When can agriculture benefit from an application of evolutionary biology thinking? We have been involved in three projects relating to this: (1) the importance of learning in the behaviour of agricultural pests; (2) the development of Darwinian Agriculture; (3) performance of symbionts in agricultural crops.

Our main findings are:

• Learning is likely to be important in how agricultural pests choose upon which plants to lay their eggs. This has consequences for explaining why some pest management strategies have failed, and the development of future strategies (Cunningham et al. 1999 Bull. Ent. Res.). We suggest this is generally true (Cunningham et al. 2001 Oikos; West & Cunningham 2002 J. Theor. Biol.), and have carried out specific studies on the moth Helicoverpa (=Heliothis) armigera (photo above left; Cunningham et al. 1998 Ecol. Ent., 1999 Bull. En. Res. , 2003 J. Exp. Biol.).
• Darwinian agriculture is the application of evolutionary biology to the development of sustainable agriculture. It suggests: (a) the ability of genetic modification to improve crop yield will be severely limited by trade-offs; (b) mimicking of natural ecosystems will not necessarily lead to an increase in agricultural productivity (Denison et al. 2003 Q Rev. Biol.).
• Evolutionary theory predicts how the usefulness (effectiveness) of root symbionts will change in response to different farming practices (Kiers et al. 2002 J. Appl. Ecol.).
  

The work on learning in agricultural pests was led by Paul Cunningham, currently at JMU, Liverpool. This was part of a larger project on the evolutionary ecology of learning (see all Cunningham papers below). The work on Darwinian Agriculture and root symbionts was led by Ford Denison & Toby Kiers at UC Davis, California (see also our work on the stability of the legume-rhizobia mutualism). The photo above right is from the Long Term Research on Agricultural Systems project (LTRAS), run by Ford Denison from 1993-2002.

Selected Relevant Publications

• Cunningham, J.P., Moore, C.J., Zalucki, M.P. & West, S.A. (2003) Learning, odour preference and flower foraging in moths. Journal of Experimental Biology, 207, 87-94. {PDF}
• Denison, R.F., Kiers, E.T. & West, S.A. (2003) Darwinian agriculture: when can humans find solutions beyond the reach of natural selection? Quarterly Review of Biology, 78, 145-168. {PDF}  {Darwinian Agriculture Homepage}
• Kiers, E.T., West, S.A. & Denison, R.F. (2002) Mediating mutualisms: Farm management practises and evolutionary changes in symbiont cooperation. Journal of Applied Ecology, 39, 745-754. {PDF}
• West, S.A. & Cunningham, J.P. (2002) A general model for host plant selection in phytophagous insects. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 214, 499-513. {PDF}
• Cunningham, J.P., West, S.A. & Zalucki, M.P. (2001) Host Selection in Phytophagous Insects: a new explanation for learning in adults. Oikos,95, 537-543. {PDF}
• Cunningham, J.P., Zalucki, M. P. & West, S.A. (1999) Learning in Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae): a new look at the behaviour and control of a polyphagous pest. Bulletin of Entomological Research, 89, 201-207. {PDF}
• Cunningham, J.P., West, S.A. & Wright, D.J. (1998) Learning in the nectar foraging behaviour of Helicoverpa armigera. Ecological Entomology, 23, 363-369. {PDF}