Adam Ralph Zeilinger

University of California, Berkeley | UCB · Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management

Compost amendment to rangelands is a proposed nature‐based climate solution to increase plant productivity and soil carbon sequestration. However, it has not been evaluated using quasicontinuous ecosystem‐scale measurements. Here, we present the first study to utilize eddy covariance and footprint partitioning to monitor carbon exchange in a grassl...

Compost amendments to rangelands is a proposed nature-based climate solution to increase plant productivity and soil carbon sequestration. However, it has not been evaluated using semi-continuous ecosystem-scale measurements. Here we present the first study to utilize eddy covariance and footprint partitioning to monitor carbon exchange in a grassl...

Host defense against vector‐borne plant pathogens is a critical component of integrated disease management. However, theory predicts that traits that confer tolerance or partial resistance can, under certain ecological conditions, enhance the spread of pathogens and spillover to more susceptible populations or cultivars. A key component driving suc...

Pierce’s disease is of major concern for grapevine (Vitis vinifera) production wherever the bacterial pathogen Xylella fastidiosa and its vectors are present. Long-term management includes the deployment of resistant grapevines such as those containing the PdR1 locus from the wild grapevine species Vitis arizonica, which do not develop Pierce’s dis...

Although bacterial host colonization is a dynamic process that requires population growth, studies often focus on comparing bacterial populations at a given time point. However, this may not reflect the dynamics of the colonization process. Time-course assays provide important insights into the dynamics of host colonization but are laborious and ma...

Xylella fastidiosa is a plant pathogenic bacterium with devastating consequences to several crops of economic importance across the world. While this pathogen has been studied for over a century in the United States, several aspects of its biology remain to be investigated. Determining the physiological state of bacteria is essential to understand...

Effective management of vector‐borne plant pathogens often relies on disease‐resistant cultivars. While heterogeneity in host resistance and in pathogen population density at the host population level plays important and well‐recognized roles in epidemiology, the effects of resistance traits on pathogen distribution at the individual host level, an...

Pathogen spread by arthropod vectors is the outcome of pathogen-vector-plant interactions, as well as how these interactions are impacted by abiotic and biotic factors. While plant water stress impacts each component of the Pierce's disease pathosystem (Xylella fastidiosa Wells et al., insect vectors, and grapevines), the outcome of interactions in...

The bacterium Xylella fastidiosa re-emerged as a plant pathogen of global importance in 2013 when it was first associated with an olive tree disease epidemic in Italy. The current threat to Europe and the Mediterranean basin, as well as other world regions, has increased as multiple X. fastidiosa genotypes have now been detected in Italy, France, a...

The economically important brown stink bug, Euschistus servus (Say) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is a native pest of many crops in southeastern United States and insecticide applications are the prevailing method of population suppression. To elucidate biological control of E. servus populations, we investigated two egg predators' (red imported fire...

For phytophagous insects and plant pathogens, the unregulated movement of plant material can inadvertently promote long-distance spread, facilitating biological invasions. Such human-assisted spread has contributed to the invasion of the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri), a vector of the pathogens associated with huan-glongbing. Following the...

Landscape factors can significantly influence arthropod populations. The economically important brown stink bug, Euschistus servus (Say) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is a native mobile, polyphagous and multivoltine pest of many crops in southeastern United States and understanding the relative influence of local and landscape factors on their reprodu...

Pentatomids are known or suspected to transmit a variety of disease-causing plant pathogens, including the causal pathogens for seed and boll rot, yeast spot, leaf spot and vein necrosis, stem canker, stigmatomycosis, panicle and shoot blight, witches’ broom, hartrot, and marchitez. Crops affected range from pistachio and oil palms to cotton, soybe...

The bacterium Xylella fastidiosa re-emerged as a plant pathogen of global importance in 2013 when it was first associated with an olive tree disease epidemic in Italy. The current threat to Europe and the Mediterranean basin, as well as other world regions, has increased as multiple X. fastidiosa genotypes have now been detected in Italy, France, a...

In a world of rapid environmental change, effective biodiversity conservation and management relies on our ability to detect changes in species occurrence. While long-term, standardized monitoring is ideal for detecting change, such monitoring is costly and rare. An alternative approach is to use historical records from natural history collections...

Features: • Presents a brief history of past classifications, a summary of present classification, and speculation on how the classification may evolve in the future • Includes keys for the identification of families and subfamilies of the Pentatomoidea and for the tribes in the Pentatomidae • Explains transmission of plant pathogens and concepts o...

The emergence rate of new plant diseases is increasing due to novel introductions, climate change, and changes in vector populations, posing risks to agricultural sustainability. Assessing and managing future disease risks depends on understanding the causes of contemporary and historical emergence events. Since the mid-1990s, potato growers in the...

Local climatic conditions are important determinants of disease dynamics through effects on vector population performance or distribution. Yet, climate may also be epidemiologically significant due to effects on host-pathogen infection dynamics. We developed a model to explore interactive effects between climate-mediated acceleration in disease phe...

The recent introduction of Xylella fastidiosa in Europe and its involvement in the Olive Quick Decline Syndrome (OQDS) in Apulia (Salento, Lecce district, South Italy) led us to investigate the biology and transmission ability of the meadow spittlebug, Philaenus spumarius, which was recently demonstrated to transmit X. fastidiosa to periwinkle plan...

Xylella fastidiosa colonizes the xylem network of host plant species as well as the foregut of required insect vectors to ensure its efficient propagation. Disease management strategies remain inefficient due to a limited comprehension of mechanisms governing both insect and plant colonization. It was previously shown that X. fastidiosa has a funct...

There is little information available on Xylella fastidiosa transmission by spittlebugs (Hemiptera, Cercopoidea). This group of insect vectors may be of epidemiological relevance in certain diseases, so it is important to better understand the basic parameters of X. fastidiosa transmission by spittlebugs. We used grapevines as a host plant and the...

The adoption of transgenic Bt cotton has, in some cases, led to environmental and economic benefits through reduced insecticide use. However, the distribution of these benefits and associated risks among cotton growers and cotton-growing regions has been uneven due in part to outbreaks of non-target or secondary pests, thereby requiring the continu...

The successful control of insect-borne plant pathogens is often difficult to achieve due to the ecologically complex interactions among pathogens, vectors, and host plants. Disease management often relies on pesticides and other approaches that have limited long term sustainability. To add a new tool to control vector-borne diseases, we attempted t...

Vector control is widely viewed as an integral part of disease management. Yet epidemiological theory suggests that the effectiveness of control programs at limiting pathogen spread depends on a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of a pathosystem. Moreover, control programs rarely evaluate whether reductions in vector density or activity tr...

1. Herbivory often induces systemic plant responses that affect the host choice of subsequent herbivores, either deterring or attracting them, with implications for the performance of both herbivore and host plant. Combining measures of herbivore movement and consumption can efficiently provide insights into the induced plant responses that are mos...

Counts of salivary sheaths and salivary flanges have been widely used in studies of feeding behavior and crop damage of pestiferous stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) and other sheath-feeding Hemiptera. While salivary flanges can effectively predict crop damage by stink bugs, previous studies have assumed that food consumption (e.g., ingestion) a...

In the face of anthropogenic climate change, the challenge for pest risk assessment is in developing rigorous predictions of what climate conditions will exacerbate pest problems. At the same time, changes in biotic interactions through time—particularly with wild and cultivated host plants—are likely to influence pest populations as well. The anal...

Consumer feeding preference among resource choices has critical implications for basic ecological and evolutionary processes, and can be highly relevant to applied problems such as ecological risk assessment and invasion biology. Within consumer choice experiments, also known as feeding preference or cafeteria experiments, measures of relative cons...

Vector preference based on host infection status has long been recognized for its importance in disease dynamics. Prior theoretical work has assumed that all hosts are uniformly susceptible to the pathogen. Here we investigated disease dynamics when this assumption is relaxed using a series of vector–host epidemiological compartment models with var...

The environmental risks associated with genetically-engineered (GE) organisms have been controversial, and so have the models for the assessment of these risks. We propose an ecologically-based environmental risk assessment (ERA) model that follows the 1998 USEPA guidelines, focusing on potential adverse effects to biological diversity. The approac...

The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP; Diaphorina citri) has emerged recently as a major threat to citrus in the Western U.S. This invasive insect, which transmits the bacterial pathogen that causes Huanglongbing disease, is largely an urban problem in Southern California. Management efforts in the region consist of soil applications of the systemic insect...

Background/Question/Methods The glassy-winged sharpshooter (Homalodisca vitripennis Germar) is an exotic agricultural insect pest in southern California. It has had devastating impacts in the wine grape-growing region of Temecula, California where it vectors a bacterial pathogen, Xylella fastidiosa. The bacterium blocks movement of plant sap with...

Background/Question/Methods Variation in host resistance and tolerance—collectively defined as defense—to pathogens can strongly influence the co-evolution of both host and pathogen. However, the effects of plant defense on disease spread are not well understood, particularly for vector-borne pathogens. Vector discrimination between healthy (asym...

Variation in host resistance and tolerance to pathogens can have important effects on pathogen evolution. However, the effects of host defense mechanisms on disease spread are not well understood. We hypothesize that tolerance and resistance will have contrasting effects on pathogen spread, mediated by vector preference for diseased or healthy host...

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, in cooperation with United States Forest Service, has implemented a risk management program to fund local government action aimed at containing the exotic invasive oak tree pathogen, Ceratocystis fagacearum – the causal agent of oak wilt. In administering the oak wilt ReLeaf program, the Minnesota Depa...

Non-target pest outbreaks associated with transgenic insecticidal (TI) crops pose a threat to the environment through continued insecticide use. However, little is known about their proximate causes. My goal in this work was to further understanding of the causes of non-target pest outbreaks associated with transgenic cotton plants producing Bt (Ba...

Outbreaks of non-target pests associated with transgenic Bt cotton threaten the economic and ecological benefits of the technology in cotton-producing countries. In the southeastern USA, stink bug pests, namely Nezara viridula L. and Euschistus servus Say (both Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), have recently become severe problems associated with Bt cott...

Background/Question/Methods Transgenic Bt cotton provides effective management of the caterpillar pests, Helicoverpa zea and Heliothis virescens, in the southeast United States. However, Bt cotton has not eliminated all pest problems. The stink bug species, Nezara viridula and Euschistus servus are not susceptible to Bt toxins and have become the...

Producers of Bt cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L. (Malvaceae), in the southeastern USA face significant losses from highly polyphagous stink bug species. These problems may be exacerbated by crop rotation practices that often result in cotton, peanut, Arachis hypogaea L., and soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merrill (both Fabaceae), growing in close proximity...

With the expansion of transgenic Bt cotton cultivation in the southeast US, stink bugs, particularly Nezara viridula and Euschistus servus [Hemiptera: Pentatomidae], have become serious cotton pests, resulting in continued high insecticide use. Whereas Bt cotton provides effective control of the caterpillar pests Helicoverpa zea and Heliothis vires...

Background/Question/Methods Empirical studies on the ecological causes of agricultural pest outbreaks have focused primarily on two biotic factors—release from natural enemies and changes in host plant quality. Release from competition, on the other hand, has been theorized as a potential cause but never tested. With the expansion of transgenic...

Earthworms, which play a key role in biogeochemical processes in soil ecosystems, could be negatively affected by the cultivation of transgenic Bt crops. Studies to date have found few effects of Bt maize on earthworm species. If adverse effects occur, they are likely to be chronic or sub-lethal and expressed over large spatial and temporal scales....

Interspecific competition among herbivorous insects is often mediated by a common host plant. Changes in the common host plant induced by one herbivore species may make the plant less preferred or nutritious to another herbivore. We suggest that these interactions can be quite specific. We examined the pair-wise interactions between species of two...

Background/Question/Methods Empirical studies on the ecological causes of agricultural pest outbreaks have focused primarily on two biotic factors—release from natural enemies and changes in host plant quality. Release from competition, on the other hand, has been theorized as a potential cause but never tested. With the expansion of transgenic...

Insect-resistant transgenic Bt cotton has, in general, increased yield and reduced insecticide use in cotton production by successfully managing target pests. In the southeast US, Bt cotton provides effective control of Helicpverpa zea and Heliothis virescens [Lepidoptera: Noctuidae]. However Bt cotton has not eliminated all pest problems. Also in...