Duration: 10/01/2025 to 09/30/2030

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

A major societal issue, in particular related to our food system, is that current agricultural practices rely heavily on pesticides, which have negative impacts on the environment, human health, and beneficial insects. This project aims to develop sustainable pest control strategies by studying the chemical interactions between crops, pests, and beneficial organisms. The goal is to reduce pesticide use and promote sustainable agriculture in the Northeastern USA. Our objectives are to develop chemical ecology tools for pest management, understand how chemical interactions vary across different landscapes, find ways to minimize pesticide impacts, improve crop resilience, explore the role of microorganisms in pest control, expand the use of analytical facilities, and conduct outreach to promote the adoption of sustainable practices. Our target audiences are farmers, agricultural professionals, researchers, and the general public. Farmers will benefit from new pest management strategies that reduce reliance on pesticides and improve crop yields. Researchers will gain access to new tools and knowledge in chemical ecology. The public will benefit from a more sustainable and healthy food system. Our activities will include field experiments, chemical analyses, and the development of new pest control products. These activities will lead to a better understanding of chemical interactions in agriculture and the development of sustainable pest management strategies. This multistate project will also provide training and outreach to promote the adoption of these practices.

Statement of Issues and Justification

The need, as indicated by stakeholders:

Agriculture is both culturally important and an economic driver in the Northeast, and both culture and economics are driving us towards a strong need for new practices in agroecosystems. The significant financial burden of bringing new pesticides to market, combined with the well-documented economic, environmental, and human costs associated with their use, underscores the need to develop alternative pest control strategies. Methods that leverage the natural chemical signaling and interactions between crops, pests, and natural enemies offer promising opportunities to enhance integrated pest management (IPM) through limiting the need for synthetic, broad-spectrum insecticides, while supporting pollinator health and efficiency in agricultural systems. This proposal addresses these challenges by advancing chemical ecology's role in agriculture. Furthermore, it emphasizes the critical role of microbes in plant-arthropod interactions. Additionally, the proposal includes development of chemical ecology analytical infrastructure and extension activities.

Food security is of growing importance for the large segment of the population living in large cities which rely on imported food and also for the rural population, so maintaining agricultural productivity is essential for the well-being of many in the region. For example, New York alone ranked 5th in the nation for vegetable production (NASS 2023). Organic agriculture is an economically important element in the region contributing to $ 1 billion in organic sales and 7,100 jobs in Pennsylvania alone (ESI 2024).  Acreage of food crops grown under glass or other protective structures in the United States increased 8% from 2017-2022 with New York ranked 4th in the nation in terms of acreage of vegetables and fresh herbs grown under controlled environment agriculture yielding over $66 million in approximated sales in 2022.  In addition, agriculture in the eastern United States is focused on many crops that require insect pollination. Pollination benefits over 70% of the major food crops across the globe (Klein et al., 2007), contributing more than $170 billion and $15 billion to the global and US economies annually, respectively (Gallai et al., 2009; Calderone, 2012). We estimate that pollination services to New York’s crops are worth approximately $439 million annually (Grout et al. 2020), highlighting the economic importance of both the crops and the beneficial insects that support them.

Agriculture in the Northeast is comprised on a mix of growing practices that range from heavy reliance on pesticides to integrated pest management and organic practices. To support this diverse base of food production, innovations are needed that reduce the risks of pesticides in conventional agriculture and enhance the productivity in organic systems. Legislation, including the New York “Birds and Bees Protection Act” that bans the use of certain neonicotinoid pesticides, drives us to develop new pest management strategies and products. The Northeast IPM Center states “IPM and organic systems share many of the same goals and challenges, and we support collaboration between these two communities to build a more sustainable agricultural system.” The Center highlights the importance of “efforts to identify alternative pesticides and alternative or new IPM practices, such as biological pesticides or cultural methods, are critical to long-term effective pest management”. They add “the decline of wild and managed pollinators is one of the most critical issues facing our food systems” and “we will continue to give this issue priority and encourage efforts to develop IPM practices protective of and with lower risk to wild and managed pollinators”.  Northeast regional priorities for fruit, vegetable and specialty crops are replete with calls for research and sustainable practices to reduce the impacts of insect pests and to protect valuable pollinators. This multi-state project seeks to harness innate properties of crops and agroecosystems to address pest and pollinator priorities across important cropping systems in the northeast.

The importance of the work, and what the consequences are if it is not done:
As the discipline of chemical ecology matures, knowledge gained in ecological, behavioral and evolutionary studies is being combined with chemistry and engineering and increasingly translated into practical and applied pest management. This blending of fundamental and applied research enhances the likelihood of sustainable pest management and a reduction in pesticides released into our environment. The consequence of not pursuing sustainable, non-pesticidal management of pests is a continued reliance on insecticides and other pesticides, with potential long- and short- term adverse effects on our environment for future generations.

Generally, researchers of diverse disciplines converge upon a particular crop, target pest and local region rather than developing management models that cut across a broad range of crops, pests and geographic regions. This multistate project has done the reverse, harnessing the intellectual breadth of chemical ecology practitioners and to focus their interests on agricultural pests and pollinators. The group as a whole is working in many of the important crops and agricultural systems in the northeast and US, including field crops, vegetables, and controlled environment agriculture. The multi-state team is remarkably broad, spanning entomologists, applied ecologists, chemists, engineers and economists at University and USDA research locations.

The technical feasibility of the research:
The field of chemical ecology originated 65 years ago with the identification of an insect sex pheromone. That work engendered the applied practice of pheromone mating disruption and pheromone trapping to inform IPM decisions. Since then, it has become clear that understanding how to manipulate agricultural systems to maximize the functions of beneficial species while minimizing the negative effects of pests requires understanding the community-wide biological activity of toxins, nutrients, and signaling compounds exchanged between plants and community members such as insect pests, natural enemies of pests, pollinators, beneficial microbes, and pathogens. In addition, the expertise of chemists and engineers is needed to determine the spatial and temporal activity of signaling compounds so they can be deployed in a meaningful manner. A concrete example of applications arising from this multistate is a team of researchers determining how to optimize pheromone traps for corn earworm monitoring. Applied entomologists, chemists and engineers from Cornell, University of Maryland, and Virginia Tech are working together to determine how the corn earworm pheromone disperses out of different types of traps and which traps effectively catch corn earworm moths in different environmental conditions. In another example, the Rivera Lab, working with chemist Duplais, identified a new Ambrosia beetle attacking apple. Ambrosia beetles are pests that feed on stressed apple trees, creating small holes and galleries for their larvae thereby transmitting fire blight. The group found that fire blight-infected trees draw beetles, likely due to the VOC 2,3-butanediol emitted from damaged trees. This finding suggests 2,3-butanediol as a potential lure for beetle control. This teamwork allows the complete follow through from biological discovery to understanding mechanism and creating a product. As an example, the public can learn about apple research emerging from the multistate project through many avenues including Rivera’s Scaffolds podcast.

A key output of the previous multistate was developing a regionally accessible facility for chemical analysis of plant defenses and pesticide residues (Chemical Ecology Core Facility), which will also ensure the technical feasibility of future projects for the group. Currently, researchers in the multistate have access to GC-MS, LC-MS, and a dedicated technician for targeted analysis of metabolites and method development through the Chemical Ecology Core run by McArt (Cornell). To complement this facility, the Cornell AgriTech Mass Spectrometry Facility was recently created for untargeted analysis of plant, insect, and microbe metabolites multistate. We continue to work with breeders and molecular biologists to link needs on the farm with technological advances in biology. In combination with other resources such as the UC Davis Metabolomics center and the Boyce Thompson Cornell Core facility, we are confident of technical feasibility of this groups work.

The advantages for doing the work as a multistate effort:
The field of chemical ecology is well represented in various land grant universities within the Northeast and across the US and while there are pest problems that are unique to the Northeast, there is substantial overlap in pest guilds within the areas comprising the region. The project has attracted many leading chemical ecologists from the Northeast and across the country. There are 51 PIs involved, 32 of whom have attended the yearly meetings.  In the first meetings, researchers presented the highlights of their research to get to know each other and find points of overlap. The meetings continue to be a place where PIs get helpful input on their projects and new research collaborations and grants form. At the meeting in 2024 (which also included Pennsylvania Agriculture Experiment Station Director Blair Siegfried and Erica Kistner-Thomas from the USDA), we specifically discussed ways to expand the crops covered by the multistate, include researchers from the USDA, and provide chemical ecology information to regulatory agencies.

The multistate project has been instrumental in allowing researchers to bring in additional resources, with the group bringing in approximately $7 million in grants from diverse sources ranging from the USDA- NIFA, USDA- SCRI, USDA-CPPM, the Almond Board of California, Cypress Creek Renewables, Inc, and the IR-4 Minor Crop Pesticide Program. The group recently submitted a large NSF Science and Technology Center (STC) proposal. The funding, collaborations and shared resources has resulted in approximately 117 peer-reviewed publications by group members.

Analytical instrumentation is increasingly a limitation for academic researchers. The equipment is expensive to purchase and maintain and requires a skilled operator, which results in both high initial costs and per sample fees. The regional chemical ecology facility has overcome these hurdles in a cost-effective manner.  By focusing on developing techniques that are useful to researchers across the region, groups at many institutions can access the analytical power of a cutting-edge facility with a trained chemist to aid them with the chemical analysis component of their project. This allows many more researchers to incorporate high-level chemical analysis and elucidation of interactions and mechanisms previously out of reach.

What the likely impacts will be from successfully completing the work:
Impacts will continue to be seen in several areas. For example, we are increasing our understanding of how to manipulate mixtures of crop cultivars and other forms of plant diversity to affect the behavior of pests, beneficial insects and natural enemies to increase crop yield. Active research is aimed at discovering new plant natural products that can reduce pests and pathogens, while increasing populations of beneficial insects. For example, nectar metabolites with anti-pathogenic properties are being evaluated as new crop protection tools, wildflower strips are being designed to increase pollinator health, and soil management practices are being tested for their impact on cultivating resistance inducing microbes in the soil. The effect of insecticides, fungicides and herbicides in the agroecosystem will continue to be tested to discover which chemicals are both effective and safe for non-target organisms. And, crop varieties will be promoted that are the most valuable given the current pest problems in the region.

Areas advantageous for future multistate efforts have been identified, in addition to continuing many existing projects. These include collaborative work on: 1) Emerging pests of economically important crops, 2) the unintended effects of pesticides on pollinator populations 2) development of new approaches that combine complementary chemical methods of control, 3) improving trap designs, and 4) protecting plants through manipulating cover crops. By examining crop protection across multiple scales—from individual plots to entire landscapes and regions—this initiative aims to provide growers with context-specific insights into risks and the availability of conventional and alternative management strategies, as well as creating an awareness of new developments in semiochemical-based tools.

Related, Current and Previous Work

Critical Review:

Substantial achievements were made over the past 5 years; in this section we outline the work that was accomplished as well as work that is incomplete or in need of further investigation.

Previous Objective 1: Develop chemical ecology tools and information to support sustainable agriculture by reducing damage by pests in crops such as potatoes, brassicas, dry beans, cucurbits, apples, blueberries, and sweet corn, while maintaining pollinator health in agricultural systems.

The work conducted on this Objective included the evaluation of 1) plant defense elicitors for pest control, and 2) isolation and identification of attractants and repellents. We have made substantial progress in a wide range of cropping systems important in the northeast, including new target pests that are invasive species and have a high potential for causing significant damage (e.g. spotted lanternfly). As outlined below, we will continue the work we started and expand to include controlled environment agriculture and new emerging pests.

To aid the application of the plants' natural constitutive defenses in pest control, the Agrawal lab (Cornell) with collaborators Weber and Wallingford (USDA and UNH) used Curcubita pepo varieties to study the direct defense traits and their effectiveness against multiple insect pests (Brzozowski et al 2019, Brzozowski et al 2020). The Rodriguez-Saona Lab (Rutgers) used a similar approach to test wild blueberries and cranberries for their natural resistance against various insect pests including the new Spotted-wing Drosophila (Gale et al 2024, Salazar-Mendoza et al 2024). These studies, and previous research on the application of plant resistance traits for pest control, have repeatedly found that the plants can turn on defense mechanisms when they are under attack by herbivores or pathogens, to the detriment of their attackers. Such “induced resistance” is mediated by chemical communication processes that integrate plants’ perception of environmental cues with endogenous phytohormonal changes as a result of tissue damage. Some of those external and endogenous elicitors of plant resistance responses are promising as activators of plant resistance. The most effective and readily usable elicitors are phytohormones that are usually associated with the pest-mediated induction of plant resistance. For example, Stout (Louisiana State) and graduate student Kraus examined the ability to protect plants from rice water weevil using wound-responsive phytohormone, methyl jasmonate, as an elicitor of induced resistance and found protective effects, but it also reduced plant growth (Kraus and Stout 2019). More recently, the Stout lab found that systemic induction of the furanoterpenoid ipomeamarone, in sweet potato storage roots, deterred oviposition by sweet potato weevils (in prep.). Rodriguez-Saona tested the efficacy of commercially available plant activators of the salicylate and jasmonate pathways in protecting cranberries against insect pests directly or by reducing pathogenic phytoplasma infection. Findings show that phytoplasma vectored by leafhoppers made cranberry plants more susceptible to non-vector insects (Pradit et al. 2019).

One general insight gathered from the above-mentioned studies and those in the wider chemical ecology literature is that, to a large extent, the repellent function of plants’ natural defenses derives from chemical cues that are available to attackers or pathogen vectors before they even interact with the plant. This concept of chemical information orchestrating plant interaction networks opens up new and practical solutions for pest control via a targeted manipulation of information transfer. For example, several of the chemical changes induced in response to attacking herbivores are volatile compounds that are emitted into the headspace of the damaged plant. These chemical cues can function as information for subsequently arriving organisms to inform their decision to interact with the plant (attack) or turn away. Thus, the identification and functional analysis of repellent or attractive plant compounds in interaction with pheromone signaling in pest arthropods is another promising path for applied chemical ecology to explore and this group has already made big steps towards successful applications. 

The Rodriguez-Saona (Rutgers) and Loeb (Cornell) labs worked on the chemical ecology of the new invasive pest spotted wing Drosophila evaluating an attract and kill approach using HOOK SWD Lure-and-kill (ISCA Technologies, Inc), finding that this technique is most effective at lower spotted wing densities. Work is continuing to focus on whether odors are involved in fly attraction to ooze, thereby facilitating acquisition and transmission. As spotted wing Drosophila is a major pest across the region, the multi-state project has been extremely beneficial in connecting researchers from several land grant institutions to address highly overlapping issues. The Weber Lab (USDA) conducts studies on male-produced aggregation pheromones of Chrysomelidae and Coreidae that often interact with induced plant volatiles to affect insect host choice. The group studies the application of pheromones to pest management in vegetables: focal species include Colorado potato beetle, Striped cucumber beetle, and Leaf-footed bugs (Leptoglosssus spp.). Similarly, the Thaler Lab (Cornell) in collaboration with Weber (USDA) made advances in understanding how predator pheromone can be used to control Colorado potato beetle showing that the pheromone treatment increases potato yield through several mechanisms. A collaborative study demonstrated significant consequences of predator exposure for beetle fitness (Mutz et al 2024, Ugine et al 2024). Notably, the Poveda and Thaler labs have been studying chemical attractants for Delia platura maggots (seed corn maggots) to be able to better monitor and control them in the field in an effort to replace neonicotinoid pesticide seed treatments. Preliminary data indicate that the larvae are making choices and that these choices are based on olfactory cues. Current experiments are characterizing the volatiles that are mediating these choices. Finally, the same plant cues that can affect herbivore host choice, can also function as information for predators and parasitoids of herbivores (e.g. information-mediated indirect defenses). While these indirect defenses have been a target of research in this group most promising data come from a special case study. To better understand how predatory lady beetles navigate their environment, find food, mates, and oviposition sites, Dr. Ugine (Losey Lab Cornell) has identified more than 500 chemoreceptors from five species of lady beetle. These include gustatory, olfactory, ionotropic, chemosensory proteins, odor-binding proteins, and sensory-neuron membrane proteins (in prep).

Objective 2: Define variability of chemically mediated interactions between pests, crops, and beneficial organisms in terms of plant chemistry, species interactions and landscape factors in the Northeast.

The use of functional cover or intercrop applications to manipulate the information transfer between plants and their pests for more sustainable pest control has become a significant new focus. Significant progress along these lines of research have been made by the Ali Lab (Pennsylvania State). This group is running long-term cover cropping experiments that test for the functionality of different commonly used cover crop species in mediating soil health, plant protection from pathogens and herbivores, and increased yield (Ray et al 2022, Davidson-Lowe et al 2021). Within that framework, Ali with collaborators from this consortium has proposed a large NSF Science and Technology Center (STC) project that is currently in review with NSF. The Kessler Lab has focused on the study of functional intercropping and the associational effects that mediate enhanced maize crop performance. Recent results demonstrate that the presence of certain legume intercrops (e.g. Desmodium spp, beans) specifically affects the secondary metabolism of maize plants grown in their vicinity and so increases maize plant resistance to pathogens and herbivores. Interestingly these neighborhood-induced associational resistance effects are found to be mediated by both direct chemical signaling below and above ground but also by indirect microbial community-mediated plants-soil feedback (Jordan and Kessler 2024, Bass et al 2024, Mutyambai et al 2019). These findings suggest cover- and intercropping for a broader application in pest control. The Multistate project will use research into the mechanism (e.g. associational resistance, plant-soil feedback, plant-to-plant communication) underlying these companion cropping techniques as a unifying theme to address objective 1 and test applicability in agriculture

This group has been studying the importance of landscape composition on the chemically mediated interactions between pests, beneficial organisms and crops in a series of different projects. For example, the group of Cesar Rodriguez- Saona spearheaded an experiment to evaluate the attraction of natural enemies to PredaLure (baited with winter green oil - MeSA) in collaboration with 7 different labs from this multistate group across different states in the Northeast (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia). The goal is to understand if PredaLure can be used as a local management method to increase the presence of natural enemies in the field and determine how context dependent this local management is. Data were collected by the whole group in 2022 and 2023 and the data analysis is still ongoing.

The importance of landscape composition on pollinators of crops and specifically apple orchards was investigated in the McArt lab (Urban-Mead et al. 2023). In this research they found that forested areas, especially forest canopy trees, provide large amounts of early spring resources that facilitate build-up and spillover of wild pollinator populations into apple orchards during bloom. Overall, these data indicate that ensuring there is adequate forest habitat adjacent to orchards can improve the long-term sustainability of pollinator populations that provide essential crop pollination services.. 

Objective 3: Characterize the non-target effects of pesticides on pollinators, herbivores and natural enemies of pests.

Minimizing the impacts of pesticides on non-target organisms occurs in four major ways. First, evidence of risk from pesticides in certain application contexts can result in knowledge that leads to changes in use of those pesticides to reduce risk. Second, new lower-risk pesticides can be developed that replace existing high-risk pesticides. Third, risk mitigation measures can be implemented, such as feed additives for managed non-target insects that reduce the toxicity of pesticides when ingested. Fourth, non-pesticide strategies to control pests can be implemented, such as attract-and-kill and push-pull systems. Key achievements of our group’s multistate efforts on the first point include elucidating when pesticide exposure occurs in multiple crops and application contexts (Graham et al. 2021, 2022, 2024, Rondeau et al. 2022, Bischoff et al. 2023, Siviter et al. 2023, Mueller et al. 2024, Strang et al. 2024, Obregon et al. 2024), determining when pesticide risk to non-target organisms is high (Urbanowicz et al. 2019, Graham et al. 2022, Mueller et al. 2024, Obregon et al. 2024), re-evaluating our current understanding of pesticide toxicity to non-target organisms (Iverson et al. 2019, De Souza et al. 2024, Sanchez et al. 2025), and creating extension materials that guide farmers in best management practices to reduce pesticide risk to non-target organisms (Van Dyke et al. 2019, 2023a,b,c) or shape new legislation that restricts certain uses of pesticides because risks to non-target organisms outweigh economic benefits to farmers (Grout et al. 2020). Key achievements on the second point include evaluating new bioinsecticides that kill target pests but pose less risk than conventional chemical insecticides for non-target organisms (Fanning et al. 2018, Han et al. 2024, Rodriguez-Saona et al. 2024). Key achievements on the third point include the development of enzyme-loaded microparticles and hydrogels that, when included in supplemental feeds, reduce the toxicity of organophosphate and neonicotinoid insecticides to managed bees (Chen et al. 2021, Caserto et al. 2024). Key achievements on the fourth point include developing and evaluating a attract-and-kill and push-pull strategies for pest management in blueberries (Urbaneja‐Bernat et al. 2022, Gale et al. 2024).

Objective 4: Assess the impact of domestication on plant and animal chemical ecology in agricultural fields and identify unifying patterns of human and natural selection on chemical interactions of crop plants

Over the past decade, this multi-state project has made substantial contributions to our understanding of domestication and impacts on crop resistance to pests. In particular, Rodriguez-Saona and colleagues (Rutgers) (Rodriguez-Saona et al. 2019, Urbaneja-Bernat et al. 2021) and Whitehead and Poveda (2019, Whitehead et al. 2021) (Virginia Tech and Cornell, respectively), continue work focused on blueberries and applies, respectively, and on impacts of domestication on phytochemistry. Other groups within the project are focused on vegetable crops. Chen’s group (Univ. Vermont) used a novel approach to study domestication impacts on pest damage in the center of origin of crops (Ruiz-Arocho et al. 2024), working with squash, maize, tomatoes, and beans.  Agrawal and cucurbit breeder Mazourek (Cornell) collaborated with others (Wallingford at New Hampshire/USDA and Weber at the USDA) to utilize existing breeding pools developed in different regions to assess mechanisms of resistance to the major insect pest (Acalyma squash beetles), working towards breeding these traits into more susceptible varieties (Brzozowski et al 2019, 2020a, 2020b). Of particular significance, across three states, the group determined that domestication history opposingly impacts the existing major pest (striped cucumber beetle) and the emerging new pest (squash bugs) (Brzozowski et al. 2021). Continued studies will seek to identify varieties that have the resistance to insects while maintaining yield, using domestication history as a guide. Synergy is being achieved through the multistate projects and meetings. 

Objective 5 Explore and exploit microorganism mediation of multi-trophic species interactions, including bacteria, fungi and nematodes.

 

Work on this objective has focused on two areas: (1) exploiting defense-enhancing microbes that occur naturally in agroecosystems and (2) exploring how plant chemical diversity mediates interactions with microbial pathogens in complex environments. In the first area, the Ali (Penn State) and Casteel (Cornell) labs investigated how specific agronomic practices can be used to conserve and cultivate crop resistance-enhancing soil microbes. The Casteel lab previously demonstrated organic vegetable farms contain soil microbes that increase plant foliar resistance to foliar pests through changes in secondary metabolism (Blundell et al 2020). However, the specific organic management practices that cultivate these microbiomes are still unknown. Through a survey of 85 organic vegetable farmers, the Casteel lab determined cover crops, no-tillage, and composting are the most common soil practices used by organic vegetable farmers in NY. Using multi-year and multi-site field trials with dry beans, maize, or soybean cash crops in NY and PA, the Casteel and Ali labs demonstrated that specific cover crops reduce cash crop herbivory in the field through changes in induced defense. However, their results also suggested that different cover crops regulate unique plant defense responses mediated through the soil microbiome. Consequently, different cover crops can fundamentally affect plant metabolism and resistance to particular pests. These results suggest specific cover crops could be used in pest control more broadly to tailor crop resistance to reoccurring pest pressures. In another project related to this area, the Sandler Lab (U Mass Amherst) identified microbe-based products that improved cranberry fruit rot management when integrated with standard fungicide regimes. They also investigated the fruit and soil microbiome of wild and managed cranberry bogs (conventional and organic), which will be a focus of future work.

The Vannette (UC Davis) and Adler (U Mass Amherst) labs have been exploring the function of plant chemical diversity in mediating plant interactions with microbes and multi-trophic interactions. To identify potential antimicrobial compounds Vannette’s lab investigated how nectar chemistry influences microbial communities using untargeted metabolomics of 30+ plant species. Key factors affecting microbial growth included nectar nitrogen and peroxides content, and variation in these compounds impact nectar pathogens and pollinator preference. The Adler lab (U Mass Amherst) has been assessing how pollen from certain plant species can reduce pollinator pathogen infections. They show that consuming sunflower pollen strongly reduces Crithidia bombi infection in bumble bees (Bombus impatiens) regardless of pollen age or origin. They are currently exploring how variation in pollen chemistry and pollen pesticide contamination mediated bumble bee infection and how this is impacted by drought. This suggests that planting sunflowers in agroecosystems and native habitats can be used to improve the health of economically and ecologically important pollinators. 

Objective 6 Establish a chemical ecology analytical facility for the Northeast to allow researchers ready access to equipment and technical expertise.

The Chemical Ecology Analytical Facilities at Cornell University have played a pivotal role in advancing research and extension in the Northeast region by providing access to state-of-the-art instrumentation and technical expertise. Key achievements include enabling researchers to conduct sophisticated analyses of pesticide residues and plant secondary metabolites, which have led to significant discoveries in the chemical ecology of pollinators, their exposure to pesticides in agricultural settings (Graham et al. 2021, 2022, 2024, Rondeau et al. 2022, Bischoff et al. 2023, Siviter et al. 2023, Mueller et al. 2024, Strang et al. 2024), and adaptation to plant stress (Sehgal et al. 2025). These facilities have also contributed to critical advancements in chemical ecology methods, including reducing bias in the collection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (Seybert and Duplais, 2025a). Collaborative projects supported by the facility and its expertise within have resulted in high-impact publications that address critical agricultural and environmental challenges (Obregon et al. 2024). Furthermore, the facility has trained technicians, undergraduates, graduates, and postdocs in analytical methods, ensuring chemical ecology expertise in the region. These facilities have become a cornerstone for fostering innovation in chemical ecology and supporting diverse research communities in the Northeast. Pesticide analyses have also been opened to the public in an extension capacity, with ~20 beekeepers, farmers, and private citizens per year sending samples and receiving results and data interpretation.

 

Objective 7 Extension to facilitate adoption and awareness of science-based chemical ecology tools to support sustainable production.

The multistate groups have produced a diverse array of extension and outreach materials encouraging and facilitating the adoption of chemical ecology tools into agricultural systems. One major and unique accomplishment of the chemical ecology multistate group is the submission of a letter to the EPA explaining the array of regulatory difficulties to register semiochemical based products. Within the broader chemical ecology realm, businesses seeking to commercialize products often work with multistate faculty to assist in the research and development of their products as well as demonstrating the products to local potential markets. The demonstration of semiochemical-based products coming to market provides a unique opportunity to share the biological and ecological research which initiated the creation of the product but also to work directly with companies which bring products to market to better understand how the group can assist in advocating for the streamlining of regulatory processes based on sound scientific justification. 

Much of the extension and outreach effort related to the chemical ecology multistate project is building on existing communication structures. Many members of the multistate group have extension appointments which are used to build direct relationships with regional agricultural production systems. Those with direct relationships to commodity groups relay information about chemical ecology tools using a standard suite of extension tools such as fact sheets, website and guideline updates, and talks at traditional extension meetings. However, in this new proposal, we will add to this effort with social media usage to promote ideas and concepts resulting from the multistate work. Additionally, faculty with teaching responsibilities have and will continue to implement current research from this project into their courses, providing undergraduate and graduate students with insights into cutting-edge developments in chemical ecology and its applications to agricultural challenges.

 

Background

Manipulating chemical information transfer offers a promising approach for sustainable pest control

A deeper understanding of plant chemistry as information that orchestrates and fine-tunes a plant’s interaction network, and developing chemical manipulators of this network has been suggested as a promising pest control mechanism. For example, the metabolic changes associated with herbivore attack include the increased and de novo emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Such herbivory-induced VOCs can function as information for host/prey-searching parasitoids/predators to facilitate the host search behavior (indirect defenses) and so add to the plant's endogenous defense arsenal. A new commercial product (PredaLure(R)) that uses methylsalicylate as a natural volatile attractant of predators was recently tested by this multistate group. Those same induced VOC emissions can signal bad food quality to herbivores and so have a repellant function that can be utilized in pest control as well. Finally, neighboring plants can perceive herbivore-or pathogen-induced VOCs and ready their endogenous direct defenses before an actual attack happens.

Crop resilience functions can be expanded through chemical ecology informed plant breeding

The crop varieties that form the base of the modern food system appear to be particularly susceptible to abiotic and biotic stress (Yahiaoui et al. 2014, Midega et al. 2016). Indeed, there is growing evidence that domesticated crop plants can be more susceptible to generalist herbivores (reviewed by Chen et al. 2015). Given that environmental change is predicted to impose greater overall abiotic stress and pest pressure (Deutsch et al. 2018, Aguirre-Liguori et al. 2019), there is a continued need to understand how crop varieties may differ in chemically-mediated interactions with pests. Of particular importance is understanding cross-resistance (or trade-offs) in the face of emerging pests (Brzozowski et al. 2021). Historical dogma in plant breeding as well as entomology is that we look to the genetic diversity of wild relatives of crops for traits to introgress into elite germplasm to address pressing biotic and abiotic challenges (Dempewolf et al. 2017; Tanksley and McCouch 1997). With this approach, more than 2000 biotic stress resistance traits have been identified in crop wild relatives; however, the vast majority of traits identified are for disease resistance, and less than one quarter of these target insect pests (Dempewolf et al. 2017). Thus, strategies for breeding for resistance to insect pests must also be inclusive of secondary centers of diversity, and contemporary breeding pools. The context in which these breeding pools were developed may also better reflect the context of agricultural plant-herbivore interactions than wild systems, where major secondary metabolites (such as cucurbitacins in the Cucurbitaceae and alkaloids in the Solanaceae) may have different effects. In the diverse pools of cultivated germplasm with distinct breeding histories, plant breeders may discover alternative, perhaps quantitative resistance traits. Although of lower value than discrete and complete resistance traits often sought after in disease resistance, such traits are uncommon in insect resistance. Screening material for the most promising, but less obvious traits will benefit by being informed by chemical ecology and incorporated into breeding programs.

Crop diversification can be used to increase sustainable pest control

Companion cropping uses diversification and ecological intensification as core concepts to sustainably control pests while maximizing crop production. One of the most successful examples is the Push-Pull intercropping technology that has been developed to control major insect pests in corn and sorghum in East Africa. This technology uses plant species repellant to the major pests (push) as intercrops between rows of crop plants and plants particularly attractive to the major pests (pull) as trap crops around the field. The push-pull approach is now being investigated in several systems in the northeast by members of the multistate group. Moreover, functional intercropping also makes crop plants directly more resistant to herbivores and pathogens, while soil quality and drought resistance continuously improve with this technology. This multistate group has already begun to develop similar intercropping as well as cover-cropping applications for corn in the northeast. A focus of research going forward is to understand the mechanism of associational resistance associated with functional intercrops (e.g. associational resistance, plant-soil feedback, plant-to-plant communication) in order to optimize cultivation procedures and be able to apply this technology broadly in other crops and different regions.

Landscape variability increases natural enemy habitat and natural pest control

Local management practices in agriculture are closely influenced by the composition of the surrounding landscape (proportion of land use in radii larger than 750 m), which in turn has significant effects on crop, pest, and natural enemy interactions (Tscharntke et al. 2012). The diversity and configuration of landscape elements, such as forest patches, hedgerows, or non-cropped habitats, can alter microclimatic conditions, provide habitat for beneficial organisms, and affect the movement and population dynamics of pests and natural enemies (Bianchi et al., 2006; Tscharntke et al., 2016). For example, landscapes with more varied habitats tend to support higher biodiversity of natural enemies, which can help control pest populations, while monoculture-dominated landscapes may lead to higher pest pressure due to fewer predators and competitors, decreased thermal buffering and shifting chemical composition from plant volatiles (Landis et al., 2000). Therefore, we expect that local management practices that are based on chemically mediated interaction between crops, non-crop habitat, pest and beneficial organisms, as well as the impact of pesticides on these organisms will depend on the composition of the landscape surrounding the site where these local management strategies are deployed. 

Pollinator health can be improved through understanding chemicals mediating risks and benefits

Insect pollination provides vital ecosystem services that sustain agricultural crop yields. Many agricultural crops rely completely on pollinators for successful yields and honeybees are the only managed insect used worldwide for pollination. Successful pollination can be at risk from factors including population declines and diseases, and climate change is disrupting the synchrony of bees and their hosts. Fortunately, there are often native bees to carry out this valuable service. Bartomeus et al. (2013) found that a diverse assemblage of bee species allowed extensive synchrony between bee activity and apple peak bloom due to complementarity among the bee species' activity periods and system stability imparted by differential responses among the species to a warming climate. Despite the potential for successful pollination by species other than honeybees, pollination can be limiting and therefore there are several areas where the field of chemical ecology can contribute to pollinator health and abundance.

There is considerable interest regarding the negative impact that pesticides are having on beneficial non-target organisms. Our group’s research shows that pesticide use is linked to wide-scale declines of bumble bees in North America (McArt et al. 2017), which mirrors research from other groups investigating links between pesticides and declines in beneficial non-target organisms (e.g., Guzman et al. 2024). Because of these links, it is important to develop ways to minimizing the impacts of pesticides on non-target organisms. Our group has focused our efforts on improving knowledge that leads to changes in use of high-risk pesticides, evaluating lower-risk pesticides, developing risk mitigation measures, and developing non-pesticide strategies to control pests. Through these efforts, we are working to improve knowledge and provide tools that increase the sustainability of agricultural systems and the services provided by beneficial non-target organisms.

Plant-microbe interactions can be leveraged for improved pest control method and products

Over the last three billion years, microorganisms have interacted and coevolved with each other and, more recently, with plants and insects. This has allowed microorganisms, plants, and insects to innovate metabolically and form various associations with each other and higher trophic levels. For example, some insects and plants depend on mutualistic microorganisms for nutrient provisioning (Hansen et al. 2020), detoxification (Mason et al 2019), and adaptation under different stresses (Holt et al. 2024), while simultaneously deploying defensive metabolites to protect themselves from microbial parasites and pathogens. Pathogenic microbes can cause drastic changes in plant chemistry, with cascading impacts on plant-insect interactions in the community (Bera et al 2020; Bak et al. 2019; Chisholm et al 2019). Disruption of some of these interactions can lead to dramatic fitness consequences for the insect or plant, while in other cases, the relationships are more contextual. Given the sheer number of metabolites produced by plants, insects, and microbes and the prevalence and ubiquity of interactions in the environment, there are likely important ecological functions that additional research can provide insights into. Insights on the ecology of these relationships and the underlying chemistry holds promise for increasing agro-ecosystem sustainability, developing new disease and pest control strategies, and increasing crop yields. 

Shared analytical chemistry facilities and training increase knowledge transfer

Chemical ecology is an interdisciplinary field that requires access to state-of-the-art tools in analytical chemistry and expertise to study the complex chemical interactions between organisms in their environment. The Northeast has a high concentration of agricultural research programs that benefit from such capabilities. Chemical ecologists in the region have faced challenges in accessing high performance analytical equipment such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) due to cost and availability constraints. The establishment of the Chemical Ecology Analytical Core Facility (Ithaca campus) in 2018, under the direction of Drs. Wayne Anderson and Scott McArt, addressed these limitations by providing a centralized hub for cutting-edge research, collaboration and training. To complement this, the Cornell AgriTech Mass Spectrometry Facility (Geneva campus) was created in 2023 under the direction of Lucas Seybert and Dr. Christophe Duplais. These two Chemical Ecology Analytical Facilities allow external users through a pay-for-service arrangement for multi-state researchers such that a consistent and rigorous protocol can be followed for analyses of phytochemistry relevant to crops breeding (Sehgal et al. 2025), insect chemistry for plant toxin detoxification (Ziemke et al. 2024), pesticide residue analysis relevant to non-target effects (Graham et al. 2021, 2022, 2024, Rondeau et al. 2022, Bischoff et al. 2023, Siviter et al. 2023, Mueller et al. 2024, Strang et al. 2024), and analysis of volatile organic compounds relevant to attraction of pests, pollinators, and natural enemies, as well as early detection of plant diseases for diagnostic. Combined the facilities are equipped with a LC-MS/MS triple quadrupole and LC-qTOF High Resolution MS, a GC-MS/MS triple quadrupole, and a GC-MS simple quadrupole coupled with a thermal desorption unit for VOC analysis using thin-film SPME. These instruments enable high sensitivity for targeted analysis of pesticides (more than 260), plant hormones (JA, SA, GA, auxins), and plant chemical defenses (terpenoids, alkaloids, polyphenols), while also providing high resolution for untargeted analysis for the discovery of chemical markers.

Objectives

1. Develop chemical ecology tools and knowledge for pest management to aid in the development of sustainable agricultural practices in row, field, and forage crops, orchards, and urban landscapes, while maintaining ecosystem functions (e.g. pollinator, predator and soil health, productivity).
   
2. Identify the importance of variability and diversity at local and landscape scales and across States on chemically mediated interactions between pests, crops, and beneficial organisms.
   
3. Work to find ways to minimize the impact of pesticides and discover new pesticides that reduce the impact on pollinators, herbivores, microbes and natural enemies of pests.
   
4. Exploit knowledge of domestication and breeding history to deploy better strategies to improve crop resilience to novel stressors such as environmental change and emerging pests.
   
5. Explore and exploit microorganism mediation of multi-trophic species interactions, including bacteria, fungi and nematodes.
   
6. Broaden utilization a chemical ecology analytical facility for the Northeast to allow researchers ready access to equipment and technical expertise and increase training of High Quality Personnel.
   
7. Conduct Extension and Outreach to facilitate adoption and awareness of science-based chemical ecology to support sustainable production and promote human health and welfare.
   

Methods

Nearly all projects will involve a field and laboratory component, with specific, hypothesis-appropriate experimental designs, and shared and coordinated methodologies essential for cooperative data sharing. Research will focus on tomatoes, potatoes, brassicas, dry beans, cucurbits, apples, blueberries, field and sweet corn, and ornamentals in field and controlled environment agriculture.

 

Objective 1: When signaling molecules are large or otherwise have low volatility, such as polyphenols, various phytohormones, alkaloids, cucurbitacins, sterols, and cardiac glycosides, wet extraction with polar and non-polar solvents, followed by liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS) will be employed to separate, identify and quantify potential signaling compounds. For arthropod responses to such non-volatile compounds, we will use a combination of electrophysiological tip-recording, base recordings, or single sensillum recordings to assess the neuronal responses of candidate tastants to determine their biological activity. To assess plant responses to non-volatile elicitors, compounds will be applied in aqueous solutions directly onto damaged or undamaged tissues, and transcriptional (e.g. PCR), metabolic (e.g. HPLC, GC-MS), and resistance responses (bioassays) will be measured. When signaling is thought to be occurring via plant, insect, or other volatile emissions, we will employ standard, published methods to trap and identify candidate compounds. Additionally, for a functional assessment, the GC-separated compounds will be passed over the antennae of insects to measure electrophysiological responses to each individual compound using a technique called electroantennographic detection (EAD). This will allow us to make inferences about which classes of compounds cause neurological responses in the insect receiving the signal and so identify candidates of potential ecological function. Those compounds causing neurological responses in the insects can then be identified by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. In plants, responses to volatile compounds will be assessed by measuring transcriptional, metabolic, and resistance changes (see description above) in plants that are exposed to volatile compounds in flow-controlled chambers or by applying the compounds dissolved in a lipophilic paste (e.g. lanolin). The ultimate test of elicitor functionality for both plants and arthropods will be behavioral bioassays. This is necessary because transcriptional, metabolic, or electrophysiological responses, respectively, do not always translate into a behavioral response or ecological relevance; it merely indicates that the organism can perceive the respective chemical information. Behavioral assays will typically run the gamut of laboratory choice and no-choice tests (performance, such as growth and reproduction). Other tests will be conducted in small-plot field trials where plants with and without the signaling compounds of interest are offered as choice and no-choices options to target pests and pollinators. Finally, plant associational resistance effects caused by cover- or intercropping will be studied with (partially already established) larger-scale field experiments that manipulate the companion crop and measure their effects on plant metabolism and resistance as well as soil microbial community, and general soil health over time. These experiments will be backed up with direct plant-plant interaction greenhouse bioassays for a more detailed mechanistic understanding. These experiments allow the manipulation of the soil microbial community as well as the chemical information exchanged between companion plants to test for plant-soil feedback and plant communication as the major hypotheses for companion-crop-mediated associational resistance. 

Objective 2: Field experiments with replication in different states and geographic locations will be conducted to assess the variability of chemical signaling between pests, crops, and beneficial organisms in terms of plant chemistry, species interactions and landscape factors in the Northeast. Trials will be conducted using methods standardized among cooperating states so that the data are robust among the regions and amenable to meaningful analyses or meta-analyses. Typically, these will consist of multiple varieties, chemically mediated local practices or changes from pesticide-based to more ecologically based local management practices in different agricultural contexts (in different states, regions or landscapes), while measuring and quantifying impacts on pests, pollinators, and natural enemies. This objective will also employ GIS-based landscape level analyses to complement experimental work.  In the coming years we want to take particular advantage of the imminent ban of neonicotinoid seed treatment in field crops. This will allow us to perform longitudinal tracking of pesticide exposure to non-target organisms as new monitoring and control tools are adopted in New York and Vermont in response to this ban.

Objective 3: Core analytical methods include HPLC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS for quantification of pesticides from environmental samples. Technical expertise is provided through individual consultations, collaborative project development, and customized training workshops tailored to researchers' needs. High quality staff are trained through hands-on experience with instrumentation, data analysis workshops, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Pesticide analyses have also been opened to the public in an extension capacity, with ~20 beekeepers, farmers, and private citizens per year sending samples and receiving results and data interpretation (https://blogs.cornell.edu/ccecf/). Empirical results and literature syntheses are communicated via extension websites (e.g., https://cals.cornell.edu/pollinator-network) in addition to peer-reviewed publications. In the laboratory, bioassays with larvae and adult organisms are used to test the impacts of conventional pesticides (Iverson et al. 2019, De Souza et al. 2024, Sanchez et al. 2025), new lower-risk pesticides (Fanning et al. 2018), and risk mitigation strategies such as enzyme-loaded microparticles and hydrogels (Chen et al. 2021, Caserto et al. 2024). Field experiments are used to determine when pesticide risk to non-target organisms is high (Urbanowicz et al. 2019, Graham et al. 2022, Mueller et al. 2024, Obregon et al. 2024) and evaluate attract-and-kill and push-pull strategies for pest management (Urbaneja‐Bernat et al. 2022, Gale et al. 2024).

Objective 4: The impact of domestication on plant and insect diversity in agricultural fields will be evaluated in replicated experimental designs that compare crops and their wild progenitors. Such trials will examine the differences between crops and wild-types and will allow us to quantify aspects of phytochemistry that affect the attraction of pests, pollinators, and natural enemies. Of particular importance will be using replicate varieties within and between domestication classes, or along a gradient from the progenitor to currently favored varieties. In other words, we will not compare single crop varieties to single progenitors. Such phenotypic studies will frequently involve pest damage treatments, including the study of how domestication has impacted inducible defenses and their specificity. Studies that employ molecular genetic methods to determine which genes are affected and which are expressed will help expedite resistance breeding by focusing on specific functions that control the chemical interactions that occur among species. Here, “model crops” such as maize and Cucurbita will feature prominently. The goal of this objective is to identify novel targets and methods for manipulating crop phytochemistry for the purpose of crop resistance and pollination efficacy. Ultimately this will help expedite the breeding process, will lead to the discovery of new mechanisms of resistance to pests, and will generate breeding lines that manipulate and exploit the crops’ natural phytochemistry to control pests and facilitate pollination. 

Objective 5: Successfully leveraging microbes in sustainable pest control will require knowledge about microbial associations, whether certain microbe species or metabolites are more critical than others for functions in a community, and how and to what degree composition and function can be manipulated.  To assess microbial association and establish putative functions, amplicon sequencing, and metagenomics will be paired with mass spectrometry. Tissue will be collected from different plants and insects, in the environment (such as soil), and in different agroecosystems and related natural systems. DNA will be extracted, libraries prepared, and sequencing conducted. The in-house Minion sequencing facility set up by the Casteel lab will be used for long-read sequencing and short-read sequencing will be outsourced. Metabolites will also be extracted from tissue samples and analyzed using LC-MS or GC-MS at Chemical Ecology Core to evaluate small molecules that may be mediating interactions. To determine which microbes or metabolites are most important for ecological functions, we will use machine learning methods paired with laboratory or field bioassays that monitor the ecology of insects, plants, or their microbial partners.  These data can be leveraged by culturing specific microbes or purifying metabolites from various selective growth media or selective techniques. Manipulations can be accomplished by adding microbes of interest or purified metabolites to sterile substrates, or by inducing or inhibiting metabolite production, followed by assessments of the impacts on insects or plants.

Objective 6: The facilities use a multi-staged approach to support research and training. Core analytical methods include GC-MS for VOC and pyrethroids analysis, LC-MS for secondary metabolite and hydrophilic pesticide detection/quantification, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for structural elucidation of novel compounds (Rubiano-Buitrago et al. 2024). Technical expertise is provided through individual consultations, collaborative project development and customized training workshops tailored to researchers' needs. High quality staff are trained through hands-on experience with instrumentation, data analysis workshops and interdisciplinary collaborations. Future directions include continuing to work with researchers to develop new methods for specific organisms and chemicals. We will also increase the use of the facility as a training platform for graduate students and postdocs by facilitating researchers from Cornell and other institutions, including USDA (Sehgal et al. 2025), to run their samples and learn not only how to perform advanced GC-MS and LC-MS analysis, but also how to process spectral data with advanced metabolomics pipelines such as the open-source software MZmine (Seybert and Duplais, 2025a), and pipelines for annotation by exploring mass spectrometry-free databases such as Global Natural Product Social Molecular Networking (GNPS).

Objective 7: Many members of this project are actively involved in field demonstrations and outreach efforts related to the sustainable management of key agricultural pests affecting apples, corn, blueberries, cranberries, broccoli, dry bean, tomato, potato, squash and more. There will be annual and continued delivery of research updates to the relevant stakeholder community through open meetings, published proceedings and reports published in peer reviewed publications, trade journals, eXtension, appropriate electronic media and various other electronic avenues.

For example, the Casteel and Ryan labs (Cornell) and Atallah lab (University of Illinois) worked with a network of 80 organic farmers to identify practices they thought were the most and least important for culturing crop resistance inducing microbes in the soil (Bloom et al. 2024). To share knowledge and promote engagement on the national level, an eOrganic webinar was developed highlighting the findings. The webinar engaged over 120 attendees from 36 US states, and 7 international attendees from Mexico, India, Canada, and Spain. The audience breakdown included: 10 agricultural professionals, 13 extension agents, 18 farmers, 24 government agency researchers, 16 nonprofit organization staff, 3 organic certifiers and inspectors, 22 university researchers, and 14 participants representing other aspects of food systems (e.g., gardeners). The webinar is permanently posted to eOrganic and freely available on YouTube. In ≈2mo, the recording has received > 280 views and 11 likes (≈140 views/mo). We will continue to work with eOrganics to develop content and to share the content broadly with growers.

In another example, Dr. Yolanda Chen (Vermont) will establish and update an online information center (Swede Midge Information Center for the US) to provide accessible data and best practices. Webinars will be conducted to communicate our findings on pheromone-mating disruption strategies for increasing organic broccoli yields. Additionally, partnerships with commercial pest control companies will be cultivated to develop cost-effective tools for managing spotted-wing drosophila through attract-and-kill technology and repellents. Where feasible, new extension materials developed through this project will be evaluated using real-time polling (e.g., Poll Everywhere) to assess changes in stakeholder knowledge and perception. When hosted on participant websites, Google Analytics will be used to track stakeholder engagement and optimize content accessibility. Additionally, we will collaborate with regional integrated pest management (IPM) programs and other agricultural organizations to leverage existing networks for broader dissemination. These partnerships will enhance outreach efforts through established media channels and stakeholder engagement programs, ensuring that research-based pest management practices are effectively communicated and adopted by the target audience.

Please see Outreach Plan for more details of extension activities.

Measurement of Progress and Results

Outputs

• • The project will result in the conversion of research-based knowledge of chemical ecology into tools useful to supporting sustainable and economically sound pest and pollinator management in agricultural systems.
• • It will generate data and knowledge regarding the role of chemical communication within and among species of crops, pests, and pollinators in landscapes with an agricultural component.
• • It will also generate data and applied knowledge by measuring and quantifying pesticide loads and their effects on pollinators and natural enemies of agricultural pests of importance in the Northeastern Region.
• • The project will measure and quantify how crop domestication affects the interactions among agricultural crops and their pests, pollinators and natural enemies.
• • The strong presence of chemical ecology researcher laboratories in the Northeast Land Grant Universities will facilitate the coordination, aggregation, sharing, and financial support of analytical equipment to be used among cooperating researchers in the region so that standardized methods and lower-variance data can be generated and utilized among various cooperative research projects.

Outcomes or Projected Impacts

• • The overarching objective of this project is to develop novel, cutting-edge and economically attractive approaches that will provide options and allow growers to integrate environmentally friendly, non-pesticidal control of various agricultural pests and improve management of natural enemy and pollinator services.
• • We will provide a greater understanding of the ecology of pests, pollinators and natural enemies and this will assist with generating recommendations for a more integrated approach to pollinator and pest management. Increased knowledge is likely to help conserve important pollinator and natural enemy populations and improve their services in agriculture and other ecosystems.
• • This project represents a collaborative network of researchers. It will facilitate and expedite cooperation among researchers in the field of chemical ecology and focus the application of fundamental and basic science on priority problems in agriculture.
• • Specific recommendations will be provided for the design and deployment of pheromone traps for pest monitoring.
• • Specific recommendations will be generated for which types of cover crops in specific soils and regions will promote plant resistance and growth.
• • We will provide new tools for controlling invasive pests such as spotted lantern fly.
• • We will provide recommendations for new repellents and a phagostimulant (Combi-protec) to be used against spotted-wing drosophila
• • The project will facilitate the surveillance, collection and maintenance of population data for establishment of baselines and assessment of pollinator health in the Northeast and elsewhere.
• • The knowledge generated by coordinated research will facilitate and expedite plant breeding for enhanced pest resistance and pollinator efficacy by providing explanatory mechanisms for plants responses to pests and pollinators. Coupled with molecular methods that identify pathways for signal chemicals, plant breeders will be able to focus on target genes during the selection and crossing process. The outcome will be horticulturally acceptable crop varieties with enhanced productivity in the face of herbivores.

Milestones

(2025):• Roll-out of this Multistate Project and solicitations for new participants.

(2025):Meeting of Executive Committee and potential participants to establish project work plan.

(2025):Commencement of research by participants beginning FY Oct. 1, 2025

(2025):Establishment of standardized protocols for inter- and intra- state collaborative projects for a) pest management and b) pollinator health objectives.

(2025):Compilation and distribution of available chemical analytical protocol’s list to participants.

(2025):Project participants' organizational meeting and mini-symposium to present and discuss research and developments (in-person and virtual option).

(2026):• Project participants' organizational meeting and mini-symposium to present and discuss research and developments.

(2026):• Annual business meeting will be held to discuss developments or changes in project objectives, etc.

(2026):• Establishment of pest management and pollinator sub-committees to guide research directions in each aspect.

(2026):• Education and outreach efforts will be developed based on success in research.

(2027):• Integration of any new participants into project plans.

(2027):• Annual business and participants meeting to discuss developments or implement changes in project execution, updates to equipment services, dovetailing of research efforts, etc.

(2027):• Publish and disseminate via outreach avenues any relevant findings generated by project.

(2028):• Initiate and organize symposium to present findings on integration of chemical ecology and agricultural priority issues to be combined with a relevant annual conference of entomology, ecology, pollination, etc.

(2028):• Publish and disseminate via outreach avenues any relevant findings generated by project.

(2028):• Apply for new grants based on research findings.

(2029):• Conduct self-assessment and review of the project as a means to prepare for project renewal pending participant and stakeholder consensus that the project has generated sufficient returns to warrant renewal.

(2029):• Continue publication and outreach dissemination.

(2030):• If decision is to continue, work on grant renewal

(2030):• Continue publication and outreach dissemination.

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Outreach Plan

Many members of this project are actively involved in field demonstrations and outreach efforts related to the sustainable management of key agricultural pests affecting apples, corn, blueberries, cranberries, broccoli, and more. Many team members interact regularly with stakeholders, including farmers, agricultural professionals, government agencies, commodity groups, and researchers in related disciplines, to disseminate information and foster the adoption of behavior-based pest management strategies. Traditional extension meetings and educational programs will be conducted with producers, industry representatives, consultants, and regulators to discuss findings and share information. Additionally, project members with teaching appointments will incorporate research findings into undergraduate and graduate curricula, ensuring students gain exposure to the latest developments in chemical ecology and behavioral pest management.

Our findings and conclusions will be communicated through multiple channels, including but not limited to:

1. Sharing annual reports among participants at project meetings;
2. Publishing peer-reviewed research articles on candidate repellents and attractants for managing spotted-wing drosophila;
3. Producing podcasts detailing information on semiochemicals and how chemical ecology is used in agricultural systems;
4. Producing and disseminating educational factsheets for growers;
5. Publishing non-refereed materials such as newsletter articles, bulletins, blogs, and factsheets;
6. Presenting research findings at scientific conferences on behavioral control strategies for spotted-wing drosophila;
7. Delivering in-person and virtual presentations to stakeholders, including growers and extension educators;
8. Conducting on-farm demonstrations to assess the efficacy of attract-and-kill technology for managing spotted-wing drosophila.

Organization/Governance

Organization of the project is delegated to an Executive Committee comprising an Administrative Advisor, Chair, Secretary and Representative at Large. The Administrative Advisor will be Blair Siegfried the Director of Pennsylvania Agriculture Experiment Station and the remainder of the committee will be elected by and from regional project membership. Excepting the Administrative Advisor, Executive Committee members will hold a two year appointment. The Representative at Large will succeed the Secretary who will in turn succeed the Chair. It will be the responsibility of the Chair to prepare technical and executive meeting agendas, preside at meetings, and prepare an annual progress report on the research activities of the regional project. The Secretary duties will be to record the minutes of technical and executive committee meetings and perform other duties as necessary. The Representative at Large will assist both Secretary and Chair with their responsibilities as necessary. Subcommittees may be named by the Chair as needed for specific assignments such as developing new project outlines for continuing the project, to prepare publications, or other assignments. An annual meeting of the full Executive Committee will be held to summarize and critically evaluate progress, analyze results, and plan future activities, reports, and publications.

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Fleischer, Joerg, et al. "Access to the odor world: olfactory receptors and their role for signal transduction in insects." Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 75.3 (2018): 485-508.

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Graham, K. K., M. O. Milbrath, Y. Zhang, N. Baert, S. H. McArt and R. Isaacs. 2022. Pesticide risk to managed bees during blueberry pollination is primarily driven by off-farm exposures. Scientific Reports 12:7189.

Graham, K. K., S. H. McArt and R. Isaacs. 2024. High pesticide exposure and risk to bees in pollinator plantings adjacent to conventionally managed blueberry fields. Science of the Total Environment 922:171248.

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Jones, P. L., Martin, K. R., Prachand, S. V., Hastings, A. P., Duplais, C., Agrawal A. A. 2023. Compound-specific behavioral and enzymatic resistance to toxic milkweed cardenolides in a generalist bumblebee pollinator. Journal of Chemical Ecology 49, 418-427.

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Mueller, T. G., N. Baert, P. A. Muñiz, D. E. Sossa, B. N. Danforth and S. H. McArt. 2024. Pesticide risk during commercial apple pollination is greater for honeybees than other managed and wild bees. Journal of Applied Ecology 61:1289-1300.

Mutyambai, D.M., Bass, E., Luttermoser, T., Poveda, K., Midega, C.A., Khan, Z.R. and Kessler, A., 2019. More than “push” and “pull”? plant-soil feedbacks of maize companion cropping increase chemical plant defenses against herbivores. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7, p.217.

Mutyambai, D.M., Mutua, J.M., Kessler, A., Jalloh, A.A., Njiru, B.N., Chidawanyika, F., Dubois, T., Khan, Z., Mohamed, S., Niassy, S. and Subramanian, S., 2024. Push-pull cropping system soil legacy alter maize metabolism and fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) resistance through tritrophic interactions. Plant and Soil, 498(1), pp.685-697.

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Rodriguez-Saona, C., Cloonan, K.R., Sanchez-Pedraza, F., Zhou, Y., Giusti, M.M. and Benrey, B., 2019. Differential susceptibility of wild and cultivated blueberries to an invasive frugivorous pest. Journal of chemical ecology, 45, pp.286-297.

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Rondeau, S., N. Baert, S. H. McArt and N. E. Raine. 2022. Quantifying exposure of bumblebee (Bombus spp.) queens to pesticide residues when hibernating in agricultural soils. Environmental Pollution 309:119722.

Rubiano-Buitrago P., White, R. A., Hastings, A. P., Schroeder, F. C., Agrawal, A. A., Duplais, C. (2024) Cardenolides in Asclepias syriaca seeds: exploring the legacy of Tadeus Reichstein. Accepted in Journal of Natural Products. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.4c00960

Ruiz-Arocho, J., González-Salas, R., LeMay, G., Steinthal, N., Mastretta-Yanes, A., Wegier, A., Vargas-Ponce, O., Solís-Montero, L., Orozco-Ramírez, Q. and Chen, Y.H., 2024. How is leaf herbivory related to agriculture? Insights from the Mexican center of crop origin. Arthropod-Plant Interactions, 18(1), pp.89-104.

Salazar-Mendoza, P., Miyagusuku-Cruzado, G., Giusti, M.M., and Rodriguez-Saona, C. 2024. Genotypic variation and potential mechanisms of resistance against multiple insect herbivores in cranberries. Journal of Chemical Ecology. doi: 10.1007/s10886-024-01522-w.

Sanchez, A. B., D. A. de Souza, W. H. Ng, C. Zhao, B. X. DeMoras and S. H. McArt. 2025. Six fungicides used during crop pollination are acutely toxic to honey bee larvae at field-realistic exposure levels. In prep for Environment International.

Sehgal, A., Deys, K., Szewc-McFadden, A., Duplais, C., Gutierrez, B., Meakem, V., Galarneau, E., Londo, J. P., Blair N. Turner, Cadle-Davidson L. E., Zhong, G-Y., Gouker, F.E., Kirubakaran, S. 2025. Effect of grapevine rootstock and foliar biostimulants in regulating scion physiology, secondary metabolites, and root architectural adaptation to drought stress. In review in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4897138

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Seybert, L., Duplais, C. (2025b) Metabolomics tutorial for GC-MS data processing and analysis in chemical ecology. In preparation.

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Urban-Mead, K. R., P. Muñiz, M. Van Dyke, A. D. Young, B. N. Danforth and S. H. McArt. 2023. Early spring orchard pollinators spill over from resource-rich adjacent forest patches. Journal of Applied Ecology 60:553-564. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14350

Urbaneja-Bernat, P., Cloonan, K., Zhang, A., Salazar-Mendoza, P. and Rodriguez-Saona, C., 2021. Fruit volatiles mediate differential attraction of Drosophila suzukii to wild and cultivated blueberries. Journal of Pest Science, 94(4), pp.1249-1263.

Urbaneja-Bernat, P., R. Holdcraft, J. Hernández-Cumplido, E. M. Rhodes, O. E. Liburd, A. A. Sial, A. Mafra-Neto and C. Rodriguez-Saona. 2022. Field, semi-field and greenhouse testing of HOOK SWD, a SPLAT-based attract-and-kill formulation to manage spotted-wing drosophila. Journal of Applied Entomology 146:1230–1242.

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Van Dyke, M., D. Wixted and S. H. McArt. 2023a. A guide to reducing pesticide risk to bees in tree fruit orchards. 34 pp. https://cornell.app.box.com/v/ProtectionGuide-Orchard2023

Van Dyke, M., D. Wixted and S. H. McArt. 2023b. A guide to reducing pesticide risk to bees in small fruit, grape, and hops in New York. 35 pp. https://cornell.app.box.com/v/ProtectionGuide-FruGrapHop2023 

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