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Niklaus J. Grünwald is a Research Plant Pathologist with the Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory, USDA Agricultural Research Service, in Corvallis, Oregon. He is a courtesy Professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology and the Center for Genome Biology and Biocomputing at Oregon State University. He received his Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University of California at Davis and conducted postdoctoral research at Cornell University. His principal research interests include the ecology, genetics and management of emerging and re-emerging Phytophthora diseases affecting ornamental and nursery crops with a special emphasis on the Sudden Oak Death pathogen Phytophthora ramorum and the Irish famine pathogen P. infestans. More recently, he has started working on projects involving oomycete forest biodiversity in Douglas fir old growth, whole genome sequencing of the genus Phytophthora, and development of computational and bioinformatics tools for comparative genomics, genotyping-by-sequencing, population genomics and metabarcoding. Grünwald has served as associate editor, senior editor and editor-in-chief for Phytopathology, editor for Plant Pathology, and currently serves as editor-in chief for CABI Agriculture and Biosciences. He has held numerous leadership positions including chair of the APS Publications Board overseeing all APS journals that launched the new Phytobiomes open access journal. He is a recipient of the 2006 USDA ARS Early Career Scientist of the Year award, the 2007 APS Syngenta award, the 2015 APS Ruth Allen Award recognizing outstanding, innovative research contribution that have changed the direction of research in any field of plant pathology, and became APS fellow in 2016 and AAAS fellow in 2019.

@PhytophthoraLab

Background and Aims

Plant pathogens appear to emerge at increasing rates, be it due to a combination of climate change, increased human travel, and more frequent global trade among other factors. The genus Phytophthora harbors some of the most notorious invasive and emerging pathogens affecting forests, landscape and crop plants. These pathogens cause billion dollar losses annually. Notable examples include the sudden oak death pathogen P. ramorum and the Irish famine pathogen P. infestans.

Methods

We use population genomic and computational tools to characterize the emergence of plant pathogens.

Results / Outcomes

The sudden oak death pathogen P. ramorum emerged repeatedly by at least five global migrations, three into North America and two into Europe. In both North America and Europe, P. ramorum populations remain clonal. Despite the fact that both mating types coexist in North America, sexual reproduction has not been observed. P. infestans populations show a similar pattern, but clearly undergo an apparently ‘random’ succession of clonal lineages as novel lineages emerge and older lineages are displaced. The South American tomato tree pathogen P. andina emerged via hybridization between P. infestans and another unknown Phytophthora species. This talk will provide insights into mechanisms of emergence in the genus Phytophthora using evolutionary, population genetic, bioinformatics, and genomic approaches.

Conclusions

It is becoming increasingly clear that this genus uses an arsenal of tools and mechanisms such as effectors, hybridization, migration, and adaptation to continually reemerge. This work provides a current assessment of Phytophthora biology with an emphasis on genomics that facilitates development of translational approaches such as targeted best management practices to manage these pathogens.

Background and Aims

Methods

Results / Outcomes

Conclusions

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Bryony Taylor is a senior project scientist and has worked at CABI UK since 2006. Bryony’s main areas of expertise include Integrated Pest Management, pest risk analysis, biopesticide product development (including application, mass production and formulation), biological control of arthropods including mites, and the ecology of invasive arthropods. More recently Bryony has developed and worked on projects which utilise data derived from earth observation sources to predict outbreaks of plant pests and diseases, and to predict the efficacy of applications of fungal biopesticides based on environmental conditions. Bryony has conducted fieldwork and projects in several locations globally including China, India, Kenya, Papua New Guinea and Trinidad.

Frances Williams is the Monitoring and Evaluation Manager at CABI. Frances is part of CABI’s international development business unit that focuses on monitoring and evaluating projects, as well as embedding gender within CABI’s work. Frances has provided M&E support to CABI’s Plantwise programme in Africa by analyzing the stakeholders and reviewing context and systematic monitoring procedures. She has also developed the Plantwise Gender Strategy and CABI’s Programme and Project Gender Strategy. Her experience also includes developing project proposals and bid documents with CABI scientists and directors. Previously, Frances has carried out an assessment of the economics costs of invasive species to the British economy and has contributed to other economic assessments of the costs and impact of invasive species on rural livelihoods, as well as the costs and benefits of biological control programmes.

Tim Beale is a Geospatial Data Analyst at CABI. As part of the Knowledge and Data Management team, Tim leads CABI’s geospatial activities, from data collection to end-product delivery. Tim works with CABI’s scientists to ensure that correct methods and tools to are used to analyse data, gain insights, and communicate findings.

Elizabeth Finch joined CABI in 2019 as a Project Scientist in Data Analytics. Lizzie has worked on a wide range of projects within CABI providing expertise in data analysis and GIS. Prior to taking this role, Lizzie completed her PhD in Ecology at Queens University Belfast on the response of ant communities to agricultural land use changes and invasive species in Madagascar. Lizzie has also completed several work placements overseas in the areas of conservation, ecology and biodiversity.

Julien Godwin is the Programme Support Manager, for the Action on Invasives programme at CABI. Julien has worked at CABI since 2008, firstly as part the Global Plant Clinic team, then later as part of the Plantwise programme and has worked on several Plantwise programmes including those in Pakistan, Afghanistan and DRC, as well as working in Nicaragua, Rwanda and Uganda. Julien has also worked in the data management and processing team of the Plantwise Knowledge Bank that helped collate and disseminate accurate plant health information across the globe. Julien’s current role in CABI is in the development of a global programme to control the most destructive and impactful invasives species. As the programme manager, he works closely with different departments across CABI to develop multi-country partnerships.

Lucinda Charles is a senior content editor coordinating the content for the Invasive Species Compendium. The role includes prioritizing species coverage, commissioning datasheets from experts, liaising with partner organizations, and editing/updating information for publication. During Lucinda’s time at CABI she has worked on many publications in the field of plant health but most extensively on pest distribution data and information for pest risk analysis as an editor of the Crop Protection Compendium.

Sean Murphy is the Global Scientific Advisor for IPM and Modelling at CABI. Sean’s expertise lies in invasive insect and weed biocontrol and integrated pest management (IPM). Sean has worked on biological control and IPM programmes (pre and post harvest) on a range of crops in tropcial areas. Crops include vegetables, rice and other cereals, cassava, coffee and agroforestry/forestry trees. Sean has produced expert documents for international conventions and invited experts on international convention working groups (IPCC and CBD). Sean has also previously designed training documents for extension workers and farmers.

Roger Day is the Programme Executive for Action on Invasives at CABI. Roger has many years experience of living and working in tropical agriculture in Africa and Asia covering research, development and capacity building. Roger has a broad knowledge of agricultural development issues in CABI’s three themes, namely Invasive Species, Commodity Crops and Knowledge for Development. His specialist areas of expertise include biological control, phytosanitary systems and international standards, integrated pest management and entomology. Roger has experience of information and knowledge systems including participatory and community based approaches such as Farmer Field Schools, national systems of innovation and also communication and knowledge management strategies.

Arne Witt has been working in the field of invasion biology for the past 15 years. Within this time he has mainly concentrated on researching the biological control of invasive plants and the management of invasive plant species. He has travelled widely and has had the opportunity to observe plant invasions in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Australia, and a host of African countries including Ghana, Madagascar, Zambia, South Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia and Mozambique among others. Arne is currently the Coordinator for Invasive Species South, based in South Africa, and the International Project Coordinator for the GEF/UNEP project, “Removing Barriers to Invasive Plant Management in Africa” which is active in Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, and Zambia. The project aims to strengthen policies and legislation on Invasive Alien Species (IAS); create awareness of the threats posed by IAS; build capacity to manage invasive species; and implement control strategies at selected sites in each of the four countries. Arne has considerable knowledge on invasive pants and their control and feel strongly that more needs to be done to manage them, especially in Africa, where they pose a massive threat to biodiversity, food security, economic development and human health.

Richard Shaw is the Country Director for CABI UK and also Regional Coordinator for Invasives in the Northern Hemisphere at CABI. He has comprehensive knowledge and experience in biocontrol programmes including project development, and project delivery. He has also had considerable practical experience of field entomology, quarantine laboratory studies and has undertaken fieldwork in 18 countries.

Gareth Richards manages the Compendium Team at CABI, which develops, maintains and updates the Animal Health and Production Compendium, Aquaculture Compendium, Crop Protection Compendium, Forestry Compendium and Invasive Species Compendium. These products collate information within their subject areas and through intelligent data management, linkage and user interfaces provide capacity for efficient knowledge transfer, problem solving and better decision making.

Adewale Ogunmodede has recently joined CABI to work on a range of projects as a junior agricultural economist. Adewale has recently completed a MSc in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security at the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester, where his research focused on the importance of building on a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model towards improving organic agriculture opportunities. Adewale has also been involved in various research projects in Nigeria, including investigating the relationship between food consumption patterns and reported illnesses among households as part of his MSc research. He has also worked at IITA as a research fellow researching youth unemployment in Africa.

Winnie Nunda is an invasive species assistant based in CABI, Kenya. Winnie has previously worked on the biocontrol of stem borers. Specifically on temperature influence on the parasitoid Cotesia spp. Winnie is also involved in performing various experiments on interaction between noctuids and their associated parasitoids in relation to environmental changes with regards to temperature in particular.

Background and Aims

Invasive non-native species (INNS) have many impacts including those on the environment, social aspects and economics. The costs of INNS have been estimated by several different authors for key regions and countries of the world, however there is currently no estimate in place to assess the economic impact INNS have on the continent of Africa. This is a key gap given the impacts of INNS on the continent. Previous research has shown that many African countries are particularly vulnerable to the effects of invasive species due to the proportion of GDP which is reliant on sectors such as agriculture (Paini et al. 2016). For instance, the spread of fall armyworm across the continent within two years from its initial introduction in West Africa has had serious economic impacts for farmers. Other lesser known INNS also have considerable economic impacts both for agriculture and the environment. Some data exist on individual species, but no overall assessment of the economic costs has been undertaken. This review collates information from both primary and grey literature sources and directly from key stakeholders in Africa to estimate the overall economic cost of invasives to Africa. This figure will be of use to policy makers to prioritise work to manage and control invasive species, providing evidence of the economic impact to their countries.

Methods

Information on INNS affecting all countries in Africa was collated from published databases (Invasive Species Compendium, CABI; The Global Invasive Species Database, ISSG). The species were then prioritised according to which would be likely to have the highest economic impact (based on proxies including area affected, number of hosts / environments affected, impact the organism has on environment/hosts etc). This list was cross referenced with lists derived from national INNS lists and assessed against expert opinion.

For the prioritised species, in depth analyses were conducted. Economic impact information for each INNS was gathered from literature sources where possible for each country. This included costs for prevention, management, yield reduction, carrying capacity reduction etc. Where economic information was not available, proxies such as yield loss were used and an economic cost derived from data. Structured questionnaires were also designed and sent to relevant stakeholders in country and responses relating to INNS economic cost within their region were collected.

Information was collated for each country/species and an extrapolation technique based on environmental criteria was applied to estimate impacts in data-poor countries. The estimates were combined to give an overall estimate of economic cost for the continent as a whole.

Results / Outcomes

The outcomes of this research will be of use to policy makers to prioritise work to manage and control invasive species, and will provide evidence of the economic impact within countries.

Conclusions

Results and conclusions will be presented at PHAB, September 2020.

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Career overview

Plant Pathologist with over 29 years of experience in a wide range of plant diseases

An investigator on over 44 externally funded projects and chief investigator on 27 externally funded grants

Attracted over 20.5 million dollars in mostly competitive external category 1 funding from a range of sources (13.5 million dollars since 2010).

Currently leading the Crop Protection Theme within the Centre for Horticultural Science at the University of Queensland which consists of 13 PhD scientists.

Track record of developing and leading multidisciplinary teams of research scientists in macadamia and banana producing excellent outcomes and impact for horticultural industries

Highly focussed on impact. An independent assessment by Agtrans P/L in 2017 determined that Prof Drenth’s research on bananas since 2006 has produced a net present value of 60.5 million dollars

Career total of 123 scientific publications and two books, over 6865 citations and an H-index of 36

High international standing in the field of plant diseases of tropical crops as evidenced by an invitation to write a review on tropical tree diseases for Annual Review of Phytopathology in 2016 (IF 10.9).

Since 2011 given over 60 invited and keynote addresses at scientific and/or industry congresses.

Numerous articles in grower Journals and the popular press such as “The Conversation”

Training and mentoring

In the last decade successfully trained 9 PhD students and these students have won between them 18 awards for their research through papers, talks and posters.

Career wise trained 19 PhD students that all have obtained positions at leading research organisations around the world.

Recognised record in mentoring students and staff at all levels within in as well as outside the Institute as evidenced by being awarded a World Class Professorship by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia, and a recent Crawford Fund International Engagement Award.

Background and Aims

Background and Aims

Over the last century many plant pathogens have significantly increased their geographic distribution. Increases in global travel and trade, and the global movement of planting material have fuelled an ever-increasing number of new invasions by plant pathogens. Managing these invading fungi is often troublesome and in many cases had major consequences for smallholder farmers, plant based industries and/or disastrous effects on the natural environment. Invasions can take on truly epidemic proportions due to the polycyclic nature of pathogens, their ability to produce large numbers of different spore types increasing their ability for successful establishment and spread, and host plants grown in monoculture with little or no resistance. Many pathogens invading new environments often cause higher levels of disease than they do in their centre of origin. The aim of our research was to demonstrate the rate of intercontinental movement of plant pathogens followed by more localised spread as well as visualising the increase of spread of plant pathogens over time.

Methods

Methods

After establishing the total number of pathogens and pests in the world and their high relative abundance in the tropics, banana was chosen as an example to demonstrate the spread and impact of several diseases over place and time in the tropics. Using first disease records over the last century, maps were produced highlighting the geographic aspects of pathogen spread in Asia, Africa and Central America. The same data was also used to highlight the spread over time. Examples used include a vector borne virus (Banana Bunchy Top Virus), an airborne fungal disease (Black Sigatoka caused by Pseudocercospora fijiensis), a soil-borne fungal pathogen (Fusarium wilt TR4 caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense) and a bacterial disease (Banana Blood Disease caused by Ralstonia syzygii subsp. celebesensis).

Results / Outcomes

Results/Outcomes

From the data it is clear that these four banana diseases have increased their geographic distribution significantly over the last 100 years. Intercontinental spread is often human assisted and once the pathogen invades a new continent it establishes a foothold from which it starts to spread to new areas. These are examples of the “Bridgehead effect” used to explain the further rapid spread of invasive plant pathogens after an initial invasion.

Conclusions

Conclusions 

The tropics contains a vast number of plant pathogens and increases in travel and trade between tropical countries on different continents has given rise to major plant disease epidemics as shown for a few select examples for banana. The economic and social impact of plant diseases in the tropics is often high as the capacity to deal with these invasions is often lacking. Realizing the presence and importance of the “Bridgehead effect” has implications for biosecurity and efforts aimed at managing invasive pathogens.

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Aleksandra Konjević was born in Sombor, Yugoslavia, where she finished her primary and secondary school. She started studies at the University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Agriculture where she finished her bachelor, master and PhD studies. She works as assistant professor of Applied Agricultural Entomology and Ecology since her PhD degree in 2015. Thesis title was: Faunistic research of true bugs (Heteroptera) in different ecosystems and molecular analyze of certain species. Main focus of scientific research and fields of interest are entomology and insect ecology, faunistic resesrch, identification and insect dissection within applied entomology, invasive species, Hemiptera, true bugs. Since 2016 she is apointed as coordinator of the national program of monitoring of Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, introduced in Serbia in 2015, supported by the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management.

Background and Aims

Being an important invasive pest species word wide, originally Asian species, Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys Stål) invaded great part of Europe and, in October 2015, officially invaded Serbia as well. This nuisance insect has double impact in the occupied environment. From one side it cause panic among people during late summer and early autumn, when it starts to enter houses, apartments and many other manmade facilities. Although not harmful to humans, by its abundance and unpleasant smell, this species is absolutely unwanted in urban areas. On the other side, plant production of many crops and fruits suffer due to its intensive feeding by sucking plant juices, especially on ripe fruits and seeds. The aim of this study is to show how Brown Marmorated Stink Bug invaded areas in Serbia, and finally established its population.

Methods

After first records, species was continuously monitored by pyramid dead in traps for two years, and its impact to plant production was recorded together with estimation of first damage observed.

Results / Outcomes

Results of monitoring revealed spreading of H. halys in the country, and increase of population abundance in monitored areas, particularly in the northern part (the Province of Vojvodina) which is mainly plain, agricultural area with multitude of crops. Population density was 1.4 times higher in 2019 in comparison to 2018 in urban areas of Novi Sad, while in semi urban areas, surrounded by many crops, approximately 10 km from the center of named city, population density was even 16.6 times higher in 2019. Sothern parts of the country are still not densely inhabited by these insects, but the spread in those areas was evident in august 2019 when at four localities BMSB was recorded for the first time (towns Velika Plana, Kraljevo, Kruševac, and Niš). At the same time enlargement of host plants list was recorded, from only three in 2017: soybean, tomato and raspberry, to even 10 endangered cultivated species: apple, hazelnut, grape, raspberry, peach, sweet corn, pepper, tomato, cucumber and soybean in 2019. First notable damage was observed on apples, soybean, hazelnuts and raspberries. In 2019 damage were most noticeable in small gardens, near the houses in villages, whit diversity of plant species and usually lack of any kind of control. So far, no egg parasitoids were founded on H. halys eggs, leaving no space for biological control.

Conclusions

Halyomorpha halys successfully established its populations in Serbia and will become serious economically important pest for plant production. Control will be needed in the coming years and should relay on integrated measures together with chemical treatments in order to prevent serious, economic losses of cultivated crops that could certainly happen in several plant hosts.