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SUMMARY:Modelling the Control of Fungal Crop Disease: Challenging traditio
 nal assumptions - Matthew Castle
DTSTART:20100604T120000Z
DTEND:20100604T123000Z
UID:TALK23963@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:15560
DESCRIPTION:Fungal crop diseases continue to have a huge impact on agricul
 tural practices globally. With both resurgence in fungicidal resistance by
  traditional pathogen strains (Phytophthora infestans on Solanum tuberosum
 ) and the introduction of non-native pathogen strains to new host areas (P
 hytophthora ramorum on Quercus spp.) the need for well considered control 
 strategies has never been higher. Epidemiological modelling has long been 
 an integral part of a comprehensive control strategy\, however the modelli
 ng of chemical control usage has historically been greatly simplified and 
 the consequences of this simplification have not been thoroughly investiga
 ted or justified.\n\nWe reconsider the assumptions underpinning widely use
 d models for fungicide behaviour at plant\, field and landscape scales. We
  show that many of these models are based on assumptions that take into ac
 count the dynamics of the pathogen but fail to take into account the dynam
 ics of the fungicide and so give erroneous predictions of the fungicides e
 fficacy. Accordingly we develop models that incorporate more detailed fung
 icide dynamics and using selected examples show how these change predictio
 ns.\n\nIn one such example\, we give a description of a novel\, leaf-scale
  model for fungal lesion growth. Here we propose that the physical leaf ge
 ometry (its size and shape) is an important factor in characterising spore
  production for certain pathogens. Consequently\, the epidemiological conc
 ept known as "force of infection" (approximately a measure of the rate wit
 h which infectious hosts infect uninfected hosts)\, can be related directl
 y to the mechanistic leaf-scale processes of fungal lesion growth. We show
  that by modelling fungicides at these scales\, conventional assumptions r
 egarding their effects (via their effects on larger scale infection parame
 ters\, such as force of infection) can lead to misleading conclusions abou
 t the fungicide’s wider impact.
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theatre
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