Biological Control of Oilseed Rape Pests with Entomopathogenic Nematodes

Biological control techniques attract increasing attention as one of the sustainable alternatives to pesticide use in integrated pest management programs. In order to develop sustainable pest management methods for arable crops based on entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN), their efficacy and persistence needed to be investigated, and an economically feasible delivery system had to be developed. In this study, first a survey of entomopathogens was conducted, and a system approach was tested, using the oilseed Brassica (OSB) growing system (OSB, spring wheat, and red clover) as a model. The system approach aimed at determining the potential of Steinernema feltiae (Filipjev) for the control of OSB pests, developing OSB rotation schemes that support EPN persistence, and investigating the impact of the selected biotic and abiotic factors on efficacy and persistence of EPN. This study employed abductive logic (which employs constant interplay between the theory and empirical observation), quantitative methods, and a case study on OSB. Laboratory and field experiments were carried out, and two types of pathogen surveys. A horizontal survey included OSB fields across Estonia, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the UK, while a vertical survey included sampling from two sets of differently managed experimental fields during three years. A new approach was introduced for measuring occurrence, where the prevalence and relative intensity of entomopathogens, biotic agents, and unidentified insect antagonists were determined. The effect of dose, timing, and the application method on S. feltiae in the control of pests in OSB, and the potential of a controlled release delivery system (CRS) were evaluated in the field. Studies on the impact of selected biotic and abiotc factors (Brassica plant, bait insects, developmental stages of Meligethes aeneus Fab., Isaria fumosorosea Wize (Ifr), and organic and synthetic fertilizers) on the efficacy of S. feltiae were conducted in the laboratory. Persistence of S. feltiae in the OSB growing system, and the effect of dose, timing, and the application method, was assessed in the field as part of the efficacy experiments. The impact of selected biotic and abiotic factors on S. feltiae persistence was assessed in laboratory experiments. The pathogen survey showed that the occurrence of entomopathogens is low in the OSB growing system, and that a management system causing less disturbance (ICM) to the soil increases the relative intensity of insect parasitic nematodes and other insect antagonists. A longer study period is required to show any possible impact of ICM on the relative intensity of entomopathogenic fungi, or on the prevalence of entomopathogens. Two different measures of the occurrence yielded different results: the relative intensity revealed the difference between the two different crop management methods, while prevalence did not. The highest efficacy of S. feltiae was achieved by using a low dose and targeting all stages of M. aeneus. When only the larval stage was targeted, the application method and dose had no significant effect. The CRS decreased the pest abundance significantly more than the surface application method. S. feltiae persisted in the OSB fields in Finland for several months, but did not survive the winter. The strain survived for 7 months when it was applied in autumn in Germany, but its populations declined rapidly after winter. The examined biotic and abiotic factors had variable impacts on S. feltiae efficacy and persistence. The two measures, prevalence and relative intensity of entomopathogens, gave valuable information for their use in biocontrol programs. The recommended biocontrol strategy for OSB growing in Finland is inundation and seasonal inoculation of EPN. The impact of some biotic and abiotic factors on S. feltiae efficacy and persistence is significant, and can be used to improve the efficacy of EPN. The CRS is a novel alternative for EPN application, and should also be considered for use on other crops. Keywords: Biological control, inundation, inoculation, conservation, formulation, slow release method, crop rotation, Entomopathogenic nematodes, Steinernema feltiae, oilseed rape pests, Meligethes aeneus, Phyllotreta spp., occurrence, prevalence, intensity, efficacy, persistence, field, Isaria fumosorosea, biotic factors, abiotic factors, interaction, impact, insect stages, integrated crop management, standard (conventional) crop management

Kymmenen teollisesti merkittävän puulajin kuoriuutteiden mahdollisuudet tuholaistorjunnassa

Metsäteollisuudesta kertyy vuosittain suuria määriä ylijäämämateriaalia, kuten puun kuorta ja oksia.Ylimääräinen aines käytetään pääasiassa energiantuotantoon, mutta uusia soveltamismahdollisuuksia kaivataan. Kuoren on havaittu olevan potentiaalinen lähde monille bioaktiivisille yhdisteille, joille olisi käyttöä esimerkiksi lääke- ja kemianteollisuudessa sekä maa-, metsä- ja puutarhatuotannon tuholaistorjunnassa. Tutkimus on osa Euroopan Unionin rahoittamaa ForestSpeCs-projektia, jonka tarkoituksena on selvittää metsäteollisuuden ylijäämämateriaalien vaihtoehtoisia käyttötapoja. Valittujen kymmenen teollisesti merkittävän pohjoisen puulajin (Abies nephrolepis, Betula pendula, Larix decidua, L. gmelinii, L. sibirica, Picea abies, P. ajanensis, P. pumila, Pinus sylvestris, Populus tremula) kuoresta uutettujen aineiden soveltuvuutta syönninestoaineeksi testattiin kaaliperhosen (Pieris brassicae L.) ja krysanteemiyökkösen (Spodoptera littoralis Boisduval) toukilla sekä osittain sinappikuoriaisella (Phaedon cochloreae Fabricius) ja idänlehtikuoriaisella (Agelastica alni L.). Uutteet valmistettiin yhteistyössä projektin ryhmien avulla tai itsenäisesti erilaisin menetelmin. Testaukset tehtiin laboratorio-oloissa käyttäen lehtikiekkojen valintabiotestiä sekä karkeilla uutteilla että niistä erotelluilla yksittäisillä yhdisteillä. Tehdyistä mittauksista laskettiin syönninestoindeksit (FDI). Tulosten perusteella lähes kaikki testatut uutteet vaikuttivat ainakin jossain määrin kohdehyönteisen syöntikäyttäytymiseen. Hieman yli puolet kaaliperhosella testatuista 46 uutteesta aiheuttivat yli 50 % syönnineston eli kaaliperhonen suosi kontrollilehtiä uutteella käsiteltyjä todennäköisemmin. Krysanteemiyökkösellä yli 50 %:n syönnineston aiheuttivat vain seitsemän testatuista 56 uutteesta. Lisäksi kolme uutetta lisäsi käsiteltyjen kiekkojen syöntiä merkittävästi. Idänlehtikuoriaistoukat ja -aikuiset karttoivat erityisesti abietiinihapolla käsiteltyjä lehtiä. Sinappikuoriaisella testatut uutteet toimivat myös lupaavasti. Testattujen puulajien kuoresta on mahdollista uuttaa biologisesti aktiivisia yhdisteitä, mutta tuholaistorjunnan kannalta oikeiden pitoisuuksien ja tehokkaiden uuttomenetelmien löytäminen vaatii jatkotutkimuksia. Kuoren sisältämien yhdisteiden laatu ja määrä vaihtelevat monien tekijöiden, kuten ympäristön ja genetiikan vaikutuksesta. Hyönteisten sietokyky vaihtelee myös paljon lajeittain ja yksilöidenkin välillä on eroja. Uutteista valmistettavia torjunta-aineita olisi kuitenkin mahdollista sisällyttää esimerkiksi integroituun torjuntaan muiden menetelmien rinnalle tulevaisuudessa.

The Rocky Road of Social Sustainability : The Impact of Integrated Biodiversity Conservation and Development on the Local Realities in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar

The objective of this study is to examine the social impacts of the integrated conservation and development project (ICDP) aimed at biodiversity conservation and local socio-economic development in the Ranomafana National Park (RNP), Madagascar. Furthermore, the study explores social sustainability and justice of the ICDP in Ranomafana. This ethnographically informed impact study uses of various field methods. The research material used consists of observation, interviews (key-person and focus group), school children's writings, official statistics and project documents. Fieldwork was conducted in three phases in 2001, 2002 and 2004 in twelve villages around the park, as well as in neighbouring areas of Ranomafana. However, four of those twelve villages were chosen for closer study. This study consists of five independent articles and a concluding chapter. Social impacts were studied through reproductive health indicators as well as a life security approach. Equity and distribution of benefits and drawbacks of ICDP were analysed and the actors related to the conservation in Ranomafana were identified. The children and adolescents' environmental views were also examined. The reproductive health indicators studied showed a poor state of reproductive health in the park area. Moreover, the existing social capital in the villages seemed to be fragmented due to economic difficulties that were partly caused by the conservation regulations. The ICDP in Ranomafana did not pay attention to the heterogeneity of the affected communities even though the local beneficiaries of the ICDP varied according to their ethnicity, living place, wealth, social position and gender. In addition, various conservation actors (local people in various groups, local authorities, tourist business owners, conservation NGOs and scientists) contest their interests over the forest, conservation and its related activities. This study corroborates the same type of evidence and conclusions discussed in other similar cases elsewhere: so called social conservation programmes still cannot meet the needs of the people living near the protected areas; on the contrary, they even have a reverse impact on the people's lives. A fundamental misunderstood assumption in the conservation process in Ranomafana was to consider the local people as a problem for biodiversity conservation. Major reasons for the failure of the ICDP in Ranomafana include a lack of local institutions that would have been able to communicate as equals with the conservation NGOs as well as to transfer the tradition of the authoritarian governance in conservation management together with the over-appreciation of scientific biodiversity, and lack of will to understand the local people's rights to use the forest for their livelihoods.

Cross-Border Competence Management in Emerging Markets: Voices from China and Russia

This book is on cross-border competence management in Russia and China. Corporations are facing a number of problems and challenges in their international operations, to which there typically are no simple solutions. For instance, they need to understand and respond to cultural and institutional diversity and ascertain that their foreign units are integrated with the rest of the corporation. Throughout this report we will discuss a range of challenges confronting firms as they seek to develop their capabilities to operate internationally. Some of the challenges are clearly case specific, and although this book aims to offer research-based advice to practicing managers there is a potential danger in applying lessons from other companies to the own firm. Our hope is that our analyses of the challenges facing Finnish corporations in China and Russia reported together with extensive quotes from our interviews and insights from other recent studies will help readers draw their own conclusions as to how to deal with issues related to competence management across borders. With this book we also aspire to contribute to the academic literature by providing new insights into cross-border competence management in general and the operations of Finnish corporations in Russia and China in particular.

Traditionally Protected Forests´ Role within Transforming Natural Resource Management Regimes in Taita Hills, Kenya

In Taita Hills, south-eastern Kenya, remnants of indigenous mountain rainforests play a crucial role as water towers and socio-cultural sites. They are pressurized due to poverty, shortage of cultivable land and the fading of traditional knowledge. This study examines the traditional ecological knowledge of Taitas and the ways it may be applied within transforming natural resource management regimes. I have analyzed some justifications for and hindrances to ethnodevelopment and participatory forest management in light of recently renewed Kenyan forest policies. Mixed methods were applied by combining an ethnographic approach with participatory GIS. I learned about traditionally protected forests and their ecological and cultural status through a seek out the expert method and with remote sensing data and tools. My informants were: 107 household interviewees, 257 focus group participants, 73 key informants and 87 common informants in participatory mapping. Religious leaders and state officials shared their knowledge for this study. I have gained a better understanding of the traditionally protected forests and sites through examining their ecological characteristics and relation to social dynamics, by evaluating their strengths and hindrances as sites for conservation of cultural and biological diversity. My results show that, these sites are important components of a complex socio-ecological system, which has symbolical status and sacred and mystical elements within it, that contributes to the connectivity of remnant forests in the agroforestry dominated landscape. Altogether, 255 plant species and 220 uses were recognized by the tradition experts, whereas 161 species with 108 beneficial uses were listed by farmers. Out of the traditionally protected forests studied 47 % were on private land and 23% on community land, leaving 9% within state forest reserves. A paradigm shift in conservation is needed; the conservation area approach is not functional for private lands or areas trusted upon communities. The role of traditionally protected forests in community-based forest management is, however, paradoxal, since communal approaches suggests equal participation of people, whereas management of these sites has traditionally been the duty of solely accredited experts in the village. As modernization has gathered pace such experts have become fewer. Sacredness clearly contributes but, it does not equal conservation. Various social, political and economic arrangements further affect the integrity of traditionally protected forests and sites, control of witchcraft being one of them. My results suggest that the Taita have a rich traditional ecological knowledge base, which should be more determinately integrated into the natural resource management planning processes.

Pain measurement and management in elderly patients : Clinical studies in long term hospital care and after cardiac surgery

The proportion of patients over 75 years of age, receiving all different types of healthcare, is constantly increasing. The elderly undergo surgery and anaesthetic procedures more often than middle-aged patients. Poor pain management in the elderly is still an issue. Although the elderly consumes the greatest proportion of prescribed medicines in Western Europe, most clinical pharmacological studies have been performed in healthy volunteers or middle-aged patients. The aim of this study was to investigate pain measurement and management in cognitively impaired patients in long term hospital care and in cognitively normal elderly patients after cardiac surgery. This thesis incorporated 366 patients, including 86 home-dwelling or hospitalized elderly with chronic pain and 280 patients undergoing cardiac surgery with acute pain. The mean age of patients was 77 (SD ± 8) years and approximately 8400 pain measurements were performed with four pain scales: Verbal Rating Scale (VRS), the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), the Red Wedge Scale (RWS), and the Facial Pain Scale (FPS). Cognitive function, depression, functional ability in daily life, postoperative sedation and postoperative confusion were assessed with MMSE, GDS, Barthel Index, RASS, and CAM-ICU, respectively. The effects and plasma concentrations of fentanyl and oxycodone were measured in elderly (≥ 75 years) and middle-aged patients (≤ 60 years) and the opioid-sparing effect of pregabalin was studied after cardiac surgery. The VRS pain scores after movement correlated with the Barthel Index. The VRS was most successful in the groups of demented patients (MMSE 17-23, 11-16 and ≤ 10) and in elderly patients on the first day after cardiac surgery. The elderly had a higher plasma concentration of fentanyl at the end of surgery than younger patients. The plasma concentrations of oxycodone were comparable between the groups. Pain intensity on the VRS was lower and the sedation scores were higher in the elderly. Total oxycodone consumption during five postoperative days was reduced by 48% and the CAM-ICU scores were higher on the first postoperative day in the pregabalin group. The incidence of postoperative pain during movement was lower in the pregabalin group three months after surgery. This investigation demonstrates that chronic pain did not seem to impair daily activities in home-dwelling Finnish elderly. The VRS appeared to be applicable for elderly patients with clear cognitive dysfunction (MMSE ≤17) and it was the most feasible pain scale for the early postoperative period after cardiac surgery. After cardiac surgery, plasma concentrations of fentanyl in elderly were elevated, although oxycodone concentrations were at similar level compared to middle-aged patients. The elderly had less pain and were more sedated after doses of oxycodone. Therefore, particular attention must be given to individual dosing of the opioids in elderly surgical patients, who often need a smaller amount for adequate analgesia than middle-aged patients. The administration of pregabalin reduced postoperative oxycodone consumption after cardiac surgery. Pregabalin-treated patients had less confusion, and additionally to less postoperative pain on the first postoperative day and during movement at three months post-surgery. Pregabalin might be a new alternative as analgesic for acute postoperative and chronic pain management in the elderly. Its clinical role and safety remains to be verified in large-scale randomized and controlled studies. In the future, many clinical trials in the older category of patients will be needed to facilitate improvements in health care methods.

Integrated climatic impacts of forestry and fibre-based packaging

The purpose of this study was to examine the integrated climatic impacts of forestry and the use fibre-based packaging materials. The responsible use of forest resources plays an integral role in mitigating climate change. Forests offer three generic mitigation strategies; conservation, sequestration and substitution. By conserving carbon reservoirs, increasing the carbon sequestration in the forest or substituting fossil fuel intensive materials and energy, it is possible to lower the amount of carbon in the atmosphere through the use of forest resources. The Finnish forest industry consumed some 78 million m3 of wood in 2009, while total of 2.4 million tons of different packaging materials were consumed that same year in Finland. Nearly half of the domestically consumed packaging materials were wood-based. Globally the world packaging material market is valued worth annually some €400 billion, of which the fibre-based packaging materials account for 40 %. The methodology and the theoretical framework of this study are based on a stand-level, steady-state analysis of forestry and wood yields. The forest stand data used for this study were obtained from Metla, and consisted of 14 forest stands located in Southern and Central Finland. The forest growth and wood yields were first optimized with the help of Stand Management Assistant software, and then simulated in Motti for forest carbon pools. The basic idea was to examine the climatic impacts of fibre-based packaging material production and consumption through different forest management and end-use scenarios. Economically optimal forest management practices were chosen as the baseline (1) for the study. In the alternative scenarios, the amount of fibre-based packaging material on the market decreased from the baseline. The reduced pulpwood demand (RPD) scenario (2) follows economically optimal management practices under reduced pulpwood price conditions, while the sawlog scenario (3) also changed the product mix from packaging to sawnwood products. The energy scenario (4) examines the impacts of pulpwood demand shift from packaging to energy use. The final scenario follows the silvicultural guidelines developed by the Forestry Development Centre Tapio (5). The baseline forest and forest product carbon pools and the avoided emissions from wood use were compared to those under alternative forest management regimes and end-use scenarios. The comparison of the climatic impacts between scenarios gave an insight into the sustainability of fibre-based packaging materials, and the impacts of decreased material supply and substitution. The results show that the use of wood for fibre-based packaging purposes is favorable, when considering climate change mitigation aspects of forestry and wood use. Fibre-based packaging materials efficiently displace fossil carbon emissions by substituting more energy intensive materials, and they delay biogenic carbon re-emissions to the atmosphere for several months up to years. The RPD and the sawlog scenarios both fared well in the scenario comparison. These scenarios produced relatively more sawnwood, which can displace high amounts of emissions and has high carbon storing potential due to the long lifecycle. The results indicate the possibility that win-win scenarios exist by shifting production from pulpwood to sawlogs; on some of the stands in the RPD and sawlog scenarios, both carbon pools and avoided emissions increased from the baseline simultaneously. On the opposite, the shift from packaging material to energy use caused the carbon pools and the avoided emissions to diminish from the baseline. Hence the use of virgin fibres for energy purposes, rather than forest industry feedstock biomass, should be critically judged if optional to each other. Managing the stands according to the silvicultural guidelines developed by the Forestry Development Centre Tapio provided the least climatic benefits, showing considerably lower carbon pools and avoided emissions. This seems interesting and worth noting, as the guidelines are the current basis for the forest management practices in Finland.