Further information will be available here shortly.

Subproject: beneficial insects

Objectives:
The change in biological diversity in the agricultural landscape is also recognisable for many citizens without being able to name or even quantify these changes in detail. At the same time, land users, such as farmers or small gardeners, have a special interest in preserving important ecosystem services provided by the large number of beneficial organisms - also in the field of plant protection. Identifying elements of biological diversity that are responsible for regulating pests is crucial here. The CitizenScience project "Monitoring of conspicuous beneficial insects and pests" aims to develop and offer simple methods, which can also be implemented by laypersons, for recording these organisms.
The successful implementation of this CitizenScience concept is based on the voluntary participation of farmers and other stakeholders from the public. It is therefore our aim to motivate relevant stakeholders to participate in the project by providing comprehensive information material (e.g. profiles of relevant beneficial insects and plants, simplified identification keys for addressing conspicuous beneficial insects) and a scientifically accompanied evaluation of the observations. Targeted and appreciative public relations work is also in the focus of the project. With regard to the significance of the trend monitoring activities, Citizen Science approaches can represent a valuable supplement to professional monitoring methods.
Implementation (Institute BI, Dr. Annette Herz & Institut A, Dr. Jörn Lehmhus):
The occurrence of selected conspicuous beneficial insects (e.g. hover flies, ladybirds, predatory bugs) is to be recorded on "show plants" (e.g. Apiaceae, Asteraceae, certain shrub species) at the edge of fields, in hedges, in special crops or also in allotments at certain seasons. Also other, easy to carry out survey methods should be used (e.g. non-destructive beating samples, sweep net samples or the attachment of corrugated cardboard on trees). The first phase will focus on the following target groups: farmers, organised allotment gardeners and owners of orchard meadows. The aim is to establish a public information network (based on media science) and to develop a web module for data collection, including an evaluation routine.  

Ansprechpartnerin:
Dr. Annette Herz
JKI-BI
annette.herz@julius-kuehn.de
 

Subproject: Pests

Further information will be available here shortly.

Head:
Sandra Krengel
JKI-SF
sandra.krengel@ julius-kuehn.de