15 May 2006 Floral touch to science in the vineyard

You could say that Samantha Scarratt's scientific research has really flowered into something with great promise.

A postgraduate science student at Lincoln University for the past three years, Samantha has just been capped PhD in Entomology and is now back working where she did most of the research for her degree.

Where better to be, she says, than the heartland of New Zealand's Sauvignon Blanc industry, Marlborough.

Samantha's entomology research has been focussed on helping solve the age-old problem of pests attacking and destroying crops. In her case grapes.

It's been core Lincoln University-type of work. Entomology (the study of insects), ecology (the study of creatures in relation to their surroundings), viticulture (the growing of grapes), oenology (wine science), and organics (biological husbandry) are all strong areas of study at Lincoln University and they have been at the heart of Samantha's work.

The pest she has been pursuing is the leafroller, a tiny caterpillar that feeds on grapes and opens them up making the plant susceptible to botrytis disease.

Working under the supervision of Lincoln University's Professor of Ecology, Steve Wratten, Samantha took a "biological control" approach to dealing with the leafroller. She focussed on the use of natural enemies to control the pest, and the best natural enemy is a small wasp that lays its eggs in leafroller caterpillars.

This is where Samantha's work really flowered. Working in an organic vineyard, she showed scientifically that flowering plants, and in particular buckwheat, planted between the rows of vines, could be used to attract the wasp (which doesn't harm the grapes), and that the presence of the wasp will exert a level of control over the population of leafrollers.

In essence Samantha's work has shown that this type of biological control can make insecticides unnecessary in vineyards.

"This is significant work for New Zealand and the drive to reduce chemical inputs to agriculture and horticulture," says Professor Wratten.

Samantha came to Lincoln University with a first class honours degree in science from Adelaide University, South Australia, and experience working with environmental consultants in Perth.

She is now working at the organic vineyard in Marlborough where she did her research, Seresin Estate, and she hopes to continue working in the wine industry in a research role.

For full information on postgraduate and undergraduate science courses at Lincoln University, and courses in other discipline areas, see www.lincoln.ac.nz

Ian Collins, Communications Group, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand