- Vacancy Reference Number
- CENTA-VS
- Closing Date
- 22 Jan 2018
- Salary
- Research Council Rate
- Address
- Department of Neuroscience, Psychology & Behaviour,
University of Leicester,
University Road,
Leicester.
LE1 9HN, UK
- Duration
- 3.5 years
Gastropods constitute a significant agricultural and horticultural pest around the world. Current control methods are mainly focused on the extensive use of metaldehyde- or carbamate-based molluscicide baits, which have well-documented ecotoxicological effects, especially caused by their bio-accumulation in the food chain and their entry into adjacent waterways due to wash-off, as well as direct risks to the health of humans and pets. Furthermore, molluscicide baits require active consumption, usually at multiple occasions, in order to be effective. However, terrestrial snails and slugs are generalised feeders with limited innate food preferences and highly adaptive feeding strategies. For instance, once snails encounter a nutritious food source, they have been shown to rapidly adapt their food preference. This strategy makes them highly adaptive to changes in their environment and also very damaging as once they have 'acquired a taste' for a specific crop, they will feed selectively on that food source. This adaptive and flexible feeding strategy could also lead to active avoidance of molluscicide baits. The project will study whether non-lethal doses of molluscide consumption can result in subsequent active bait avoidance reducing the effectiveness of molluscicide baits. It will also be investigated which cues affect molluscicide bait attraction (smell, taste, nutrional value) as well as the underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Based on these findings, we will aim to develop improved control strategies for snails and slugs with less environmental impact, e.g. by attempting to develop hyper-attractive baits for snail/slug traps that avoid the need to spread molluscicides over large areas.
The project is advertised as part of the NERC-CENTA postgraduate training programme.
Further Information
https://www2.le.ac.uk/research-degrees/funding/centa/biology-projects
Contact Details
Volko Straub
Department of Neuroscience, Psychology & Behaviour,
University of Leicester,
University Road,
Leicester.
LE1 9HN, UK
email: vs64@le.ac.uk
