Research interests

Damage from insect outbreaks mean big economical losses for forest industry. As a consequence of the ongoing climate change there is a general concern that the problems will be even worse in the future. The main reason why insects would benefit from a warmer climate is that they are highly sensitive to temperature. In higher temperatures insects are more active and develop faster. In my PhD project I want to find an answer to how the risk of insect outbreaks is affected by climate change.

My study species is the European pine sawfly (Neodiprion sertifer). The European pine sawfly is an outbreak species that, in some years, causes severe damage to pines as the larvae feed on the needles. However, higher temperatures will not only affect the performance of the insect itself but will also have an effect on its host and natural enemies, making predictions about population dynamics more complicated. To understand how the sawflies will be affected by a changing climate we need to know how the species itself is affected, but also how processes and interactions important for the population dynamics are affected.  

Within my PhD project I look closer into how bottom-up factors, i.e. host quality in the form of resin acids, and top-down factors, i.e. natural enemies, regulate the population dynamics of the European pine sawfly and to what extent these trophic interactions are sensitive to temperature.

My supervisors are Christer Björkman and Helena Bylund, both at the Department of Ecology.