Sheng Lin

Biography

Sheng LIN Ph.D. (2011) of entomology at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU). Visiting scholar (2013-2014) at Landcare Research, New Zealand. Research Interests: By applying the principles of agroecology and biodiversity, the research team at IAE attempts to investigate, design, manage and achieve a safe, sustainable, productive and environmentally friendly means of pest control. Our studies on the evolutionary and ecological mechanism of host plant-insect pest- natural enemy interacting system at all levels and biodiversity manipulation in support of pest management in agroecosystems seem to indicate that research focused on the aspects of habitat management and inter- or mixed cropping could be a prudent approach: 1)Habitat management——On the crop fields and other non-crop habitats around, the development of arthropod community will be studied to elucidate effects of non-crop habitat manipulation on pest population density and community reestablishment of natural enemies. Furthermore, answers to questions such as, which habitat setting is beneficial to natural enemy conservation and what are the ecological function and mechanisms of non-crop habitat and vegetation diversity in agro-ecosystems, could be obtained. (2)Effects of inter- or mixed cropping——Interrelationships among allelopathic effects and physiological complementation of different crop varieties, field microclimatic environment and insect pests will be studied to understand the cropping system and allelochemical functions in controlling the pests. Combinations of insect-resistant varieties will be screened out for it’s insect-resistant characteristics. In addition, effects of various breed combinations on the population dynamics of insect pests, the controlling efficiency of natural enemies against pests and the stability of arthropod community in ecosystems will also be determined for optimization of the control system. Another area of my interests relates to the ecological risk of genetically modified rice (GMR). GMO technology can contribute greatly to the global food shortage. However, the issues on bio-safety associated with the technology continue to be a major concern. Therefore, prior to large scale commercialization of GMR, risk assessment must be performed for careful evaluation. Thus far, the team has conducted several year-round experimentations, including studies on arthropod andrhizosphere soil microorganism community in paddy fields, ecological fitness of non-target organisms, tri-trophic interactions among GMR, insect pests and natural enemies, and composition and function of insect gut microorganisms.

Research Interest

Pest control; Pest Habitat management; Habitat management