August to 4th September 2017). Specifically, daily average temperatures (°C), daily average dew point (°C), maximum daily wind speed (km h-1), daily sea level pressure (hPa) and day length (min; sunrise to sunset) were recorded. Precipitation data were downloaded via the UK Met Office Hadley Centre Observation Data (UK Met Office, 2020) as regional precipitation (mm) for South West England & Wales. Weather data were converted to mean values for seven days preceding the collection of spider samples to correspond with the longevity of DNA in the guts of spiders (Greenstone et al., 2014). Statistical Analysis All analyses were conducted in R v4.0.3 (R Core Team, 2020). To assess how weather affects spider trophic interactions over time, we analysed dietary changes across weather gradients using multivariate models. To identify whether this was likely to be driven by changes in prey abundance, we assessed the corresponding changes in the prey communities and then used null models to ascertain whether spiders were responding to prey abundance changes through prey choice. Given the dependence of linyphiid spiders on webs for foraging, we also compared web height and area over weather gradients to assess whether this may be a component of adaptive foraging. To assess the inter-annual consistency of prey choices in response to weather conditions, we also assessed whether prey preference data could be used to improve the predictive power of prey choice models. For this, we generated null models for 2017 data with prey abundance weighted by prey preferences estimated with the 2018 data. This allowed us to assess the consistency of prey choice under similar conditions, but also provides insight as to whether this framework can be used to predict predator responses to diverse prey communities under dynamic conditions. We detail the specific stages of this analytical framework in the below sections. Sampling completeness and diversity assessment To assess the diversity represented by the dietary analysis and the invertebrate community sampling, and the completeness of those datasets, coverage-based rarefaction and extrapolation were carried out, and Hill diversity calculated (Chao et al., 2014; Roswell, Dushoff, & Winfree, 2021). This was performed using the 'iNEXT' package with species represented by frequency-of-occurrence across samples (Chao et al., 2014; Hsieh et al., 2016; Figures S4 & S6). Relationships between weather, spider trophic interactions and prey community composition Prey species that occurred in only one spider individual were removed before further analyses to prevent outliers skewing the results. Spider trophic interactions were related to temporal and weather variables in multivariate generalized linear models (MGLMs) with a binomial error family (Wang, Naumann, Wright, & Warton, 2012). Trophic interactions were related to temporal variables and their pairwise interactions (including spider genus to account for any confounding effect), weather variables and their pairwise interactions, and weather variables and their interactions with spider genus and time (to account for any confounding effects) in three separate MGLMs. These variables were separated into different models (Temporal model, Weather interaction model and Confounding effects model) to improve model fit and reduce singularity. Invertebrate communities from suction sampling were related to temporal and weather variables in identically structured MGLMs (excluding the spider genus variable) with a Poisson error family. All MGLMs were fitted using the 'manyglm' function in the 'mvabund' package (Wang et al., 2012). 'Temporal model' independent variables were calendar day (day), mean day length in minutes for the preceding week (day length), spider genus (for dietary models only, to ascertain any effect of spider taxonomic differences on dietary differences over time and day lengths) and all two-way interactions between these variables. 'Weather interaction model' independent variables were mean temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, wind speed and pressure for the preceding week, and pairwise interactions between weather variables. 'Confounding effects model' independent variables were day (to investigate the interaction between time and weather), spider genus (for dietary models only, to ascertain any effect of spider taxonomic differences on dietary differences over time and day lengths), mean temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, wind speed and pressure for the preceding week, and two-way interactions of each weather variable with day and genus. Trophic interaction and community differences were visualised by non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) using the 'metaMDS' function in the 'vegan' package (Oksanen et al., 2016) in two dimensions and 999 simulations, with Jaccard distance for spider diets and Bray-Curtis distance for invertebrate communities. For the dietary NMDS, outliers (n = 21; samples containing rare taxa) obscured variation on one axis and were thus removed to facilitate separation of samples and achieve minimum stress. For visualization of the effect of continuous variables against the NMDS, surf plots were created with scaled coloured contours using the 'ordisurf' function in the 'ggplot' package (Wickham, 2016). Relationships between web characteristics and weather variables Web area and height were compared against weather and temporal variables using a multivariate linear model (MLM) with the 'manylm' command in 'mvabund' (Wang et al., 2012). Log-transformed web area and height comprised the multivariate dependent variable, and day, spider genus, temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, wind, pressure and two-way interactions between each of these and day and genus comprised the independent variables. Variation in spider prey choice across weather conditions To separately represent spiders from different weather conditions in prey choice analyses, sample dates for every spider were clustered based on the mean weather conditions (temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, wind and pressure) of the week before collection (7 days, to align approximately with spider gut DNA half-life; Greenstone et al., 2014). Alongside data from 2018 (n = 24 collection dates), two sampling periods from 2017 were included in the clustering to ascertain similarity of weather conditions for additional inter-annual prey choice analyses described below. The clustering process is described in Supplementary Information 3. Five clusters were generated: High Pressure (HPR), Hot (HOT), Wet Low Dewpoint (WLD), Dry Windy (DWI), Wet Moderate Dewpoint (WMD), and 2017 (2017 sampling periods). Prey preferences of spiders in each of the weather clusters was analysed using network-based null models in the 'econullnetr' package (Vaughan et al., 2018) with the 'generate_null_net' command. Consumer nodes in this case represented spiders belonging to each of the weather clusters. Econullnetr generates null models based on prey abundance, represented here by suction sample data, to predict how consumers will forage if based on the abundance of resources alone. These null models are then compared against the observed interactions of consumers (i.e., interactions of spiders within each weather cluster with their prey) to ascertain the extent to which resource choice deviated from random (i.e., density dependence). The trophic network was visualised with the associated prey choice effect sizes using 'igraph' (Csardi & Nepusz, 2006) with a circular layout, and as a bipartite network using 'ggnetwork' (Briatte, 2021; Wickham, 2016). The normalised degree of each weather cluster node was generated using the 'bipartite' package (Dormann, Gruber, & Fruend, 2008) and compared against the normalised degree of the same node in the null network to determine whether spiders were more or less generalist than expected by random. Prior to the prey choice analysis, an hemipteran prey identified no further than order level through dietary analysis was removed due to the inability to pair it to any present prey taxa with certainty. Validating and predicting relationships between years To test how generalisable the results are and the extent to which weather drives prey preferences, we used a measure of prey preference (observed/expected values; observed interaction frequencies divided by interaction frequencies expected by null models) from the above prey choice analysis to assess whether we could more accurately predict observed trophic interactions under similar weather conditions for data from a linked study at the same location in 2017. These additional data represent a subset of the spider taxa analysed above (Tenuiphantes tenuis and Erigone spp.) collected using the same methods by the same researchers and in the same locality (Cuff, Drake, et al., 2021). The similarity in weather conditions between the 2017 study period and each of the five 2018 weather clusters was determined via NMDS of the weather data in two dimensions with Euclidean distance. Centroid coordinates for each 2018 weather cluster and the 2017 data were extracted and pairwise distances calculated between weather clusters: In order, the most proximate weather clusters to the 2017 weather data were HPR (mean Euclidean distance = 8.845), HOT (9.290), WMD (13.626), DWI (13.817) and WLD (18.682; Figure S3). To facilitate comparison between the two years, observed/expected values from the 2018 prey choice models were extracted separately for each of the weather clusters and scaled between 0.1 and 1. For this, 0.1 was used as a minimum since 0 would result in interactions being excluded altogether in the null models, and one as a maximum given the limits of econullnetr but also because this is a multiplier applied to the prey abundances, so greater values would skew prey abundances beyond realistic proportions. Scaling was achieved by the following equation: Missing values (e.g., prey that were absent in certain weather conditions) were represented as 1 to prevent transformation of their abundances in the null models; this treats prey for which data were absent naively, but could increase perceived preferences for them. The scaled values were used to weight the abundance of prey available to the spiders in the 2017 data using the weighting option in econullnetr, whereby values less than 1 proportionally reduce the probability of that taxon being predated in the null models. This effectively redistributes the 2017 relative prey abundance data according to the preference effect sizes generated for each of the 2018 weather clusters. If prey preferences are similar between the 2017 spiders and those from the weather cluster being used to weight the model, the composition of simulated diets should more closely resemble observed diets and fewer significant deviations from the null model should be found. Null models were generated as above (Variation in spider prey choice across weather conditions) but based on the prey availability and trophic interactions from 2017 samples. Three types of model were run: i) a conventional model based on observed prey abundances; ii) a model with prey abundances set to be equal across all prey taxa; and iii) observed prey abundances weighted by prey preferences determined for each of the weather clusters in the 2018 prey choice analysis. A separate model was run for each 2018 weather cluster with abundances weighted by the corresponding scaled observed/expected values. The unweighted conventional model was compared against weighted models to ascertain whether the prey preference weightings from 2018 improved the predictive power of the null models. To compare effect sizes between the unweighted and each other null model for each resource taxon, mean standardised effect size (SES) values were calculated from the paired 'pre-harvest' and 'post-harvest' data from each model, and paired t-tests were carried out with these between the unweighted and each weighted model. The SES values were plotted for each model and joined between taxa to visualise these paired differences using 'ggplot' (Wickham, 2016). Null model-predicted trophic interactions were generated via a modified 'econullnetr' function (generate_null_net_indiv) which produces outputs at the individual level to generate simulated diets for individual spiders to compare dietary composition between null model predictions and observed data. These models were run with 2300 simulations to represent 50 simulations per individual spider in the 2017 dataset (n = 46). Null diets were associated with sample IDs by aggregating the 50 simulations per sample and retaining a mean incidence of prey (i.e., mean occurrence across all 50 simulations). A visualisation of the per-sample differences in null model and observed data was generated via NMDS. Mean centroid coordinates for the observed 2017 data and the predicted diets of each model were extracted and the Euclidean distance between the observed data centroid and that of each model was calculated (as above for weather conditions). Supplementary Information 1: Field collection and sample processing Money spiders (Araneae: Linyphiidae) and wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) were visually located along transects in two adjacent barley fields at Burdons Farm, Wenvoe in South Wales (51°26'24.8"N, 3°16'17.9"W) and collected from occupied webs and the ground, between April and September 2018 (five visits per week of which spiders from 24 collection dates were used). Transects were randomly distributed across the entire field. Along these transects, 64 separate 4 m2 quadrats, at least 10 m apart, were searched and all observed linyphiids and lycosids were collected. Spiders were placed in 100 % ethanol using an aspirator, regularly changing meshing to limit potential cross-contamination. Linyphiids occupying webs were prioritised for collection, but ground-active linyphiid spiders were also collected. For each spider taken from a web, the height of the web from the ground (mm) and its approximate dimensions were recorded, the latter calculated as approximate web area (mm2). Spiders were taken to Cardiff University, transferred to fresh ethanol, adults identified to species-level and juveniles to genus, and stored at -80 °C in 100 % ethanol until DNA extraction. To obtain data on local prey density, ground and crop stems were suction sampled using a 'G-vac' for approximately 30 seconds at each 4 m2 quadrat (n = 64) from which spiders were collected. The collected material was emptied into a bag, any organisms immediately killed with ethyl-acetate and material frozen for storage before sorting into 70 % ethanol in the lab. All invertebrates were identified to family level to match the resolution of the least resolved of the metabarcoding-derived trophic interaction data, and due to difficulties associated with identification to finer taxonomic resolution for many taxa. Exceptions included springtails of the superfamily Sminthuroidea (Sminthuridae and Bourletiellidae were often indistinguishable following suction sampling and preservation due to the fine features necessary to distinguish them) which were left at super-family, mites (many of which were immature or in poor condition) which were identified to order level, and wasps of the superfamily Ichneumonoidea which were identified no further due to obscurity of wing venation due to damage. Supplementary Information 2: Molecular analysis and bioinformatics Extraction and high-throughput sequencing of spider gut DNA Given their prevalence in field collections, dietary analysis was carried out for the linyphiid genera Erigone, Tenuiphantes, Bathyphantes and Microlinyphia (Araneae: Linyphiidae), and the Lycosidae genus Pardosa. Spiders were transferred to and washed in fresh 100 % ethanol to reduce external contaminants prior to identification via morphological key (Roberts, 1993). Abdomens were removed from spiders and again transferred to and washed in fresh 100 % ethanol. DNA was extracted from the abdomens via Qiagen TissueLyser II and DNeasy Blood & Tissue Kit (Qiagen) as per the manufacturer protocol, but with an extended lysis time of 12 hours to account for the complex and branched gut system in spider abdomens (Krehe |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/record/7291565 |
| Title | UK aphid migration percentiles, covariates and model outputs from the Rothamsted Insect Survey's 12.2 m suction-trap network: 1965 to 2018 |
| Description | This dataset contains a measure of aphid arrival, the day of 1% detection (D1D), i.e. the Julian day at which 1% of the yearly aphid abundance has been captured. It is measured for 14 aphid species across the UK, from 1965 to 2018, by the Rothamsted insect survey suction-trap network. It amounts to a total of 881 samples (i.e. trap x year combinations). For all those samples, a measure of 59 covariates as potential predictors are given. They include monthly temperature averages (HadUK grid), monthly precipitation averages (HadUK grid), land-use composition (CORINE), elevation and distance to sea. In addition to this training data, a second part of the dataset consists of those covariate measurements on a 5km x 5km resolution grid of the UK for the years 2015 to 2018. This second part of the dataset offers the possibility of spatiotemporal predictions of the D1D by a model trained on the first part of the dataset. Five coordinates are given: year, northing and easting (of the Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system), latitude and longitude. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/item/979yv/uk-aphid-migration-percentiles-covariates-and-model-o... |
| Title | UK moth trends from Rothamsted Insect Survey light-trap network (1968 to 2016) |
| Description | The dataset contains national trends for 432 species of moths (mostly macro-moths) estimated using the moth data collected by Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS) from their national light-trap network between the years 1968 and 2016. The trends were calculated using a Generalised Abundance Index (GAI) model. The trends are presented as year coefficients from the statistical model, Annual Growth Rates (AGR), and the total percentage changes over the whole time series. For each trend metric 95% and 90% confidence intervals are also provided. The dataset additionally contains a related set of trends produced specifically for the Atlas of Britain & Ireland's Larger Moths which used a restricted subset of the data from UK analysis, specifically only using data from traps in Great Britain and only data from 1970 and 2016. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/e7e0e4ad-f8c1-46fc-85b5-6d88057024b8 |
| Title | Weather modulates spider trophic interactions: the interactive effects of changes in prey community structure, adaptive web building and prey choice - Dataset |
| Description | Materials and Methods Fieldwork and sample processing Field collection and sample processing has been described previously by Cuff, Tercel, et al., (2022), with the exception of weather variables. Extraction, amplification and sequencing of DNA, and bioinformatic analysis is described by Cuff, Tercel, et al. (2022) and Drake et al. (2022). The resultant sequencing read counts were converted to presence-absence data of each detected prey taxon in each individual spider. Weather data Weather data were taken from publicly available reports from the Cardiff Airport weather station (6.6 km from the study site) via "Wunderground" (Wunderground, 2020) from 1/1/2018 to 17/9/2018 (the last field collection). Weather data were also separately extracted for the week preceding each of the two 2017 collection dates (3/8/2017 to 9/8/2017 and 29/8/2017 to 4/9/2017). Specifically, daily average temperatures (°C), daily average dew point (°C), maximum daily wind speed (mph), daily sea level pressure (Hg) and day length (min; sunrise to sunset) were recorded. Precipitation data were downloaded via the UK Met Office Hadley Centre Observation Data (UK Met Office, 2020) as regional precipitation (mm) for South West England & Wales. Weather data were converted to mean values for seven days preceding the collection of spider samples to correspond with the longevity of DNA in the guts of spiders (Greenstone et al., 2014). Statistical Analysis All analyses were conducted in R v4.0.3 (R Core Team, 2020). To assess how weather affects spider trophic interactions, we analysed dietary changes across weather gradients using multivariate models. To identify whether this was likely to be driven by changes in prey abundance, we assessed the corresponding changes in the prey communities and then used null models to ascertain whether spiders were responding to prey abundance changes through density-independent prey choice. Given the dependence of spiders on webs for foraging, we also compared web height and area over weather gradients to assess whether this may be a component of adaptive foraging. To assess the inter-annual consistency of prey choices in response to weather conditions, we also assessed whether prey preference data could be used to improve the predictive power of null models. For this, we generated null models for 2017 data with prey abundance weighted by prey preferences estimated with the 2018 data. This allowed us to assess the consistency of prey choice under similar conditions, but also provides insight as to whether this framework can be used to predict predator responses to diverse prey communities under dynamic conditions. We detail the specific stages of this analytical framework below. Sampling completeness and diversity assessment To assess the diversity represented by the dietary analysis and the invertebrate community sampling, and the completeness of those datasets, coverage-based rarefaction and extrapolation were carried out, and Hill diversity calculated (Chao et al., 2014; Roswell, Dushoff, & Winfree, 2021). This was performed using the 'iNEXT' package with species represented by frequency-of-occurrence across samples (Chao et al., 2014; Hsieh et al., 2016; Figures S4 & S6). Relationships between weather, spider trophic interactions and prey community composition Prey species that occurred in only one spider individual were removed before further analyses to prevent outliers skewing the results. Spider trophic interactions were related to temporal and weather variables in multivariate generalized linear models (MGLMs) with a binomial error family (Wang, Naumann, Wright, & Warton, 2012). Trophic interactions were related to temporal variables and their pairwise interactions (including spider genus to account for any confounding effect), weather variables and their pairwise interactions, and weather variables and their interactions with spider genus and time (to account for any confounding effects) in three separate MGLMs. These variables were separated into different models (Temporal model, Weather Interaction model and Confounding effects model) to improve model fit and reduce singularity. Invertebrate communities from suction sampling were related to temporal and weather variables in identically structured MGLMs (excluding the spider genus variable) with a Poisson error family. All MGLMs were fitted using the 'manyglm' function in the 'mvabund' package (Wang et al., 2012). 'Temporal model' independent variables were Julian day (day), mean day length in minutes for the preceding week (day length), spider genus (for dietary models only, to ascertain any effect of spider taxonomic differences on dietary differences over time and day lengths) and all two-way interactions between these variables. 'Weather interaction model' independent variables were mean temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, wind speed and pressure for the preceding week, and pairwise interactions between weather variables. 'Confounding effects' model independent variables were day (to investigate the interaction between time and weather), spider genus (for dietary models only, to ascertain any effect of spider taxonomic differences on dietary differences over time and day lengths), mean temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, wind speed and pressure for the preceding week, and two-way interactions of each weather variable with day and genus. Trophic interaction and community differences were visualised by non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) using the 'metaMDS' function in the 'vegan' package (Oksanen et al., 2016) in two dimensions and 999 simulations, with Jaccard distance for spider diets and Bray-Curtis distance for invertebrate communities. For the dietary NMDS, outliers (n = 21; samples containing rare taxa) obscured variation on one axis and were thus removed to facilitate separation of samples and achieve minimum stress. For visualization of the effect of continuous variables against the NMDS, surf plots were created with scaled coloured contours using the 'ordisurf' function in the 'ggplot' package (Wickham, 2016). Relationships between web characteristics and weather variables Web area and height were compared against weather and temporal variables using a multivariate linear model (MLM) with the 'manylm' command in 'mvabund' (Wang et al., 2012). Log-transformed web area and height comprised the multivariate dependent variable, and day, spider genus, temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, wind, pressure and two-way interactions between each of these and day and genus comprised the independent variables. Variation in spider prey choice across weather conditions To separately represent spiders from different weather conditions in prey choice analyses, sample dates for every spider were clustered based on the mean weather conditions (temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, wind and pressure) of the week before collection (7 days, to align approximately with spider gut DNA half-life; Greenstone et al., 2014). Alongside data from 2018 (n = 24 collection dates), two sampling periods from 2017 were included in the clustering to ascertain similarity of weather conditions for additional inter-annual prey choice analyses described below. The clustering process is described in the Supplementary Information of the manuscript. Five clusters were generated: High Pressure (HPR), Hot (HOT), Wet Low Dewpoint (WLD), Dry Windy (DWI), Wet Moderate Dewpoint (WMD), and 2017 (2017 sampling periods). Prey preferences of spiders in each of the weather clusters was analysed using network-based null models in the 'econullnetr' package (Vaughan et al., 2018) with the 'generate_null_net' command. Consumer nodes in this case represented spiders belonging to each of the weather clusters. Econullnetr generates null models based on prey abundance, represented here by suction sample data, to predict how consumers will forage if based on the abundance of resources alone. These null models are then compared against the observed interactions of consumers (i.e., interactions of spiders within each weather cluster with their prey) to ascertain the extent to which resource choice deviated from random (i.e., density dependence). The trophic network was visualised with the associated prey choice effect sizes using 'igraph' (Csardi & Nepusz, 2006) with a circular layout, and as a bipartite network using 'ggnetwork' (Briatte, 2021; Wickham, 2016). The normalised degree of each weather cluster node was generated using the 'bipartite' package (Dormann, Gruber, & Fruend, 2008) and compared against the normalised degree of the same node in the null network to determine whether spiders were more or less generalist than expected by random. Prior to the prey choice analysis, an hemipteran prey identified no further than order level through dietary analysis was removed due to the inability to pair it to any present prey taxa with certainty. Validating and predicting relationships between years To test how generalisable the results are and the extent to which weather drives prey preferences, we used a measure of prey preference (observed/expected values; observed interaction frequencies divided by interaction frequencies expected by null models) from the above prey choice analysis to assess whether we could more accurately predict observed trophic interactions under similar weather conditions for data from a linked study at the same location in 2017. These additional data represent a subset of the spider taxa analysed above (Tenuiphantes tenuis and Erigone spp.) collected using the same methods by the same researchers and in the same locality (Cuff, Drake, et al., 2021). The similarity in weather conditions between the 2017 study period and each of the five 2018 weather clusters was determined via NMDS of the weather data in two dimensions with Euclidean distance. Centroid coordinates for each 2018 weather cluster and the 2017 data were extracted and pairwise distances calculated between weather clusters: In order, the most proximate weather clusters to the 2017 weather data were HPR (mean Euclidean distance = 8.845), HOT (9.290), WMD (13.626), DWI (13.817) and WLD (18.682; Figure S3). To facilitate comparison between the two years, observed/expected values from the 2018 prey choice models were extracted separately for each of the weather clusters and scaled between 0.1 and 1. For this, 0.1 was used as a minimum since 0 would result in interactions being excluded altogether in the null models, and one as a maximum given the limits of econullnetr but also because this is a multiplier applied to the prey abundances, so greater values would skew prey abundances beyond realistic proportions. Scaling was achieved by the following equation: Missing values (e.g., prey that were absent in certain weather conditions) were represented as 1 to prevent transformation of their abundances in the null models; this treats prey for which data were absent naively, but could increase perceived preferences for them. The scaled values were used to weight the abundance of prey available to the spiders in the 2017 data using the weighting option in econullnetr, whereby values less than 1 proportionally reduce the probability of that taxon being predated in the null models. This effectively redistributes the 2017 relative prey abundance data according to the preference effect sizes generated for each of the 2018 weather clusters. If prey preferences are similar between the 2017 spiders and those from the weather cluster being used to weight the model, the composition of simulated diets should more closely resemble observed diets and fewer significant deviations from the null model should be found. Null models were generated as above (Variation in spider prey choice across weather conditions) but based on the prey availability and trophic interactions from 2017 samples. Three types of model were run: i) a conventional model based on observed prey abundances; ii) a model with prey abundances set to be equal across all prey taxa; and iii) observed prey abundances weighted by prey preferences determined for each of the weather clusters in the 2018 prey choice analysis. A separate model was run for each 2018 weather cluster with abundances weighted by the corresponding scaled observed/expected values. The unweighted conventional model was compared against weighted models to ascertain whether the prey preference weightings from 2018 improved the predictive power of the null models. To compare effect sizes between the unweighted and each other null model for each resource taxon, mean standardised effect size (SES) values were calculated from the paired 'pre-harvest' and 'post-harvest' data from each model, and paired t-tests were carried out with these between the unweighted and each weighted model. The SES values were plotted for each model and joined between taxa to visualise these paired differences using 'ggplot' (Wickham, 2016). Null model-predicted trophic interactions were generated via a modified 'econullnetr' function (generate_null_net_indiv) which produces outputs at the individual level to generate simulated diets for individual spiders to compare dietary composition between null model predictions and observed data. These models were run with 2300 simulations to represent 50 simulations per individual spider in the 2017 dataset (n = 46). Null diets were associated with sample IDs by aggregating the 50 simulations per sample and retaining a mean incidence of prey (i.e., mean occurrence across all 50 simulations). A visualisation of the per-sample differences in null model and observed data was generated via NMDS. Mean centroid coordinates for the observed 2017 data and the predicted diets of each model were extracted and the Euclidean distance between the observed data centroid and that of each model was calculated (as above for weather conditions). References Briatte, F. (2021). ggnetwork: Geometries to plot networks with 'ggplot2'. Retrieved from https://cran.r-project.org/package=ggnetwork Chao, A., Gotelli, N., Hsieh, T., Sander, E., Ma, K., Colwell, R., & Ellison, A. (2014). Rarefaction and extrapolation with Hill numbers: a framework for sampling and estimation in species diversity studies. Ecological Monographs, 84(1), 45-67. Csardi, G., & Nepusz, T. (2006). The igraph software package for complex network research. InterJournal Complex Systems, 1695, 1-9. Retrieved from https://igraph.org Cuff, J. P., Drake, L. E., Tercel, M. P. T. G., Stockdale, J. E., Orozco-terWengel, P., Bell, J. R., Symondson, W. O. C. (2021). Money spider dietary choice in pre- and post-harvest cereal crops using metabarcoding. Ecological Entomology, 46(2), 249-261. Cuff, J. P., Tercel, M. P. T. G., Drake, L. E., Vaughan, I. P., Bell, J. R., Orozco-terWengel, P., Symondson, W. O. C. (2022). Density-independent prey choice, taxonomy, life history and web characteristics determine the diet and biocontrol potential of spiders (Linyphiidae and Lycosidae) in cereal crops. Environmental DNA, 4(3), 549-564. Dormann, C. F., Gruber, B., & Fruend, J. (2008). Introducing the bipartite package: analysing ecological networks. R News, 8(2), 8-11. Drake, L. E., Cuff, J. P., Young, R. E., Marchbank, A., Chadwick, E. A., & Symondson, W. O. C. (2022). An assessment of minimum sequence copy thresholds for identifying and reducing the prevalence of artefacts in dietary metabarcoding data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 13(3), 694-710. Greenstone, M. H., Payton, M. E., Weber, D. C., & Simmons, A. M. (2014). The detectability half-life in arthropod predator-prey research: what it is, why we need it, how to measure it, and how to use it. Molecular Ecology, 23(15), 3799-3813. doi: 10.1111/mec.12552 Hsieh, T. C., Ma, K. H., & Chao, A. (2016). iNEXT: An R package for interpolation and extrapolation of species diversity (Hill numbers). Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 7(12), 1451-1456. Oksanen, J., Blanchet, F. G., Kindt, R., Legendre, P., Minchin, P. R., O'Hara, R. B., Wagner, H. (2016). vegan: Community Ecology Package. Retrieved from https://cran.r-project.org/package=vegan R Core Team. (2020). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved from http://www.r-project.org/ Roswell, M., Dushoff, J., & Winfree, R. (2021). A conceptual guide to measuring species diversity. Oikos, 130, 321-338. UK Met Office. (2020). UK Met Office Hadley Centre observation data. Retrieved 1 June 2020, from UK Met Office Hadley Centre observation data website: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/ Vaughan, I. P., Gotelli, N. J., Memmott, J., Pearson, C. E., Woodward, G., & Symondson, W. O. C. (2018). econullnetr: an r package using null models to analyse the structure of ecological networks and identify resource selection. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 9(3), 728-733. doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.12907 Wang, Y., Naumann, U., Wright, S. T., & Warton, D. I. (2012). mvabund - an R package for model-based analysis of multivariate abundance data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 3, 471-474. doi: 10.1111/j.2041-210X.2012.00190.x Wickham, H. (2016). ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis. Springer-Verlag. Retrieved from https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org Wunderground. (2020). Wunderground: Weather Underground. Retrieved 1 June 2020, from Wunderground website: www.wunderground.com |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/record/7291566 |
| Title | Yearly occurrence of 544 species of moths (UK 1990-2019), with trait values and putative environmental drivers. |
| Description | The data set comprises 4 tables. First, the community data (YData) aggregates the yearly occurrences of 544 species of moth collected across the UK between 1990 and 2019 by the lightbulb trap network of the Rothamsted Insect Survey. The second table (TrData) aggregates the value of 6 response traits for the 544 moth species. The third table (XData) aggregates values of putative environmental drivers (weather, land-cover and topology) at the sites and years of trapping. Finally, the last table (gridXData) is a 1km resolution grid of the drivers for the year 2020. The three first tables enable the training of species distribution models, while the grid enables the production of UK-wide map the the species distributions with the trained models. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Paper at review titled "Explainable neural networks for joint species distribution modelling-a case study with butterflies and moths" |
| URL | https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/item/988z5/yearly-occurrence-of-544-species-of-moths-uk-1990-201... |
| Description | BIOSCAN - Sanger |
| Organisation | The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The BIOSCAN project aims to study the genetic diversity of 1,000,000 flying insects from across the UK. Insects from 100 sites will be collected on a monthly basis for five years by project partners and then analysed at the Sanger using DNA barcoding. The resulting sequence data will provide a baseline characterisation of insect species diversity over space and time and thus form a much needed resource for DNA-based biomonitoring in the UK. We have a taken on 3 traps, 2 situated at the Rothamsted Research Harpenden site (Hertfordshire) and 1 at Rothamsted Research Brooms Barn site (Suffolk). We set up a 24-hour malaise trap, collect the sample, sort the sample into 96-well PCR plates which are then sent off to Sanger for DNA extraction, sequencing and DNA barcoding. We have currently agreed to run these traps initially for the first 2-years and will likely extend this up to 5-years (length of the project). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Sanger provides all material and associated sequencing/DNA barcoding costs. Sanger will provide us with the DNA barcode identification of the invertebrates caught in the traps. Additionally, Sanger has agreed to DNA barcode some of our archived samples of Aphis spp. in order to help identify the species routinely caught but are difficult to identify to species. This will be of great benefit to the Rothamsted Insect Survey. |
| Impact | Contacts with the Sanger team and further help the Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS) with potential ideas of using the archive specimens. Sanger will provide the RIS with the DNA barcodes of the specimens caught in the malaise traps. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | CSIRO-Rothamsted/PBRI workshop: Tracking and forecasting of pest and pathogen movements |
| Organisation | Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | We visited CSIRO, Brisbane to discuss the following: 1. Learning and networking o Technical updates/state of research o Ideas for extending current research/knowledge gaps o Increased international collaboration/new insights and perspectives o Understanding of 'migration' - what it means exactly and how it relates to existing research at different scales o Insights into how monitoring of migratory insects could be done more efficiently 2. How technologies could be integrated o Insights into how data and models can be better linked o Insights into how field ecology could be integrated with new techniques like genetics o Synergies between methods and new perspectives on how integration could work in practice: combined, could some methods be more powerful? 3. Applications/possible collaborations o Opportunities for radar and lidar to monitor moths and other insects in Australia o Idendification of applied questions/stakeholder needs/real-world relevance o Priorities and pathways for exotics o Need more research to support on-ground action o Fall Army Worm o Overlap across disciplines (e.g. ocean current research) o Role for isotopes in post-border incursions |
| Collaborator Contribution | CSIRO organised the meeting at The Ecoprecinct, Brisbane 24-28th Feb 2020. In attendance was several industry partners and levy boards |
| Impact | We will organise a hackathon in July 2020 with RRes and CSIRO scientists to provide insight into new modelling techniques that could be used to improve biosecurity |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Cosmonio, Image identification app development |
| Organisation | Cosmonio |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | - Identifying 20 relevant crop pests of maize - Collecting and validating images of those pests to train the algorithm - Identifying test users and training them in the use of the app - Providing user feedback and advising on software updates |
| Collaborator Contribution | - Updating existing image identification algorithm to include African crop species - Integration of algorithm into a new app specifically for maize in Africa, and releasing this on google play store - Software updates and development of new features as required/ specified by project team |
| Impact | Library of >2,000 validated images used to train the algorithm Beta version of the app which can be downloaded from Google Play Store and used to identify crop pests of maize. Initial testing with a group of 20 - 30 users, and subsequent list of development improvements |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Culicoides work with Pirbright Institute |
| Organisation | The Pirbright Institute |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Provision of data, samples & expertise |
| Collaborator Contribution | Analysis of data |
| Impact | Two research papers to date on seasonal dynamics of Culicoides in Journal of Applied Ecology and Parasites & Vectors. A third paper on long-term population dynamics in prep. |
| Description | Dan Reuman Lab providing data and expertise to test got |
| Organisation | University of Kansas |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Providing data and expertise to test for spatial synchrony in insect pests. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Mathematical expertise |
| Impact | D.C. Reuman*, L. Zhao, L.W. Sheppard, P.C. Reid, J.E. Cohen*. 2017. Synchrony affects Taylor's law in theory and data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, 6788-6793. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1703593114 Use of Data (see below in methods) The Rothamsted Insect Survey runs a network of suction traps that sample flying aphids. Daily aphid counts are collected throughout the flight season for many species at multiple locations. Data were processed to produce annual total counts for 20 species (SI Appendix, Table S1) at 11 locations (SI Appendix, Table S2) for the years 1976-2010, forming 20 spatiotemporal population datasets. We also received funds from the following project: National Science Foundation, standard grant: 2017-2020 $450,000 awarded, $426,000 to the Reuman lab, PI Reuman. Project title Collaborative research: Modelling and inference for spatiotemporal climate impacts on complex ecosystems. |
| Start Year | 2011 |
| Description | Dr Jean-Christophe SIMON, (INRAE, UMR IGEPP (Institut de Génétique, Environnement et Protection des Plantes)) |
| Organisation | French National Institute of Agricultural Research |
| Department | INRA Rennes Centre |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | We made available whole organisms, Acyrthosiphon pisum, commonly known as the pea aphid, for molecular analysis from our archive |
| Collaborator Contribution | DNA was extracted and analysis done by Jean-Christophe SIMON, PhD and his team based at INRAE, UMR IGEPP (Institut de Génétique, Environnement et Protection des Plantes) Domaine de la Motte, 35653 Le Rheu Cedex, France. This collaboration will elucidate pea aphid population genetics that will help understand migration and host plant use |
| Impact | This collaboration will elucidate pea aphid population genetics that will help understand migration and host plant use. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Dr Jean-Christophe SIMON, (INRAE, UMR IGEPP (Institut de Génétique, Environnement et Protection des Plantes)) |
| Organisation | French National Institute of Agricultural Research |
| Department | INRA Rennes Centre |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | We made available whole organisms, Acyrthosiphon pisum, commonly known as the pea aphid, for molecular analysis from our archive |
| Collaborator Contribution | DNA was extracted and analysis done by Jean-Christophe SIMON, PhD and his team based at INRAE, UMR IGEPP (Institut de Génétique, Environnement et Protection des Plantes) Domaine de la Motte, 35653 Le Rheu Cedex, France. This collaboration will elucidate pea aphid population genetics that will help understand migration and host plant use |
| Impact | This collaboration will elucidate pea aphid population genetics that will help understand migration and host plant use. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Dr Lee Henry (Queen Mary - Insects Declines) |
| Organisation | Queen Mary University of London |
| Department | School of Biological and Chemical Science QMUL |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | In collaboration with Dr Henry, we submitted an EU, sLOLA and NERC Highlights awards |
| Collaborator Contribution | Led the submission process |
| Impact | EU, slOLA and NERC Highlights submissions all were sadly rejected. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Evolutionary time-series of species communities using genomic data (Professor of Evolutionary Biology Timothy G. Barraclough) |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Department | Department of Zoology |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Samples taken weekly from a network of suction traps across England are available for study from an archive that dates back to 1973, providing a remarkably systematic sample of migrating UK insects at a height of 12.2 m. (collaborators: Dr James Bell (PI) and Chris Shortall, entomologist and curators the Insect Survey and use it to investigate spatial and temporal ecological dynamics of UK insects). |
| Collaborator Contribution | This project will develop new tools and pilot data for evolutionary time-series of multi-species assemblages. Specifically, it will reconstruct genomic change over the last 50 years for 8 fungal and 8 insect species as exemplars, and devise computational and statistical tools to analyse the new type of data that will emerge. The goal is to develop methodology and pilot data that will later be used in large UKRI grant bids to compile a 50-year genomic evolutionary time series for whole biota of fungi and insects associated with crops in the UK (i.e. many 100s of species). The project will connect evolutionary and computational expertise at Oxford with two valuable resources: emerging genome data and technology linked to the Darwin Tree of Life project (of which Univ Oxford is a key partner); and unique 50-year collections of fungi (with partner CABI) and insects (with partner Rothamsted Research) from systematic samples of the UK biota. |
| Impact | Only just started |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | ICIPE, Project Partners |
| Organisation | International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) |
| Country | Kenya |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Project management Entomological radar technology and data collection/ analysis Installation and dissemination of technologies (joint) |
| Collaborator Contribution | In-country expertise Installation and dissemination of technologies (joint) Hosting technology (including the radar) and overseeing ongoing logistics on the ground in Kenya |
| Impact | - Installation and data collection from 20 digital pheromone traps across the key maize growing regions of Kenya - Installation and data collection from entomological radar in Mbita point - Development and testing of image identification app with a preliminary group of 20 - 30 test users |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Lincoln University - Deep Learning for Insect Identification |
| Organisation | University of Lincoln |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Provided image datasets of scanned plates of suction-trap aphid samples for use in the training and validation of deep-learning models. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Developed and assessed deep-learning models for aphid identification. |
| Impact | Outputs include image datasets and deep-learning models. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Moth population modelling |
| Organisation | Manchester Metropolitan University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Data and expertise, editing manuscript |
| Collaborator Contribution | Analysis, writing manuscript |
| Impact | Paper in press. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Prof. Darren Evans (Newcastle University) - Developing DNA-metabarcoding technologies for the nationwide surveillance of pest and beneficial insects |
| Organisation | Newcastle University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| PI Contribution | The aim of the PhD project is to understand and quantify the spatial and temporal dynamics of insect pest-predator interactions within agro-ecosystems using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology applied to current and historic samples collected from biomonitoring networks. The specific objectives are: (1) to establish the ecological interactions of target insect pests using DNA-metabarcoding and examine how these vary in space and time; (2) to identify agricultural landscapes with higher ecosystem service provision by examining both target and non-target insect 'by-catch'; (3) to determine how the structure and 'robustness' of these networks vary; and (4) develop models that integrate species-interactions to predict how network structures will change over the next century. The Rothamsted Insect Survey provided parasitoid samples and expertise in the form of co-supervision of this studentship. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof Evans is lead supervisor for Dimitrios Petsopoulos who is doing a PhD titled Developing DNA-metabarcoding technologies for the nationwide surveillance of pest and beneficial insects, funded byThe Institute for Agri-Food Research and Innovation (IAFRI) Studentships. |
| Impact | Significant advances in both mathematical and molecular approaches in ecology will offer unprecedented opportunities for biomonitoring. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Prof. Darren Evans (Newcastle University) - Developing DNA-metabarcoding technologies for the nationwide surveillance of pest and beneficial insects |
| Organisation | Newcastle University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| PI Contribution | The aim of the PhD project is to understand and quantify the spatial and temporal dynamics of insect pest-predator interactions within agro-ecosystems using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology applied to current and historic samples collected from biomonitoring networks. The specific objectives are: (1) to establish the ecological interactions of target insect pests using DNA-metabarcoding and examine how these vary in space and time; (2) to identify agricultural landscapes with higher ecosystem service provision by examining both target and non-target insect 'by-catch'; (3) to determine how the structure and 'robustness' of these networks vary; and (4) develop models that integrate species-interactions to predict how network structures will change over the next century. The Rothamsted Insect Survey provided parasitoid samples and expertise in the form of co-supervision of this studentship. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof Evans is lead supervisor for Dimitrios Petsopoulos who is doing a PhD titled Developing DNA-metabarcoding technologies for the nationwide surveillance of pest and beneficial insects, funded byThe Institute for Agri-Food Research and Innovation (IAFRI) Studentships. |
| Impact | Significant advances in both mathematical and molecular approaches in ecology will offer unprecedented opportunities for biomonitoring. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Sarab Sethi Acoustic device to monitor wildlife in the audible range |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Department | Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We host a prototype described in the paper below to test its use in agriculture to estimate acoustic biodiversity. SAFE Acoustics: an open-source, real-time eco-acoustic monitoring network in the tropical rainforests of Borneo, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Vol:11, ISSN:2041-210X, Pages:1182-1185 |
| Collaborator Contribution | The novelty is that this device provides an estimate of faunal biodiversity, based on the acoustic properties of the bird songs, frog calls and insect stridulations. Sarab deployed these devices in a tropical system under the SAFE Acoustics project. Later, he extended this to temperate systems and as part of the Rothamsted Insect Survey monitoring and surveillance program, I also have one of these devices to show proof of concept of eco-acoustics for agriculture. Much of my work has historically involved the use of traditional ecological survey methods, which require many hours of skilled labour to deploy and collect insect traps, and consequently to process and identify captured species manually. Sarab's device may allow users to skip these steps and therefore provide quicker and more impactful data on the fly. |
| Impact | None yet. Data is being collected and will be analysed. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Social Wasp work with Victoria University of Wellington |
| Organisation | Victoria University of Wellington |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Provision of data, samples and expertise. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Analysis of data, molecular investigation of samples and expertise. |
| Impact | Paper on population dynamics in Journal of Animal Ecology 2017. Paper in prep on origin of invasive populations of wasps. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | UK Agri-Tech Centre (formally CHAP) |
| Organisation | Crop Health and Protection |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | The collaboration aims to explore if multispectral imaging can be used to determine if individual aphids are carrying crop viruses. We provided aphid samples, identification expertise, and worked with CHAP on the image capture and analysis. |
| Collaborator Contribution | CHAP provided access to a multispectral imaging platform, scanned aphids, and provided image-analysis expertise. |
| Impact | We progressed a methodology for using multispectral imaging for analysis of aphid samples. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | US Fish & Wildlife Service |
| Organisation | United States Fish and Wildlife Service |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Expertise in insect monitoring, radar entomology etc |
| Collaborator Contribution | The US Fish and Wildlife Service's national Aerial Insectivore Working Group is currently developing a project to better understand linkages among widespread declines of aerial insectivorous birds and changes in insect food availability and quality. This work will support an initiative to help restore the loss of roughly 3 billion birds (3 Billion Birds) over the past 50 years. |
| Impact | None yet |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Use of image recognition and deep learning methods |
| Organisation | Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | We have offered aphid and parasitoid samples, photographs and identifiaction expertise and have constructed an experiment to test deep learning accuracy |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Dr. Rafael Rieder and and Prof. Telmo Júnior, University of Passo Fundo (UPF) and Douglas Lau - Embrapa Trigo - CNPT are willing to collaborate on automatic identification of aphids and parasitoids and have offered deep learning methods |
| Impact | None yet |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Title | Growinginteractive.com app for gardeners |
| Description | Our contribution is described in this document https://bbsrc.ukri.org/documents/machine-learning-saves-gardeners-plants-from-pests/ Gardening app developer Growing Interactive will incorporate the model outcomes into their existing Garden Planner app . |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | The pest prediction service will help gardeners protect their crops before bugs arrive, without using chemical pesticides. Gardening app developer Growing Interactive anticipate a 33-43% increase in revenue through increased subscriptions. Growing Interactive.Gardening app developer Growing Interactive will incorporate the service into their existing Garden Planner app and anticipate a 33-43% increase in revenue. |
| URL | https://bbsrc.ukri.org/research/impact/machine-learning-saves-gardeners-plants-from-pests/ |
| Description | "Insectageddon": A UK Perspective |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A talk on UK insect declines. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | 27th IWGO Conference: The use of emerging technologies in maize pest surveillance, reporting and forecasting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The International Working Group on Ostrinia and other Maize Pests (IWGO) is a well-established, large Global-IOBC Working Group, which deals with integrated pest management options for all maize insect pests and pest resistance problems. James Bell presented the Smart Armyworm Project in the scientific session 'The use of emerging technologies in maize pest surveillance, reporting and forecasting'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.switzerland2019.iwgo.org/WEBS/IWGO2019.pages.download/IWGO_2019_Scientific-Programme.pdf |
| Description | 2nd Annual Rothamsted-Cranfield Joint Science Workshop: International research collaboration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The second Rothamsted-Cranfield University strategic alliance Workshop took place at Rothamsted on 16th July 2019. The key background and activities of the Workshop were to have sandpit-type sessions to capitalise on our successes and mobilise new talent. James Bell presented the Smart Armyworm Project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | A world without insects |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Article in BASF Creating Chemistry magazine issue 9 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://basf-magazine.com/global/en/landingpage/ |
| Description | ADAS Aphid Monitoring Workshop 3 March 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation 'Rothamsted Insect Survey: Aphids, BYDV and Client Services' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W6mPxwjOkg |
| Description | AHDB Aphid Alerts Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A meeting to discuss current threats to horticultural and agricultural industry, particularly aphids and how the RIS is tackling these issues with its surveillance and monitoring. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | AICC Summer Technical Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A knowledge exchange activity based in the field at the suction trap site. Crop consultants were updated on the latest information on pests and beneficial invertebrates. We discussed insecticide use and the neonicotinoid derogation in which we have a forecasting role. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://aicc.org.uk/ |
| Description | Alabama Farmers visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Spoke to visiting farmer's delegation about Rothamsted Insect Survey suction-trap network and research |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Aphid ID |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | ID of aphid from photo via email |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Aphid ID for project partners at SASA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Aphid ID for project partners at SASA |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Aphid ID for project partners at SASA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Aphid ID for project partners at SASA |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Aphid ID training given to colleagues from SASA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A visit to the RIS by colleagues from SASA for Aphid ID training for aphids. They ID aphids from the four RIS suction-traps in Scotland. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Aphid News |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Aphid News provides information on aphid numbers at key times of the year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |
| Description | Are Insects Declining and at what rate? An analysis of standardised, systematic catches |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | • 'Are Insects Declining and at what rate? An analysis of standardised, systematic catches', Ento19, 22 August 2019, LSTM, London. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.royensoc.co.uk/sites/default/files/RES%20Ento%20'19%20Reg.%20Leaflet_web.pdf |
| Description | Article in Sunday Telegraph |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Ask to add comment in the article: "'The windscreen phenomenon' - why your car is no longer covered in dead insects." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Assisted with the identification of an insect from a colleague at an institution abroad |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Assisted with the identification of an insect from a colleague at an institution abroad |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Assisted with the identification of several insects from a colleague at a partner institution |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Assisted with the identification of several insects from a colleague at a partner institution |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Attendance at BeetTech22 to meet growers and discuss the model related to the derogation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The British Beet Research Organisation, (BBRO) host sugar beet growers and agronomists from across the region for an update on the 2022 crop and the latest results from their research projects, including those with the RIS. We had a posters, information and discussions with seed companies and growers. Two days, two locations Norfolk showground = 250 attendees Newark = 200 attendees |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Attended BCPC Annual pest and bennificials review 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Pests & Beneficials Review which has been organised by the BCPC Pests and Beneficials expert working group. Sponsored by: Bayer CropScience, Corteva, fera, Nufarm, NIAB and Syngenta Speakers will include: pest control control experts from: SRUC, Defra, Warwick Crop Centre Biorationale, Avalon, Blackthorn arable and others.This highly informative and popular seminar offers an ideal networking opportunity. Attendees will include: leading experts, advisors, farmers and practitioners from throughout the industry. One of the key benefits of our expert reviews is the opportunity to network with colleagues in the industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.bcpc.org/events/bcpc-pests-and-beneficials-review-2023 |
| Description | Attended the AI UK conference (virtually) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Attended the AI UK conference (virtually) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Attended the N'TOP stakeholder meeting (virtually) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Attended the N'TOP stakeholder meeting (virtually) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Automatic identification in the field and lab: what's possible with aphids |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 'Automatic identification in the field and lab: what's possible with aphids?' UK-FRANCE JOINT MEETING ON APHIDS, April 3rd - 5th 2019, Rothamsted Research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.royensoc.co.uk/sites/default/files/Abstracts%20book%2020190327.pdf |
| Description | BBRO Insect ID training |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Training BBRO technicians on identifying major pests and beneficial insects in beet crops. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | BBRO aphid identification workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | BBRO aphid identification workshop, teaching workers from the BBRO about how to identify the aphids from traps that live on their crop of interest |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | BBRO aphid training |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | To train agronomists and growers in identification of four key aphid species. This was to allow them to identify aphids on the crop and report on fings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | BBSRC Case Study: Insect Survey aids decision-making for farmers and environment |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Delivering data since 1964, the Rothamsted Insect Survey informs decisions that cut the use of harmful insecticides and boost productivity and biodiversity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ukri.org/about-us/how-we-are-doing/research-outcomes-and-impact/bbsrc/insect-survey-aids... |
| Description | Bio-interactions and Crop Protection Departmental Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Internal presentation of the work to colleagues working in pest management and crop protection |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Biological Recording Masters Research Day - Over Zoom |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A talk given over Zoom for the Biological Recording Masters Research Day |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | British Bee Keepers Association (BBKA) Spring Convention: Re-engineering a Sugar Beet Landscape poster |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The BBKA Spring Convention will be taking place at Harper Adams University this year between 21st and 23rd of April. As part of the Convention, which is usually attended by well over 1,200 people, the BBKA wishes to showcase how funds allocated to research are being spent and the progress that is being made. As well as other areas of interest to beekeepers. This year, due to previous and potential future disruption caused by Covid, we believe that the best way to achieve this will be by a poster display. The BBKA is inviting you to have a poster explaining your work, either on the project Ecologically engineering a sustainable sugar beet landscape matrix, or on how the current Aphid prediction Model works. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.bbka.org.uk/ |
| Description | British moths declining, aphid numbers stable |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Article published on 7th May 2020 in BBC Wildlife Magazine with the title 'British moths declining, aphid numbers stable'. Article by Sarah McPherson |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.pressreader.com/uk/bbc-wildlife-magazine/20200507/281900185355528 |
| Description | Bug Hunt |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Mini-beast Safari Mini-beast Safari is an at the Highfield Park Trust, St Albans. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.highfieldparktrust.co.uk/mini-beast-safari-2/ |
| Description | Bug hunt - mini beast safari at Highfield Park St Albans. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The mini-beast safari is an event at Highfield Park St Albans organised by The Highfield Park Trust Mini-beast Safari is an educational event for the general public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.highfieldparktrust.co.uk/mini-beast-safari/ |
| Description | Cafe Scientifque, Harpenden |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited to present the project at a Harpenden's Cafe Scientifique, which aims to promote science to a general audience |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://cafescientifique.org/ |
| Description | Cardiff University - School of Biosciences seminar: |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Seminar given at Cardiff University - School of Biosciences. Entomology in the 21st Century: The challenges of automatic counting and ID. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Cicadellidae/leafhopper identification |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | identified a pest cicadellid/ leafhopper species for Alan Dewar of Alan Dewar Crop Protection. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Climate Change And Insect Pests: Monitoring And Surveillance Of The Migratory Phase For Smart Crop Protection |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | International Phytoma-Espana Encounter on Plant Health Challenges for the Future: European Legal Framework and Climate Change Aimed at analyzing the current and future situation of the agrifood sector from the regulatory perspective. Increased international interest in research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.phytoma.com/simposios |
| Description | Coleoptera/Beetle identification |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | identified some Coleoptera/Beetles for a post graduate student. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Coleoptera/Beetle identification |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Coleoptera/Beetle identification for a student |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Coleoptera/beetle ID for another member of the RIS. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Coleoptera/beetle ID for another member of the RIS. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Croptec, East of England Showground, 27-28th Nov 2019. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A stand featuring the Rothamsted Insect Survey at Croptec, East of England Showground, 27-28th Nov 2019. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.croptecshow.com/ |
| Description | DRUID - a Keynote speech to the European Congress of Entomology, Crete |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Artificial Neural Networks Predict Species Distributions for a Wide Range of Insect Taxa Y. Bourhis (lead author), C.R. Shortall, B. Kunin, A. Milne, J.R. Bell (presenter) XII European Congress of Entomology |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://ece2023.com/ |
| Description | DRUID: Drivers & Repercussions of UK Insect Declines Stakeholders Advisory Board workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Date: 28 March 2023, 9:30 - 15:30 Venue: Drayson Room, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, South Kensington, London, SW7 2AR. www.rgs.org. Please use the Exhibition Road entrance Stakeholders: Chris Hartfield (NFU), David Rymer (Defra), Karim Vahed (BugLife), John Murray-Bligh (EA), Lia Gilmor (BCT), Malcolm Burgess (RSPB), Mike Green (BASF), Paul Woodcock (JNCC), Pauline Campbell (NI Gov), Richard Smith (NE), & Simon Curson (NE) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Discussion of aphid records |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Discussion of aphid records |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Donated named aphid specimens to colleagues in INRAE. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Donated named aphid specimens to colleagues in INRAE to help them with aphid identification |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Email dialogue requesting info on Woolly apple aphid E. lanigerum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Email dialogue requesting info on Woolly apple aphid E. lanigerum |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Email request from alan Dewar of Dewar Crop Protection |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Digital copy of web graphs: 2012/2011, 2016/2015 + 10 year mean web graphs for R.padi and S.avenae and digital photo of Lowles test for virginopara and gynopara r.padi |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Engagement and Poster Presentation at BeetTech23, Newark 7th Feb 2023 and Newmarket 9th February 2023 Showgrounds |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | We had a stand at the sugar beet grower faced event to represent the RIS forecatsing and Molecules to Landscape project, both funded by BBSRC |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://bbro.co.uk/events/ |
| Description | Engagement with Professor Melanie J Welham, Executive Chair Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Professor Amanda Collis, Research and Strategy, and Sarah Perkins, Strategic Planning, Evidence and Evaluation, on the 10th November at Rothamsted |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to Prof Melanie Welham Predicting Virus Yellows at National and Field Scales: James Bell, Andrew Mead and Dion Garrett. Work that is funded by the Molecules to Landscape project and the RIS NBRI data |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Ento22 presentation - Unearthing Otherwise Unknown Insect Responses to Change Using a Unique Archive |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The presentation 'Unearthing Otherwise Unknown Insect Responses to Change Using a Unique Archive' was given by Chris Shortall to highlight the services of the RIS, paricularly the archive that hosts 100 million insects |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.royensoc.co.uk/event/ento22/#Programme |
| Description | EntoLive The Rothamsted Insect Survey NBRI: From Microscopes to Machine Learning |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The story of the Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS) starts back in 1964 at a time when the Beetles released Can't Buy Me Love' and that finishes sometime in the future when entomology might look quite different. The RIS monitors many groups of insects using its 12.2 m suction-trap and light-trap data networks. James discusses insect declines and the work of the RIS. James is joined by Dr Yoann Bourhis who talks about the DRUID (Drivers and Repercussions of UK Insect Declines) NERC-funded project and demonstrates a citizen science app that uses machine learning to predict where species might be, extending our knowledge about current species distributions. Dr James R. Bell is a Principal Scientist and Head of the RIS, a BBSRC National Bioscience Research Infrastructure. James is a quantitative ecologist with expertise in entomology having published widely on beetles, spiders, aphids, moths and many other things besides. James is senior author on Practical Field Ecology: A Project Guide which offers a comprehensive, accessible introduction to experimental design, field monitoring skills for plants and animals, data analysis, interpretation and reporting. The book is now in its second edition. Dr Yoann Bourhis is an ecosystems modeller, with expertise in machine learning. Yoann's main activity is as a post-doc on the DRUID project, funded by NERC. DRUID will take an unprecedented amount of citizen science data to underpin evidence-based policies to help nature. A key paper relating to Yoann's presentation was published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution earlier this year and demonstrates how it is possible to use machine learning to understand the distribution of insects using their life history traits (e.g. wing length, host plants etc) and environmental drivers (temperature, rainfall etc) to predict new distributions of insects. It is hoped that this new knowledge will guide recorders to sites where the species is predicted but no survey has yet confirmed the presence of that species. Yoann has developed an app and we invite you to contribute your experience and expertise. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://biologicalrecording.co.uk/2023/09/21/rothamsted-insect-survey/ |
| Description | Entomology in the 21st Century: The challenges of automatic counting and ID |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to Biosciences Organisms and Environment seminar series, Cardiff University in which the FAW gates project was discussed and vision presented |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Extracted and sent aphids to another group in the institution for their pilot project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Extracted and sent aphids to another group in the institution for their pilot project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Fast-Tracked Surveillance of the Peach-Potato Aphid: Vector Forecasting, Virus Yellows and Insecticide Resistance |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to BBRO, the sugar beet levy board, and stakeholders to demonstrate impact of RIS and extend funding for a period of 4 years |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Finnish Meteorological Institute - visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Visit from Finnish Meteorological Institute. Lab tour and discussions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | GCE USAID Convening (Seattle) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | GCE USAID Convening in Seattle, taking place on, Wednesday, May 8th, 2019 - Thursday, May 9th, 2019 led by Christina Owen, Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Gave presentation on Smart Armyworm project and presented poster. Good engagement with fellow GCE/USAID PIs and stakeholders |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | GIS project discussions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Visit by university Lecturer in Ecology plus students.Discussions for GIS project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | GRAND CHALLENGES ANNUAL MEETING 2018, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation: Smart technologies for the detection of migrating insects. Joint Session: National Surveillance Systems to Support Decision Agriculture Under Climate Change & Pest and Disease Surveillance for Human, Livestock, and Crop Health. GRAND CHALLENGES ANNUAL MEETING 2018, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Gave a 30 min talk to a group of 40+ people about suction trapping and the broader work of the RIS |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Gave a 30 min talk to a group of 40+ people about suction trapping and the broader work of the RIS |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Gave advice to a professional practitioner on appropriate methodologies for trapping insects in the field |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Gave advice to a professional practitioner on appropriate methodologies for trapping insects in the field |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Gave identification advice to a member of staff from outside the RIS within the organisation on cecidomyiidae/ midge identification |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Gave identification advice to a member of staff from outside the RIS within the organisation on cecidomyiidae/ midge identification |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | General discussions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Nine general discussions with Student/researcher/industry |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | General training given in insect ID |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Training given in ID of agricultural pest insects and aphid ID |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Grand Challenges Annual Meeting 2018, Market Place of Innovation: Smart technologies for the detection of migrating insects |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | James bell attended the GRAND CHALLENGES ANNUAL MEETING 2018, Berlin and presented in the Joint Session: National Surveillance Systems to Support Decision Agriculture Under Climate Change & Pest and Disease Surveillance for Human, Livestock, and Crop Health Marketplace of Innovation Presentations. The abstract is below: Smart technologies for the detection of migrating insects by James Bell, Rothamsted Research james.bell@rothamsted.ac.uk The Rothamsted Insect Survey has been sampling migrating insects since 1964, amassing over 60 million records. An expanding worldwide network is in operation, with over 130 traps in 17 countries. Across the globe, traditional methods of species identification are based on classical taxonomy. However, in the last five years there has been an exponential interest in, and demand for the use of real-time detection of insect threats using 'automatic methods'. I will discuss how the Insect Survey is meeting the challenges of automatic identification and counting, and highlight the major obstacles that may hinder progress. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Groundswell 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Groundswell takes place over two days - Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th June 2022 at Lannock Manor Farm, a working no-till farm in North Hertfordshire. The Groundswell Festival provides a forum for farmers, growers, or anyone interested in food production and the environment to learn about the theory and practical applications of regenerative farming systems. I was involved in the Rothamsted Research stand to showcase by research and to discuss and showcase other Rothamsted staff's. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://groundswellag.com/ |
| Description | High level Irish delegation related to COP26 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The British Embassy (Dublin) requested that Rothamsted host a high level delegation to follow up activities on COP26. The group will consist of representatives from Teagasc, DAERA, AFBI, UCD/BiOrbic, Irish Ministry of Agriculture and DEFRA staff from London - 15 in total. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | How can molecular ecology help us improve monitoring insect pests of agricultural importance? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | There was an interest in the topic and further discussions were carried out afterwards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Human Cooperation and Insect Management - A Keynote Speech to the Royal Entomological Society's Sustainable Agroeculture SIG |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Human Cooperation and Insect Management James R. Bell, Suzanne Clark, Andrew Mead, Alice Milne |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.royensoc.co.uk/membership-and-community/special-interest-groups/sustainable-agriculture/ |
| Description | ID of a Sciaridae - fungus gnat |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | ID of a Sciaridae - fungus gnat from a specimen sent to the RIS |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | ID of aphid from specimen |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | ID of aphid from specimen from local garden |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | ID of aphids from email |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | ID of aphids from email |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | ID of moth lava |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | ID of moth lava |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | ID of sawfly via phone/emailed photos |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | ID of sawfly via phone/emailed photos for a member of the public |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Identification of insects for PhD student |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Identification of insects for PhD student |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Identification of insects for PhD student |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Identification of insects for PhD student |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Identification of insects for PhD student |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Identification of insects for PhD student |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Identification of insects for a researcher from a different department |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Identification of insects for a researcher from a different department |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Insect Declines with James Bell for ITV News At Ten |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | James Bell and the work of the Rothamsted Insect Survey feature on ITV News at Ten to discuss recent reports of insect declines |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detail/video/fall-in-number-of-flying-insects-england-close-shot-of-ne... |
| Description | Insect ID |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Aphid identification from photograph |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Insect ID |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Aphid identification from photograph |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Insect ID |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Aphid identification from photograph |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Insect ID |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Insect ID |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Insect ID |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | ID of aphid from photograph |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Insect ID |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Aphid identification from photograph |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Insect ID for a member of another organisation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Insect ID for a member of another organisation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Insect ID training for BBRO people |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Insect ID training given to people from BBRO (British Beet Research Organisation). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Insect identification |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | ID of bumble nest - tree bumble bee |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Insect identifications for colleagues within the institute |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Two insect identifications for colleagues outside if the RIS but within the institute. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Insects As Pests |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Lecture on insects as pests to Royal Holloway university students |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Insects as Pests |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited lecture at Royal Holloway on "Insects as Pests" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Institute of Plant Protection (IPP) - Lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Insect Survey as a national capability to monitor and understand pest migration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Institute of Plant Protection (IPP) - working group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Meeting to discuss a one year collaborative project on migration of cereal aphids |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Interview for online magazine |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Interview about Rothamsted Insect Survey |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.wired.co.uk/article/insects-dying-out-uk |
| Description | Interview with David Gulliver for insect ecology feature, BASF Creating Chemistry magazine |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Interview with David Gulliver for insect ecology feature, Creating Chemistry magazine. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www1.basf.com/magazine/issue-8/world-of-cities.en.html |
| Description | Interview with Michael Malay |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Visit by Michael Malay writing a book on insect declines |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited Attendance at Insect Declines and Science event Chelsea Flower Show 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A RES garden to support insects and showcase how insect declines can be mitigated |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.royensoc.co.uk/chelsea/ |
| Description | Lab tour visit - Harper Adams student |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | General lab visit by a Harper Adams student |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Looking at records of Drosophila suzukii in suction trap samples |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Possibly lead to future funding and collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Meeting with colleagues from outside the RIS in the institution on providing aphids for a pilot project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with colleagues from outside the RIS in the institution on providing aphids for a pilot project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Monitoring and Forecasting Pests and Diseases Using Smart Surveillance Techniques |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A presentation to highlight the work of the Rothamsted Insect Survey to Rice Farmers in Thailand and Indonesia and how using monitoring and forecasting they can challenge the threat posed by the brown rice plant hopper. Presentation by Skype 13.7.17 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | NERC Strategic Delivery Plan Presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Flash talks at the NERC event representing the theme of 'World Class Ideas' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | NIAB EMR sex identification of SWD |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | NIAB EMR visiting workers to do sex identification of SWD in our suction trap samples for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | NRI & Rothamsted Collaboration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Work presented to the NRI to assess the potential for collaborations and technology transfer projects in sub-Saharan Africa |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Naples presentation "Genetic structure of Rhopalosiphum padi in the UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Genetic structure of Rhopalosiphum padi in the UK - the use of the Rothamsted Insect Survey archive in population genomic studies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Neonic sugar beet derogation unlikely to be triggered (Farmer's Weekly article) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The derogation is based on a Rothamsted virus model predicting that over 9% of the sugar beet crop will be infected with virus yellows by the end of August. It uses a combination of winter temperatures with aphid population dynamics to make a forecast on 1 March. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/sugar-beet/neonic-sugar-beet-derogation-unlikely-to-be-triggered |
| Description | New Scientist Live - The Future of Food and Agriculture 28th Nov 2020: Insect Alert - are we facing a bug extinction? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | What we eat and how we grow it are changing. The need to feed a growing population, tackle hunger and obesity, and avoid trashing the planet is driving the next food and agricultural revolution. New Scientist Live's Future of Food and Agriculture is an online event for everyone who cares what's on their plate. Hear how science and technology is making it happen in a day of inspiring talks across three stages. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.newscientist.com/science-events/future-food-agriculture/ |
| Description | New Scientist live 2022 - science festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A stand at New Scientist magazine live science and technology festival. Informing the audience of work at Rothamsted and work of the RIS. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.newscientist.com/article/2328909-new-scientist-live-2022-what-to-know-about-our-science-... |
| Description | New Scientist live 2023 - science festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Using real specimens to demonstrate the wide range of insects that are either pests or beneficial to farmers and inform the public about the importance of insect research and monitoring. Impact largely unknown, many took leaflets, and some requested further contact details and website addresses for both Rothamsted in general and The Insect Survey specifically. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://live.newscientist.com/experiences |
| Description | News Feature: To understand the plight of insects, entomologists look to the past |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The news piece highlighted our published paper (J. R. Bell, D. Blumgart, C. R. Shortall, Are insects declining and at what rate? An analysis of standardised, systematic catches of aphid and moth abundances across Great Britain. Insect Conserv. Divers. 13, 115-126 (2020).) as well as highlighting how activities and research needs to change to reverse insect declines. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/12/16/2018499117 |
| Description | Phone call with Frontier |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Phone call with Frontier re: Cabbage Stem Wevil |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Postgraduate Student from China visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Insect Survey lab tour & discussions |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation - Fast-Tracked Surveillance of the Peach-Potato Aphid: Vector Forecasting, Virus Yellows and Insecticide Resistance |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation titled Fast-Tracked Surveillance of the Peach-Potato Aphid: Vector Forecasting, Virus Yellows and Insecticide Resistance given to the British Beet Research Organisation. Collaboration with other research partners. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation at conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Oral presentation at the UK - France joint meeting on aphids. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presetnation at Royal Entomological Society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Participation and oral presentation in the Aphid conference of the Royal Entomological Society and the French aphidology group. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Procam industry agronomists |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 26 agronomists attended the PROCAM AGRICULTURE Advanced Agronomy Seminar 2022 at Rothamsted. We trained two groups of 13 to identify key aphids as part of the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Project linked Twitter account (@SmartArmyworm) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A Twitter account associated with the project, which mostly gives project updates and re-tweets fall armyworm related posts. Since March it has gained 145 followers and tweeted 94 times. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/smartarmyworm?lang=en |
| Description | Provided information on aphid identification to a journalist. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Provided information on aphid identification to a journalist. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Provided information on aphid identification. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Provided information on aphid identification. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Provided information on aphid identification. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Provided information on aphid identification. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Provided information on the aphids attacking crops. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Provided information on the aphids attacking crops. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Provision of aphid samples for BYDV testing as well as virus testing expertise to industry partners |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Aphids are trapped, counted, taxonomically identified to species level by insect survey staff and then stored in centrifuge tubes ready for PCR testing. Aphids are then tested in a molecular biology lab at Rothamsted using a PCR assay technique alongside positive and negative controls. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/the-uk-aphid-monitoring-network |
| Description | Public interactions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Eight separate discussions with and identifications for members of the general public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | RIS Remarks |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This service reports on insects of agricultural importance caught in the Rothamsted suction-trap network that are not currently reported in the Aphid Bulletin. Comments are made of large qualitative changes in the population of certain agriculturally important Insects caught in high numbers and the presence of those insects caught rarely/ in low numbers throughout England. This is an ad hoc report. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |
| Description | RIS staff members attended training workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | RIS staff members attended one day DNA bar-coding training workshop at Earlham Institute, Norwich |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Radio interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interview on insect & bird phenology with the Paul Hudson Weather Show |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Rothamsted - THE FUTURE OF LONG-TERM EXPERIMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE (Ramiro) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Molecular ecology research on aphids using the sample archive of the Rothamsted Insect Survey. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Rothamsted Festival of Ideas 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Rothamsted Research is committed to engaging the public with science and with the work that we do. The Rothamsted Festival of Ideas was evaluated by the visiting public, with comments collated and assessed in order to understand its impact. The comments will also help us to decide whether to repeat the Festival and in what form, and to assess these results against our six objectives: Open up Rothamsted science so it is accessible to as diverse an audience as possible; Stimulate discussion of the relevance of Rothamsted science and its implications for society; Raise the profile of the institute so more people know what Rothamsted does, especially locally; Raise awareness of the challenge of food security globally, and establish Rothamsted as a leader in this field; Enable engaged conversation between staff and visitors about the work of Rothamsted; Encourage Rothamsted staff to value and participate in engagement activities with a non-science audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2018%20Rothamsted%20Festival%20Evaluation%20Report%... |
| Description | Rothamsted Insect Survey Aphid Bulletin |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Rothamsted Insect Survey Aphid bulletin provides up-to-date news on the distribution and abundance of pest aphids at a regional scale. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://insectsurvey.com/archive |
| Description | Rothamsted/BBRO/Defra model discussion to determine neonicotinoid seed coating thresholds |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with Holly Alpren, Ollie Pumphrey and Danny Kenna (Defra), Vicky Foster and Mark Stevens (BBRO) and Rothamsted Scientists James Bell and Andrew Mead about the Rothamsted epidemiological model used to forecast virus yellow incidence in sugar beet |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Royal Entomological Society Aphid Special Interest Group Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Two day meeting with talks from keynote speakers and discussions with aphidologists from around the world. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Royal Holloway visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Lab tour and discussions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Seminar and project proposal discussion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Seminar at East Malling Research "Molecular ecology and genomic studies of aphid pests using the Insect Survey network". I also had a discussion to submit a collaborative project proposal. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Smart Crop Protection: Sensors, diagnostics & modelling of Insect Pests |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to Syngenta on methods of surveillance of insect pests |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Smart technologies for the detection of migrating insects: The challenges of automatic counting and ID. Symposium 'Assessing population change using existing European networks and new technologies'. XI European Congress of Entomology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Keynote: Smart technologies for the detection of migrating insects: The challenges of automatic counting and ID Symposium 'Assessing population change using existing European networks and new technologies'. XI European Congress of Entomology |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Stakeholder meeting to share project findings with the sugar beet industry |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | 30th October 2023, BBRO (Mark Stevens; Alistair Wright) visited Rothamsted (James Bell, Dion Garrett, Andrew Mead) along with our project partners Cranfield (Toby Waine; John Beale) and Bristol (Taro Takahashi). We shared drone data, virus spread data and farmer behaviour data and analysis which changed the views of BBRO. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Surveillance and Monitoring: Insect Declines and Sensor Science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | • 'Surveillance and Monitoring: Insect Declines and Sensor Science', Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute, AFBI, Belfast, NI. Presentation, New Forge Lane 21st Nov 2019 and a Feature interview on BBC Ulster Radio |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.afbini.gov.uk/publications/surveillance-and-monitoring-insect-declines-and-sensor-scienc... |
| Description | THE FUTURE OF LONG-TERM EXPERIMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE (James) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Are Insects Declining? Session: Workshop 3: New tools, sensors and technologies for Long Term Experiments |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/events/future-long-term-experiments-agricultural-science |
| Description | Talk about monitoring & forecasting aphids. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Met at the suction-traps and talked about monitoring & forecasting aphids to MSc students from Reading Uni |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Talk at European Congress of Lepidopterology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk on light-trap data data |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://sel2022.ut.ee/avaleht |
| Description | Talk to Aberystwyth Natural History Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talk about the Rothamsted Insect Survey in mid-Wales |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Talk: Monitoring of aphid populations as a basis for effective control |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk: Monitoring of aphid populations as a basis for effective control. IIRB, workshop, Leuven, Belgium |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Teagasc aphid identification workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Teagasc aphid identification workshop, teaching workers from Teagasc about how to identify the aphids from traps for their crops of interest. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Technologies for Aphid ID |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Chaired a discussion session: Novel technologies introduction Using deep learning to differentiate between aphids species in crowdsourced imagery |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.royensoc.co.uk/special-interest-groups/aphids |
| Description | The 13th Arab Congress of Plant Protection to 16-21 October, 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Gave an invited talk titled 'The challenges of automatic counting and identification of insect threats using smart technology. Dr. James Bell, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, United Kingdom.' and set up collaborations with INRAT, the Tunisian research organisation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://acpp-aspp.com/ |
| Description | The House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Gave evidence to Insect decline and UK food security inquiry. 7 June 2023 - Insect decline and UK food security - Oral evidence Insect numbers are difficult to quantify however recent research suggests that in the UK flying insects have declined by 60% in the past 20 years. Insects provide pivotal roles for UK food security including pollination and pest or weed regulation. There are also concerns that pest species may be increasing with negative impacts on crop yields. The Committee aims to build understanding of the role of insects in the UK food system and the economic impact of their decline and the associated risk to UK food security. It seeks to examine the evidence base for insect abundance in the UK, current drivers of insect loss and the Government's interventions to halt or reverse declines. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://committees.parliament.uk/event/18023/formal-meeting-oral-evidence-session/ |
| Description | The Rothamsted Insect Survey: Insect Declines |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 'The Rothamsted Insect Survey: Insect Declines'. Field Studies Council, Preston Montford, 26th January 2020. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | The State of Britain's Larger Moths 2021 report |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This new report summarises current knowledge of the state of Britain's c.900 species of larger moths, presenting analyses of long-term change based on millions of records gathered through the Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS) and National Moth Recording Scheme (NMRS). It was reported by The Guardian and The Telegraph newspapers as well as UKRI https://www.ukri.org/news/new-report-shows-uks-moth-population-has-declined-by-a-third/. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://butterfly-conservation.org/moths/the-state-of-britains-moths |
| Description | The Wildlife Trusts (Joe Llanos and Barnaby Coupe): Discussion of the Rothamsted VY Model and Neonicotinoids |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a high level meeting to understand the position of the Wildlife Trusts. They say 'This is the second year in a row that the Government have chosen to allow the use of thiamethoxam for sugar beet, despite their own experts advising them that this should not go ahead. We are very concerned that this 'temporary' measure is going to become an annual occurrence, which undermines the 2018 ban of neonicotinoids and jeopardises the Governments aspirations set out in the 25-year environment plan and the 2021 Environment Act. In the last year, we have seen even more research published showing the devastating impacts of neonicotinoids and Thiamethoxam on bees, including that the effects of the chemicals can persist and affect several generations of bees after the original exposure. It's becoming clear that this 'temporary' measure will have long-lasting effects on our pollinators.' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/say-no-neonics |
| Description | The challenges of automatic counting and identification of weak-flying insects using opto-acoustic methods |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | • 'The challenges of automatic counting and identification of weak-flying insects using opto-acoustic methods' XXVII International Bioacoustics Congress, 2nd Sept 2019, University of Sussex, Brighton. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gfKx1yIddcfvqWlKfWiuni0Hg3UPhX4p/view |
| Description | The spatial and temporal genetic structure of Rhopalosiphum padi in the UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Discussed with colleagues about the contents of the poster and the science we carry out at the insect Survey |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.eseb2017.nl/ |
| Description | Tour of Rothamsted as part of investor pitch for Shake CC to potential entrepreneurs. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Tour of Rothamsted as part of investor pitch for Shake CC to potential entrepreneurs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/shake-programme-opens-again-climate-tackling-entrepreneurs |
| Description | Vers la reconnaissance automatisée des pucerons ? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A French journalist Yves Sciama, wrote an article for growers and readers of JAMAG from a Rothamsted press release titled 'SCIENTISTS TRACKING SILENT CROP PESTS TURN SILHOUETTES INTO SOUND' published at https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/scientists-tracking-silent-crop-pests-turn-silhouettes-sound based on our paper Hassall, K.L., Dye, A., Potamitis, I. and Bell, J.R. (2021), Resolving the identification of weak-flying insects during flight: a coupling between rigorous data processing and biology. Agr Forest Entomol, 23: 489-505. https://doi.org/10.1111/afe.12453 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.jamag.fr/actualites/vers-la-reconnaissance-automatisee-des-pucerons |
| Description | Virus Yellows Forecast 2021 for the Sugar Beet industry |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The whole of the sugar beet industry depended on our forecast which stated that the 1st of March forecast predicts that 8.37 % of the national sugar beet area will be affected by virus yellows by the end of August 2021. Hence, no neonicotinoid treated seed because it was below the 9% threshold. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://bbro.co.uk/media/50468/21-advisory-bulletin-no-2.pdf |
| Description | Visit by Greg Clark MP, Katherine Fletcher MP, Stephen Metcalf MP of the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Rothamsted Visit by House Of Commons Science, Innovation & Technology Committee members: Chair of the Committee Greg Clark MP, Katherine Fletcher MP and Stephen Metcalfe MP Accompanied by Secretariat Claire Kanja & Ian CruseTuesday 26th October 9:30-12:30 Inquiry Into Insect Decline And UK Food Security. Speakers: James Bell (lead and overview), Alice Milne (DRUID - insect declines), Gaetan Seimandi-Corda (OSR and beneficial parasitoids), Lawrence Bramham (BYDV), Izayana Sandoval-Carvajal (BYDV), Dion Garrett (flying insect ecology), Kelly Jowett (carabid ecology), Ishbel Hayes (moth declines and light pollution), Elliott Cornelius (moth vision and light pollution), Hannah Romanowski (bats) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Visit by Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | General lab tour - How the RIS works. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Visit by INRA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Discussions and collection and sorting of pea aphids. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Visit by Prof. Seunghwan Lee, Ph.D, Seoul National University (SNU) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof. Seunghwan Lee, Ph.D, Seoul National University (SNU) - wants to set up a suctrap in S. Korea |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Visit by Thirty Percy Foundation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Visit by a philanthropist foundation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Visit by industry leaders and academics from China. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Discussion about the science we carry out at the RIS. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Visit by members from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | General discussions on developing a trapping network. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Visit by students from Royal Holloway College |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A talk: Insects as pests - as seen through the eyes of the Rothamsted Insect Survey and tour of the traps. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Visit from researchers from Nanjing Agricultural University, Hennan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Ministry of Agricultural |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | To learn more about the Insect Survey. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Visit to the BBRO and JIC |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Visit to the BBRO and JIC |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Visit to the Natural History Museum to identify not yet identified specimens |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Visit to the Natural History Museum to identify not yet identified specimens |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Visit to the Natural History Museum, to photograph aphids on FERA's plant risk register |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Visit to the Natural History Museum, to photograph aphids on FERA's plant risk register |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Visit to the RIS lab |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A visit to discuss the RIS and RIS suction-traps |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Visit to the RIS lab |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A visit to study no aphid portion of RIS suction-trap samples |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Visit to the RIS lab |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Visit by Institute for Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Weekly Fall Armyworm Updates |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Weekly fall armyworm alerts sent to a group of 40 farmers, agronomists and project collaborators via WhatsApp. This includes staff from KALRO, One Acre Fund and CropNuts and , as well as the farmers who host digital pheromone traps and use the app. These are effectively our group test users, who receive weekly alerts, but have also become an active community contributing images of fall armyworm to the project and giving updates of the situation on the ground. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020 |
| Description | Where have all the insects gone? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Contribution to the debate on insect decline as published in the prestigious journal Science as an article and led by Gretchen Vogel and titled "Where have all the insects gone?" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/where-have-all-insects-gone |
| Description | Why moths may not be vanishing as fast as we thought |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Newspaper article in response to a published paper. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/problem-solving/moths-may-not-vanishing-fast-thought/ |
| Description | Work experience |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Portuguese student visited for work experience |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Work experience A Level students |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Talking to A level student about careers in bioscience |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Yorkshire live interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interview with Yorkshire live to give "expert opinion" on aphids |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/greenfly-everywhere-why-huddersfield-insects... |
| Description | advised an illustrator for a book publication on drawing an insect |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | advised an illustrator for a book publication on drawing an insect |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | answered questions from an agronomist on BYDV testing and the prevalence |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | answered questions from an agronomist on BYDV testing and the prevalence |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | answered questions from an agronomist on how to interpret RIS data |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | answered questions from an agronomist on how to interpret RIS bulletin data through email. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | answered questions on the trapping of a species of insect from the suction and moth trap networks and gave advice on different trapping methodologies. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | answered questions on the trapping of a species of insect from the suction and moth trap networks and gave advice on different trapping methodologies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | answered some questions from an agronomist on the identification of the morphs of an aphid species of economic interest. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | answered some questions from an agronomist on the identification of the morphs of an aphid species of economic interest. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | aphid identification |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | enquiry from China about advice in identifying a gall forming aphid from a plant with no know gall forming aphid described from it. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | aphid identification |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Identification of an aphid specimen for a student. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | aphid identification |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | identified two aphid specimens for project partners at SASA. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | aphid identification |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | identified an aphid specimen for project partners at SASA. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | aphid identification advice |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | gave advice on how to identify a subspecies of aphid and its prevalence in Britain to a researcher at a university in the USA. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | aphid identification information |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Provided information on aphid identification. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | communicated with a member of another institution to aid in the identification of an insect for a professional practitioner. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | communicated with a member of another institution to aid in the identification of an insect for a professional practitioner. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | directed a colleague to the insect survey website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | directed a colleague to the insect survey website |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | directing a professional practitioner to the insect survey website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | directing a professional practitioner to the insect survey website |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | email correspondence with another member of staff from a different dept. on the predicted vs actual first flight date of a species of aphid in the suction trap network |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | email correspondence with another member of staff from a different dept. on the predicted vs actual first flight date of a species of aphid in the suction trap network |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | experimental method query |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | an agronomist wanted to know how we separate the morphs of an aphid species in the autumn. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | experimental set up and operational advice for an aphid experiment |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | gave advice on the setup and use of the Electrical penetration graph technique to a researcher. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | explanation on aphid populations and virus activity |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | explained data on autumn aphid populations and the proportion of aphids that could vector viruses to the crop to an agronomist. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | identification of an aphid for industry partner (BBRO) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | identification of an aphid for industry partner (BBRO) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | identification of aphids from INRAE |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | identification of aphids sent to Rothamsted from traps and plants in France, as requested by INRAE. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | identification of aphids from Teagasc |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | identification of aphid specimens sent from suction traps in Ireland by Teagasc to Rothamsted. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | instructed a PhD student in the use of specialised entomological equipment |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | instructed a PhD student in the use of specialised entomological equipment |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | organised a tour of rothamsted facilities for a group of workers from another institution. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | organised a tour of rothamsted facilities for a group of workers from another institution. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | provided advice to member of another institution |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | provided advice to member of another institution |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | responded to a general information query from a member of the public on how the seasons affect insects. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | responded to a general information query from a member of the public on how the seasons affect insects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | response to an email query from the telegraph on coccinellidae/ladybird numbers recorded |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | "a piece about ladybirds and how this wet and cold spring has affected them" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | talk with students |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | talk with students |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |