![]() Study of phase polyphenism emergence and associated risks |
About | Locust species alternatively display harmless solitarious and gregarious phenotypes. Gregarious phenotypes create migrating bands and swarms that are devastating for all types of agriculture. This plasticity, named phase polyphenism, has been hypothesized as an evolutionary response to cannibalism avoidance. Group movement was also proposed as an adaptation to predation risk. Alternatively, we propose that phase polyphenism could emerge as a response to variable conditions of resource, mainly vegetation. The hypothesis is that these environmental conditions change the trade-offs of costs and benefits of being in the group and interacting strongly with congeners. Group selection may occur on behaviors of grouping and/or collective movement as these could be considered as a form of cooperative behavior. |
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Institutions | ![]() Cirad activities concern the life sciences, social sciences and engineering sciences, applied to agriculture, food, the environment and territorial management. Cirad works focus on several main topics: food security, climate change, natural resource management, reduction of inequalities and poverty alleviation. |
![]() CBGP aims to characterize the diversity of these organisms, to understand structure and factors which modify them, to predict their evolution in a context of global changes. CBGP leads academic researches while making so that the results of research programs can drive to the elaboration of scenarios or decision-making tools dedicated to the management of pest and diseases or the conservation of endangered species. |
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![]() ANR funds project-based research carried out by public operators cooperating with each other or with private companies. ANR also aims to strengthen the position of French research at European level and worldwide. |
Objectives | The first objective of PEPPER will be to theoretically explore the trade-offs and environmental conditions leading to phase polyphenism emergence. Identifying the regimes of environmental variation of resources favorable to phase polyphenism evolution may help in identifying conditions of outbreaks. |
The second objective of PEPPER will be to develop a forecasting model of locust population dynamics and validate it using field data from locust observations. | Demogenetic agent-based models should be used in the first objective. The second objective will also benefit from integrating the biological knowledge on the Desert locust within a mechanistic agent-based model that will consider remote-sensing imagery to represent environmental drivers. Pattern-oriented modeling will be applied to both objectives to select the processes to consider in the models and adjust them to real-world data. |
Publications | Maeno K, Piou C, Kearney MR, Ould Ely S, Ould Mohamed SA, Jaavar MEH & Ould Babah Ebbe MA, 2021. A general model of the thermal constraints on the world's most destructive locust, Schistocerca gregaria. Ecological Applications, in press. |
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