Working Group Meeting
Lancaster University, 2004
Biocontrol Working Group Workshop
7 - 9 September 2004
BIOCONTROL WORKING GROUP MEETING 7 – 9 SEPTEMBER 2004
The EWRS Biocontrol Working Group held its biennial meeting recently in conjunction with the British Ecological Society (BES) Annual Meeting. The British Ecological Society is a large (4500 members) old (founded 1913) society with a membership spread amongst the pure and applied aspects of ecology. The society holds a large (about 500 delegates, 8 parallel sessions) general annual meeting, this year at Lancaster University. The Biocontrol Working Group decided that it would be good to hold its meeting as a ‘thematic topic’ within this large meeting, hoping to attract not only EWRS biocontrol workers, but also interested delegates from the rest of the conference. In the end there were three applications to the BES to hold thematic topic meetings on aspects of invasive species, and two of these joined forces to produce one thematic topic called ‘Non-native and invasive species: defining the problem, identifying research needs and applying practical solutions’ which was listed in the Programme as ‘a joint meeting of the UK Biodiversity Research Group, Biological Control Working Group of the European Weed Research Society, hosted by the BES Invasive Species Specialist Group’. This topic ran from Tuesday morning 7th September until Thursday morning, and we easily filled all the available slots in the schedule with offered papers, and even had to put some in a ‘spill over’ session. The main weed biocontrol session was on Tuesday 7th September and contained the following speakers:
- R Charudattan (University of Florida)
Plant pathogens – an underexploited resource to counteract invasive weeds – invited key note paper - RH Shaw, R Greatrex (CABI Bioscience, UK)
Why is biological control so difficult in the UK? - DH Djeddour, RH Shaw, RA Tanner (CABI Bioscience, UK)
The biological control of Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica): the story so far - AA Kirk, T Widmer, T Dudley, G Campobasso (USDA, Montpellier)
Biological control of Arundo donax; a practical solution - HC Evans, AJ Tomley (CABI Bioscience, UK)
Towards successful management of the Madagascan rubber-vine weed in Australia: an integrated approach underpinned by classical biological control - E Gerber, HL Hinz (CABI Bioscience, Switzerland)
Impact of two potential biological control agents on Alliaria petiolata and the interactions between them - H Mueller-Schaerer, U Schaffner, T Steinger (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)
Evolution in invasive plants and implications for biological control
During Tuesday evening we held an informal drinks reception in the new Lancaster Environment Centre at the University (thanks to the Department of Biology for hosting and contributing towards this), which gave us all a chance to escape from the overflowing bars in the main conference and have a slightly quieter drink and chat.
Biocontrol papers were also scattered around some of the other sessions, and there were a number of biocontrol posters as well:
Biocontrol posters
- C Oduro, P Hatcher, J Newman (University of Reading, UK)
Control of red water fern (Azolla filiculoides) using tarragon (Artemisia dracunculoides) and mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) leaf extracts - RH Reeder, RH Shaw (CABI Bioscience, UK)
Inundative biocontrol of Azolla filiculoides using a specialist weevil
- D Salzmann, RJ Handley, H Mueller-Schaerer (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)
Effect of reduced photosynthetic rate in Senecio vulgaris on resistance and tolerance to the rust fungus Puccinia lagenophorae - Y Cachu, S Inglese, ND Paul (Lancaster University, UK)
Tolerance of Senecio vulgaris to defoliation and disease - HL Hinz, M Schwarzlaender (CABI Bioscience, Switzerland)
Comparing invasive plants in their native and exotic range: what can we learn for biocontrol? - YM Buckley, M Rees, Q Paynter, M Lonsdale (NERC Centre for Population Biology, UK)
An integrated approach to managing invasive weeds - SJ Inglese, Y Cachu, ND Paul (Lancaster University, UK)
Tolerance of Senecio vulgaris attacked by a native and alien rust fungus - KE Rose, SM Louda, M Rees (Imperial College, UK)
Demographic and evolutionary impacts of native and invasive insect herbivores, a case study with Platte thistle Cirsium canescens - S Uygur, L Smith, FN Uygur (Cukurova University, Turkey)
Biological control studies on Centaurea solstitialis L. (yellow starthistle) in Turkey
A full list with brief abstracts can still be found on the BES web-site (http://www.britishecologicalsciety.org). There was also much of interest in the meeting to other EWRS members. For example, there were sessions on ‘Intractable clonal weeds: their biology and methods of restoring biodiversity’ ‘Pest control’ and ‘Agroecology’.
Personally, I found that the ‘thematic topic’ format worked well, and ours regularly attracted over 100 participants (many more than we have had recent EWRS Biocontrol Workshops) and there was a much wider range of papers than we would normally have been exposed to; from Government policy and conservation measures to the invasive species themselves, from marine to terrestrial, animal to plant. I had some trepidation at first about arranging a joint meeting with another society, but any fears were groundless as the BES did all the organising (much appreciated by the author!), leaving the session organisers to arrange papers. The BES even paid for our key-note speaker, gave the EWRS free space for an information desk and included an EWRS leaflet free of charge in the delegates’ pack. For all of this the biocontrol group is extremely grateful.
Paul Hatcher