Russian wheat aphids: Breakfast, lunch, and supper. Feasting on small grains in South Africa

Botha, C.E.J.; Sacranie, S.; Gallagher, S.; Hill, J.M.

Russian wheat aphids: Breakfast, lunch, and supper. Feasting on small grains in South Africa

2017

Botha, C.E.J. | Sacranie, S. | Gallagher, S. | Hill, J.M.

The Russian Wheat Aphid (Diuraphis noxia, RWA) negatively impacts commercially grown barley and wheat in South Africa. Climate change, the attendant rise in [CO2], and the appearance of new RWA biotypes have the potential to induce severe crop yield loss in agriculturally important wheat and barley cultivars. This study presents data showing changes in relative aphid population numbers, concurrently with assessments of plant damage under controlled environmental conditions, under ambient and elevated (450ppm) [CO2]. Extensive structural damage to the vascular tissue and disruption to the transport systems were revealed using light, fluorescence and electron microscopy. This, coupled with biotype population studies, demonstrated that RWA has the capacity to inflict severe, potentially permanent damage to vegetative small grain plants. Furthermore, some currently ‘resistant’ cultivars may well lose resistance as a direct result of increasing atmospheric [CO2]. A small (50ppm) increase in atmospheric [CO2] may result in increased aphid population numbers, potentially serious plant damage and, by implication, a potentially negative impact on yield, as increased aphid density per plant leads to an accelerated disruption of the assimilate and transpiration transport pathways. These outcomes pose a direct threat to the commercial small grain industry of South Africa and by extension, to other small grain production areas elsewhere.

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