Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The twelfth Plant Herbivore Interaction Gordon Research Conference brings together researchers from diverse disciplines to understand and predict the complex relationships between plants and herbivores. Since many herbivores are economic pests, this conference covers topics important to the design of ecologically sustainable production systems, including mechanisms of plant resistance to herbivores, the importance of tri-trophic interactions, microbial mediation of plant and herbivore performance, and the consequences of climate change. The conference also provides an ecological and evolutionary context to help anticipate and manage intended and unintended consequences of plant breeding for pest resistance. Since plants and herbivores together comprise the majority of non-microbial species inhabiting our world, understanding how plants and herbivores interact provides mechanistic understanding and useful generalizations about the nature and maintenance of much of the Earths ecological communities and biological diversity.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
60%
Applied
40%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Gordon Research Conference on Plant Herbivore Interaction The 2013 meeting will be the 12th Gordon Research Conference on Plant-Herbivore Interactions. For over 30 years, the GRC series on Plant-Herbivore Interactions has served as a premier forum for scientists investigating the ecology and evolution of plant-herbivore interactions. In addition to being an important venue for sharing late breaking results, its broad influence makes the conference series an influential determinant of research directions in the field. The goal of the Gordon Research Conference on Plant Herbivore Interaction, held every three years, is to understand and predict the complex relationships between plants and herbivores. Many herbivores are economic pests and their roles in agricultural and forest systems are important and informative components of these meetings. The study of plant-herbivore interaction is highly interdisciplinary and there is no venue other than the PHI GRC at which entomologists, botanists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, behaviorists, physiologists, chemists, and molecular biologists all interact. Historically, the study of plant insect interactions has drawn from virtually all disciplines in the biological and chemical sciences; hence, a PHI GRC is about as interdisciplinary as one can imagine, with expertise ranging from molecular genetics to ecosystem ecology, from microbes to mammals, and from cornfields to rainforests. The anticipated outputs are many. This conference is transformative because it brings together an outstanding group of 200 junior and senior scientists. The format of the conference with programmed morning and evening discussion sessions and opportunities for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, provides an exciting venue for scientists from different disciplines to brainstorm and debate across disciplinary boundaries. Moreover, the collegial atmosphere of this conference and breadth of research areas represented, provides a unique opportunity for creative discussions that lead to new perspectives, syntheses, research directions, and new collaborations.
Project Methods
The conference brings together roughly 200 young and established scientists for four and a half days of cutting edge presentations and discussions. Past participants of this workshop have noted that these meetings are an important reference point for the fields progress, and set the tone for intervening periods. This success can be attributed to at least three characteristics: 1) a combination of excellent formal programs with a meeting atmosphere that is conducive to informal discussion and critical debate, 2) maintenance of a diverse topical approach to plant-herbivore studies, which distinguishes this conference from more narrowly targeted conferences, and 3) development of lasting professional links and collaborations among participants. Moreover, abundance of young scientists, participation by a broad international community, and the GRC schedule of afternoon discussion time provides a unique opportunity for the kind of creative cross talk that leads to new perspectives, syntheses, and research directions and collaborations. In fact, participants often report that the field has made tremendous progress in part because of the GRC conferences held every 3 years, and they usually rank this as their most useful scientific meeting to attend. The Gordon Research Conference also devotes considerable resources to helping Chairs assess the degree to which the conference successfully achieves its goals. There is an evaluation form that each participant is strongly encouraged to fill out before they leave the premises. Considerable time at the meeting is spent on this form, and equally important, the results are carefully tabulated and presented to the chairs in an excellent web-based format after the meeting. In addition, the newly elected chair is a vice chair at one meeting before becoming the chair at the subsequent meeting. Thus the chair can easily familiarize him/herself with the assessment of the previous meeting and make any adjustments to continuously make improvements, where needed.