The Canadian Journal of Plant Science announces a call for papers for a new Collection: Bugs in the North: Insect-Crop Interactions in Continental Climate Agriculture, guest-edited by Dr. Tyler Wist (AAFC), Dr. Hector Carcamo (AAFC), Dr. Boyd Mori (University of Alberta), and Marie-Ève Gagnon (AAFC).

Please note the deadline for papers has been extended to January 15, 2025.

https://cdnsciencepub.com/topic/cjps-bugs

From the wheat midge to the lady beetle, insects interact with crops in ways that range from useful to destructive. The full extent of damage due to insect pests can be difficult to estimate beyond yield-related crop losses. Indirect damage often includes compromises to host plant health and biodiversity resilience. And as climate change reshapes agricultural management practices and insect populations and behaviour, farmers are faced with what is, literally and figuratively, a moving target—and can benefit from research that offers new insights into the ongoing work of managing insects.  

The Canadian Journal of Plant Science invites submissions on current research concerning the impacts of insects on field and horticultural crops in the continental climate region. Topics may include:

• Insect pest damage and management
• Insect diversity, migration, and invasive species
• Climatic factors in entomology
• Biological control
• Insect toxicology
• Advances in measurement or monitoring techniques
• The role of AI in modeling to refine predictive tools
• Agroecosystems and farming management systems

Please contact Morgan Tunzelmann, Journal Development Specialist for the Canadian Journal of Plant Science, with any questions: morgan.tunzelmann@cdnsciencepub.com.

The Biological Survey of Canada is hosting a student collection competition! If you made a collection of insects, plants, or other biological material for university credit this year, you could win up to $150! Photograph your work and enter before January 31st 2024!

Get more out of your collection than a letter grade, while contributing valuable biodiversity data to ongoing scientific efforts to discover, record, and describe biota of Canada! Details can be found on the BSC website.

Prizes

Each category will be assessed independently and prizes will be given to the top three in each.

• 1st place in each category will be awarded $150 CAD, and 2 Biological Survey of Canada t-shirts
• 2nd place in each category will be awarded $50 and a Biological Survey of Canada t-shirt
• 3rd place in each category will be awarded $25 and a Biological Survey of Canada t-shir

Winners will have their collection featured in the Biological Survey’s Summer newsletter, and all participants will be featured on the Biological Survey of Canada website for the next year.

The Status of Insects RCN Annual Meeting will be held January 25-26, 2024. Anyone with an interest in the causes and consequences of insect decline, and solutions to mitigate insect biodiversity loss, is welcome to attend the meeting so please extend this invitation to colleagues, students, and other networks you are part of that may be interested in attending. We especially want to encourage graduate students and other early career researchers to get involved.

The goal for the meeting is to bring everyone together to see more of what all the RCN Working Groups are doing, have dedicated time to work on products and discuss ideas, and to network with other folks working on similar topics around the globe. Much of the meeting will be focused on Working Group activities, but there will also be plenary talks, poster sessions, and social events.

The meeting will be entirely virtual and will run continuously for roughly 48 hours straight so that no matter what time zone you are in, there will be meeting activities scheduled. Register to attend the meeting here so that we can set you up with access to the meeting platform.

Call for posters:

There will be three virtual poster sessions during the meeting. We especially encourage students, early career researchers, and people seeking international collaborators to expand current or planned projects to submit a poster. Posters do not have to be new – you are welcome to present a recent poster from a local, regional, or taxon-specific meeting since it will be new to many folks at this meeting.
For details on submitting a poster, please visit the RCN website.

Sunday, August 25 to Friday, August 20 2024, Kyoto, Japan.

Hello there,

We have a few announcements about events taking place at this year’s ESC JAM in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan!

(Download events .pdf here.)

Trivia!

Attendees can now sign up to participate in a trivia (https://forms.gle/EEn9H6Z56QxqqeWV7)

Open to ALL attendees; date TBD.

The student planning committee has organized a trivia for ALL members attending the ESC JAM in Saskatoon. Each team will consist of 4 or 5 people. If you would like to participate and you are worried about not having a team or enough members, please fill out the form and we will do our best to match you with other attendees 🙂

Members of the winning team will receive a cool prize!

If you or any of your members require accommodations, please contact Georgiana (georgiana.antochi@usask.ca) or Berenice (berenice.romero@usask.ca).

Bug War Games!

Student members can also sign up to participate in our first Bug War Games (https://forms.gle/yuAFcteyAQ9X9K1y8)

Students can register as an individual or as part of a team. This event will take place during the student social on Oct 16 at 7 PM (Winston’s Pub).

The student planning committee has organized a series of games and challenges for students attending the ESC JAM in Saskatoon. This event will take place on Monday (Oct 16) starting at 7 PM (Winton’s English Pub & Grill, 243 21st St E). Each team will consist of 4 or 5 students. If you would like to participate and you are worried about not having a team or enough members, please fill out the form and we will do our best to match you with other students. Members of the winning team will receive a cool prize!

If you or any of your members require accommodations, please contact Georgiana (georgiana.antochi@usask.ca) or Berenice (berenice.romero@usask.ca).

PS: None of this would have been possible without the help of our AWESOME sponsors and we would like to take this opportunity to thank them once again…

• Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan (Gold sponsor)
• Wild West Agriculture (Silver sponsor)
• Irvine Ville Farms LTD (Silver sponsor)
• Sasktel (Bronze sponsor)

Winners in each event will receive ento-themed prizes.

If you have any questions regarding the activities, do not hesitate to contact Georgiana (georgiana.antochi@usask.ca) or Berenice (berenice.romero@usask.ca).

See you in October,

Georgiana Antochi-Crihan and Berenice Romero
2023 ESC JAM Student Planning Committee