The School Malaise Trap Program: Coupling educational outreach with scientific discovery.

The School Malaise Trap Program (SMTP) provides a technologically sophisticated and scientifically relevant educational experience that exposes students to the diversity of life, enhancing their understanding of biodiversity while promoting environmental stewardship. Since 2013, the SMTP has allowed 15,000 students at 350 primary and secondary schools to explore insect diversity in Canadian schoolyards. Students at each school collected hundreds of insects for an analysis of DNA sequence variation that enabled their rapid identification to a species. Through this hands-on approach, they participated in a learning exercise that conveys a real sense of scientific discovery. As well, the students contributed valuable data to the largest biodiversity genomics initiative ever undertaken: the International Barcode of Life project. To date, the SMTP has sequenced over 80,000 insect specimens, which includes representatives of 7,990 different species, nearly a tenth of the Canadian fauna. Both surprisingly and importantly, the collections generated the first DNA barcode records for 1,288 Canadian species.

Climate and host plant availability impact the future distribution of the bean leaf beetle (Cerotoma trifurcata).

The bean leaf beetle, Cerotoma trifurcata, has become a major pest of soybean throughout its North American range. With a changing climate, there is the potential for this pest to further expand its distribution and become an increasingly severe pest in certain regions. To examine this possibility, we developed bioclimatic envelope models for both the bean leaf beetle, and its most important agronomic host plant, soybean (Glycine max). These two models were combined to examine the potential future pest status of the beetle using climate change projections from multiple general circulation models (GCMs) and climate change scenarios. Despite the broad tolerances of soybean, incorporation of host plant availability substantially decreased the suitable and favourable areas for the bean leaf beetle as compared to an evaluation based solely on the climate envelope of the beetle, demonstrating the importance of incorporating biotic interactions in these predictions. The use of multiple GCM-scenario combinations also revealed differences in predictions depending on the choice of GCM, with scenario choice having less of an impact. While the Norwegian model predicted little northward expansion of the beetle from its current northern range limit of southern Ontario and overall decreases in suitable and favourable areas over time, the Canadian and Russian models predict that much of Ontario and Quebec will become suitable for the beetle in the future, as well as Manitoba under the Russian model. The Russian model also predicts expansion of the suitable and favourable areas for the beetle over time. Two predictions that do not depend on our choice of GCM include a decrease in suitability of the Mississippi Delta region and continued favourability of the southeastern United States.