Navigating the challenge of transboundary pests through global networks

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

3:42 PM – 3:54 PM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 111/112

Presenting Author(s)

Mira Word Ries

Project Coordinator
Arizona State University
Columbia Falls, Montana

Co-Author(s)

RO

Rick Overson

Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona
Arianne Cease

Associate Professor
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona

Locust outbreaks are an intermittent phenomenon that triggers agricultural emergencies across social and ecological borders. Because of their cyclical nature, it is extremely challenging to maintain long-term infrastructure to manage this transboundary pest. To cultivate a global community for maintaining momentum before, during, and after outbreaks, and to help bring people and organizations together across boundaries, cultures, and disciplines, we launched the Global Locust Initiative (GLI) in 2018. In this presentation, we will discuss challenges and successes of a key element of the GLI– the global network. In 2021, we created an online platform network dubbed “HopperLink” as a tool to help connect the researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders who focus on issues surrounding locusts. We have grown to 185 members representing 86 distinct areas of expertise from 41 different countries. Members use the platform to network with new and familiar colleagues, share research, promote events, ask for feedback on projects, pose excellent questions, and discuss issues from biocontrol to taxonomy to institutional challenges. We leveraged the GLI and HopperLink to support research exchange and stakeholder engagement for the NSF Behavioral Plasticity Research Institute (BPRI) which uses locusts as a model to study plasticity from molecules to landscapes, supporting the rare opportunity for lab scientists to connect directly with field-based practitioners and other stakeholders. We hope this platform will have positive implications for transdisciplinary research and spark ideas for collaborative projects that will transform future locust research and management. This work was supported by FFAR #593561 and NSF #2021795.