Department of Entomology
  • About
    • At a Glance
    • Welcome
    • Code of Conduct
    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion >
      • DEI Working Group
      • Resources
    • Departmental History
    • For Alumni
    • Support Entomology >
      • Steinhauer Scholarship Fund
    • Contact >
      • Directions
  • News
    • News
    • Seminar Blog
    • Seminar Schedule
    • Awards
  • People
    • Faculty
    • Post Docs
    • Students
    • Staff
    • Alumni
    • For PI/Faculty
    • Proposal Resources
  • Academics
    • Graduate >
      • Admissions
      • MS Degree Requirements
      • PhD Degree Requirements
      • Graduate Student Resources
      • Forms for Grad Students
      • Financial Assistance
      • Award & Funding Opportunities
      • Entomology Student Organization
    • Online Masters in Applied Entomology
    • Undergraduate >
      • Entomology Minor
      • Honors Program
  • Research
    • IPM & Biological Control of Agricultural, Urban & Forest Pests
    • Ecology, Conservation, Restoration, Climate Change >
      • Pollinator Science and Apiculture
    • Evolution, Systematics and Evo-Devo
    • Genetics & Genomics and Medical Entomology
  • Extension/Outreach
    • Educational Outreach
    • Insect Camp
    • Insect Drawings
    • Insect Identification
    • Pesticide Education and Assessment Program
    • Plant Diagnostic Laboratory (PDL)

Mission Biological: The Battle to Save Our Nation’s Front Lawn

10/30/2017

 
PictureFigure 2: “Dollar spot” of turf grass caused by Sclerotinia homoeocarpa. Photo Credit: Dr. Joseph Roberts
Turfgrass landscapes are a major component of our beloved parks, sports fields, golf courses, and historical monuments. Dr. Joesph Roberts, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, is currently investigating the microbial communities present on the turfgrass of the National Mall in Washington D.C.. Dr. Roberts' research is fighting to keep our beautiful landscapes looking like the "American dream" and not like an American wasteland.

PictureFigure 1: The National Mall, Washington Monument, and World War II Memorial. Photo credit: Carol Highsmith
​When most of us look out over our front lawns, we see green blades of grass rising from the earth, but usually nothing more. Look through the eyes of Dr. Joseph Roberts and you’ll see a different story: our supposedly mundane grasses are actually home to a wide variety of microscopic organisms. Most of the time, these organisms are hardly any cause for concern, but if your grasses harbored one of the pathogenic, or disease-causing strains of fungi, your idyllic front lawn might look more like an American wasteland than the American dream. Over the past decade, Dr. Roberts has been hard at work to save our nation’s most beloved landscapes.  More recently, he has explored turf microbes at the National Mall, commonly known as our nation’s very own front lawn. Dr. Roberts is an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at the University of Maryland who studies the infectious bacteria and fungi that ruin the aesthetic of any turf environment. His research influences the management decisions that keep our parks, sports fields, and golf courses functional and pleasing to the eye.

PictureFigure 2: “Dollar spot” of turf grass caused by Sclerotinia homoeocarpa. Photo Credit: Dr. Joseph Roberts
​Preventing turfgrass diseases has always been a responsibility delegated to land managers across the nation. Essentially, wherever there is turfgrass, pathogens for these grasses are also present.  For most of the history of turf management, the majority of turfgrass diseases that these land managers have encountered have been fungal diseases, which are more readily handled by fungicidal spraying programs. However, in the past 10 years, bacterial diseases have become more prevalent and difficult to treat, particularly on highly managed golf courses.  Bacterial issues leave turf managers scrambling for curative measures and treatments to counter the spread of these diseases. These bacterial pathogens can cause turf landscapes to appear patchy or that the grass is dying, a condition known as “bacterial wilt”.  Seeing the rise of bacterial issues in managed turfgrass systems, Dr. Roberts began studying turfgrass microbiomes.  Due to the lack of previous research, little was known about the species that make up the microbial communities inhabiting turfgrass or what factors shape the composition of these communities. This lack of information led Dr. Roberts to form a regional study group dedicated to learning more about what he calls the “phytobiome”, or the system of factors that influence or are influenced by turfgrass management. For Dr. Roberts’ research, this meant learning where bacterial communities are found on turfgrass and how environmental factors might influence these communities. Luckily for Dr. Roberts, recent renovations to restore the National Mall in Washington D.C. gave him a perfect opportunity to test some of his ideas. 

PictureFigure 3: The total genera of bacteria observed in the National Mall turf grass and their community densities. Pre- and post-renovation samples were similar to one another, presenting similar communities and densities. Image Credit: Crouch et al. 2017
To see how the environment affects microbial turfgrass communities, Dr. Roberts took plant and soil samples from non-renovated turfgrass from the National Mall in 2015, post-renovation turfgrass later that year, and replicate samples from a turf field at another site hundreds of miles away in New Jersey. After identifying the communities present in these samples to genus, Dr. Roberts identified a diverse set of bacteria. Dr. Roberts’ studies also found that the bacterial communities between all sites studied were very similar. These results support the idea that regional temperatures and climate may have more of an impact on these bacterial communities than other localized environmental influences. Dr. Roberts had also found that certain bacteria make their home on different areas on the grass, such as on grass seeds, which could allow for more precise control of potentially pathogenic strains. Dr. Roberts’ findings that microbial communities in turfgrass are regionally similar and changed most by temperature will allow turf managers to better understand what bacterial pathogens could potentially be lurking in their landscapes, leading to the creation of more effective management strategies to prevent turfgrass disease. Dr. Roberts’ research into what factors promote potentially pathogenic bacteria are ongoing. In the future, Dr. Roberts will continue the fight to save our nation’s beautiful parks and landmarks by further investigating the nature of the turf phytobiome.
 
 
References:
Crouch, J. A., Z. Carter, A. Ismaiel, and J. A. Roberts. 2017. The US National Mall Microbiome: A Census of Rhizosphere Bacteria Inhabiting Landscape Turf. Crop Sci. 57(Suppl1):S-341-S-348. doi:10.2135/cropsci2016.10.0849
 
About the author:
Dylan Kutz is a MSc student in the Lamp Lab at the University of Maryland, where he is studying natural enemy habitats in agroecosystems. He is currently working on a project assessing the value of agricultural drainage ditches as refugia for natural enemies of agricultural pests.


Comments are closed.

    Categories

    All
    Awards
    Colloquium
    Faculty Spotlight
    Fall 2013 Colloquium
    Fall 2014 Colloquium
    Fall 2015 Colloquium
    Fall 2016 Colloquium
    Featured
    Innovation
    News
    Publications
    Science Projects
    SESYNC
    Spring 2014 Colloquium
    Spring 2015 Colloquium
    Spring 2016 Colloquium
    Talks
    Undergraduate

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
Picture
Department of Entomology 
University of Maryland 
4112 Plant Sciences Building 
College Park, MD 20742-4454
USA

Telephone: 301.405.3911 
Fax: 301.314.9290
Picture
Web Accessibility
  • About
    • At a Glance
    • Welcome
    • Code of Conduct
    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion >
      • DEI Working Group
      • Resources
    • Departmental History
    • For Alumni
    • Support Entomology >
      • Steinhauer Scholarship Fund
    • Contact >
      • Directions
  • News
    • News
    • Seminar Blog
    • Seminar Schedule
    • Awards
  • People
    • Faculty
    • Post Docs
    • Students
    • Staff
    • Alumni
    • For PI/Faculty
    • Proposal Resources
  • Academics
    • Graduate >
      • Admissions
      • MS Degree Requirements
      • PhD Degree Requirements
      • Graduate Student Resources
      • Forms for Grad Students
      • Financial Assistance
      • Award & Funding Opportunities
      • Entomology Student Organization
    • Online Masters in Applied Entomology
    • Undergraduate >
      • Entomology Minor
      • Honors Program
  • Research
    • IPM & Biological Control of Agricultural, Urban & Forest Pests
    • Ecology, Conservation, Restoration, Climate Change >
      • Pollinator Science and Apiculture
    • Evolution, Systematics and Evo-Devo
    • Genetics & Genomics and Medical Entomology
  • Extension/Outreach
    • Educational Outreach
    • Insect Camp
    • Insect Drawings
    • Insect Identification
    • Pesticide Education and Assessment Program
    • Plant Diagnostic Laboratory (PDL)