Dear IUFRO FRIENDS

Please consider attending the upcoming FABI International Seminar (29^th April at 16h00 GMT +2) to be presented by Dr Andrew (Sandy) Liebhold.  Sandy is very well known to the IUFRO Community having (for example) served Division 7 (Tree Health) Co-ordinator and Chair of the Scientific Committee for our 125^th Anniversary Congress in Freiburg in 2017.  If you are interested in tree health, biological invasions or forests and forestry in general - this will be a seminar for you to enjoy.

To attend, it is necessary to register -please do so at  https://www.fabinet.up.ac.za/index.php/event/FABISerminarSeries/

Background information on Sandy’s talk can be found below and details of the FABI International Seminar Series is on the web site above.

Best regards

Mike

April, 2021

Speaker: Dr Andrew Liebhold, US Forest Service Northern Research Station, Morgantown, WV USA

Title: Macroecology of Insect Invasions

Date: 29 April 2021                     Time: 16:00 (GMT+2)

Abstract: Biological invasions are largely an unintended consequence of globalization. With increasing mobility, humans have accidentally transported organisms around the world, breaking the geographical boundaries that separated species ranges that persisted for millions of years of evolution. Among animals, the insecta is the most species-rich class, with thousands of insect species having been established outside of their native ranges and many of these species causing immense impacts on agriculture, human health and conservation of native ecosystems. Here, I report on a macroecological analysis of historical insect invasions spanning 300 years and 10 world regions. These data are used to compare frequencies of invasions among different insect orders and among different insect families. Species-area relationships for native insect assemblages are generally stronger than for non-native insect assemblages. Certain groups, such as the Hemiptera, Formicidae and the Staphylinidae are generally over-represented in non-native insect assemblages, while other taxa are under-represented. These patterns generally reflect characteristics of these insects that cause them to enter important invasion pathways and biological characteristics that facilitate invasions. These results ultimately allow us to better understand the socio-economic drivers of insect invasions and can be of use when conducting invasive pest risk analysis.

Biography:  Andrew “Sandy” Liebhold has been a research entomologist with the US Forest Service Northern Research Station, Morgantown, WV USA since 1988. His research focuses on the ecology and management of biological invasions and the spatial dynamics of insect outbreaks.   Liebhold received his PhD in Entomology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984 and worked as a postdoctoral at the University of Massachusetts before joining the Forest Service. He is a fellow of the AAAS and serves on the editorial board of the journals Population Ecology and Biological Invasions. He also currently serves as a scientific coordinator with the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Science, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague and a visiting scholar with Scion Research in New Zealand. 

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Please refer to http://upnet.up.ac.za/services/it/documentation/docs/004167.pdf for full details.