Workshop at the Centre for Biological Control Workshop, Uppsala, Sweden

Sasha Vasconcelos from our team has returned from the workshop organised on February 13th 2019 by the Centre for Biological Control,  run by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden. The CBC contributes to the development of new knowledge concerning the use of living organisms to control pests and diseases and is a competence driven actor in biological control, both nationally and internationally. Sasha presented a talk entitled “Linking agricultural management, host parasitoid interactions and natural pest control in Mediterranean olive farms”.

During the day, the participants made short presentations about ongoing work and discussed potential research ideas centered on the topic of pest control with living organisms. This field of research falls within the scope of the EnvMetaGen project, which aims to use molecular approaches to deepen the understanding of the trophic links between agricultural insect pests and their natural enemies in different agroecosystems. The small group size of the workshop provided an important opportunity to engage in lengthy discussions with most of the other participants, who also provided valuable feedback about Sasha’s work.