- This event has passed.
Science Symposium: Integrated Pest Management in a Changing Climate
October 26, 2023 @ 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
$35
The science symposium is sponsored by the WSU Regional Small Farms Program, with the theme, “Integrated Pest Management in a Changing Climate.” The symposium will take place Thursday, October 26; 9 a.m.-noon, followed by farm tours in the afternoon. An integrated pest management themed poster session will be offered in the evening during happy hour.
Symposium speakers include WSU plant pathologist Lindsey Du Toit and University of Idaho entomologist Sanford Eigenbrode. Du Toit will address how disease pressure in agricultural crops is expected to change as our climate changes and will offer tips on how farmers can adjust their integrated pest management practices to make their farm more resilient to disease pressure. Eigenbrode, a leader in the changing climate impacts on the insect world, will speak about what a changing climate means for both pests and beneficial insects.
Part 1: “The Many Facets of Climate Change Impacts on Insect Pest Management”
Speaker: Sanford D. Eigenbrode
In response to changing climates, insects are undergoing shifts in their geographic ranges, voltinism, abundance and phenology. Effects result from direct responses of the pest species or from interactions among pests, their host plants, and natural enemies. The direction of the effects are variable among pest species depending on climatic and ecological. In addition, producers are modifying production systems in response to climate change, potentially altering pest insect complexes and pest pressure in other ways. The talk takes a global perspective and then considers examples from Pacific Northwest cropping systems.
Part 2: (Title coming soon)
Speaker: Lindsey Du Toit
This presentation will examine environmental influences on plant diseases, and how climate change is expected to influence plant diseases in the Pacific Northwest. The session will also cover preventative disease management practices that are foundational to effective integrated pest management programs, using case studies of diseases in specific vegetable and seed crops to illustrate these practices.
About the Speakers
Sanford D. Eigenbrode – University of Idaho
Sanford D. Eigenbrode is Professor of Entomology, University Distinguished Professor, and an affiliate faculty in the Center for Research in Invasive Species at the University of Idaho, USA. His research interests include insect-plant interactions, landscape agricultural ecology, climate change, the chemical ecology of plant viruses and their vectors, and weed biological control.
Lindsey Du Toit – Washington State University’s Mount Vernon Northwest Research and Extension Center
Lindsey du Toit is a Professor and Extension Plant Pathologist in the Department of Plant Pathology at Washington State University (WSU), specializing in vegetable seed crop pathology. Lindsey obtained a BSc degree in plant pathology at the University of Natal, South Africa, and MS and PhD degrees in plant pathology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She served as a diagnostician for the Plant & Insect Diagnostic Lab at the WSU Puyallup Research & Extension Center from 1998-2000, and then became an Assistant Professor at the WSU Mount Vernon NWREC in 2000, where she was promoted to Associate and then Full Professor. Her research and extension program focuses on the epidemiology and management of diseases affecting vegetable seed crops in the Pacific Northwest USA, particularly small-seeded vegetables (e.g., spinach, brassicas, radish, carrot, onion, table beet, and Swiss chard). Lindsey teaches a graduate course in field plant pathology, leads the Pacific Northwest Vegetable Extension Group, holds the Alfred Christianson Distinguished Professorship in Vegetable Seed Science at WSU, and is a Fellow and former President of the American Phytopathological Society.