Understanding the impact of pesticides on ants

Ant

Supervisor: Mark Brown

Project Summary:

Insects underpin life on earth, but their populations are in dramatic decline around the world. Pesticides, old and new, are thought to be one of the major drivers of insect decline. While pesticides have clear impacts on pollinators, their impacts on other key insect groups remains unclear. Ants dominate terrestrial ecosystems as carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores, and through their behaviours that generate soil and maintain key ecological symbioses. How pesticides impact the biology and ecology of ants remains largely unexplored. This PhD project will investigate the impacts of pesticides on ants in laboratory, semi-field, and real-world systems. It will provide key data to feed into policy and practice to prevent and reverse insect declines.

Type of Work:

You will co-create your PhD in collaboration with me and the broader lab group; this will develop your skills in experimental design. You will conduct laboratory , semi-field, and field research with ants using behavioural, ecological, ecotoxicological, and insect handling techniques; this will develop your research and project management skills. You will analyse your data, present it in lab meetings, and write up your results; this will develop your statistical, presentation, and scientific writing skills.

Importance of the area of research concerned:

Pesticides are a key part of global agricultural practice, underpinning the crop yields we rely on to feed the world. However, they also have dramatic and pervasive impacts on ecosystem health. Ants dominate terrestrial life on earth, but the impact of pesticides on their health is largely unknown. This PhD will fill a key gap in knowledge and contribute to evidence underpinning future policy and practice for sustainable agriculture

References: 

Pohl M, Hommen U, Eilebrecht S, Schäfers C, Gadau J, Otto M (2024) Ants are no bees – Gaps in the assessment of relevant exposure routes to pesticides and plant incorporated protectants. Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology 6: 71-80 Nicholson CC, Knapp J, Kiljanek T, Albrecht M, Chauzat M-P, Costa C, De la Rùa P, Klein A-M, Mänd M, Potts SP, Schweiger O, Bottero I, Cini E, de Miranda JR, Di Prisco G, Dominik C, Hodge S, Kaunath V, Knauer A, Laurent M, Martínez-Lòpez V, Medrzycki P, Pereira-Peixoto MH, Raimets R, Schwarz JM, Senapathi D, Tamburini G, Brown MJF, Stout JC, Rundlöf M (2024) Pesticide use negatively affects bumble bees across European landscapes. Nature 628:355-358