Matt Thomas
Professor of Entomology

The Pennsylvania State University
1 Chemical Ecology Lab
University Park, PA 16802

Email: mbt13@psu.edu
Phone: 814-865-2480
Fax: 814-863-4439

Ecological Applications
Disease Ecology & Biology

Jenny Stevenson (at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)
Paolo Casula (at Imperial College London)

Jon Darbro (at CSIRO, Australia)
Ron Graham (at CSIRO, Australia)
Dean Paini (at CSIRO, Australia)
Georgianne Griffiths (at Imperial College London)
Simon Blanford (joint with Andrew Read)
Krijn Paaijmans (joint with Andrew Read)

Research

My research explores many aspects of the ecology and evolution of ‘enemy-victim’ interactions with the aim of improving the safety, effectiveness and sustainability of pest and disease management. The research centres around three main themes:

• Ecology and evolution of host-pathogen interactions
• Invasive species
• Agrobiodiversity and natural pest control

Key questions include:

How does environmental temperature affect host resistance and parasite/pathogen virulence?

Can we exploit pathogens or parasites to alter the ability of vectors to transmit disease and to develop biological pesticides that will not be undermined by evolution of resistance by the vector?

Can biological pesticides be used to slow development of resistance of pests and vectors to conventional chemical insecticides? 

How will subtle changes in environmental conditions (e.g. through climate change) affect ability of insect vectors to transmit diseases?

What is the relationship between natural enemy diversity and biological control and what are the consequences of biodiversity loss (e.g. through intensification) for natural pest control services?

Can we exploit interactions across three (or even four) trophic levels to better combine  partially effective plant resistance and partially effective natural enemies to improve pest control?

What is the importance of enemy release in the emergence of pests and diseases and in determining the ecological and economic significance of invasive species?

What is the impact of invasive species and how can we combine ecological and economic insights to develop improved biosecurity practice?

What factors determine the adoption (or often non-adoption) of novel pest control strategies?

What are the consequences of sub-lethal infections for insect population dynamics and can we exploit sub-lethal diseases for novel pest control or to prevent spread of an invasive species?

Awards and other activities:

Joint recipient of CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement 2007

Member of Editorial Board of Agricultural and Forest Entomology and International Editorial Advisory Board of Biocontrol Science and Technology.

Cook, D.C., Thomas, M.B., Cunningham, S.A., Anderson, D.L. & De Barro, P.J. (2007). Predicting the economic impact of an invasive species on an ecosystem service. Ecological Applications 17, 1832-1840.

Thomas, M.B. & Reid, A.M. (2007). Are exotic natural enemies an effective means for controlling invasive plants? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 22, 447-453.

Klass, J.I., Blanford, S. & Thomas, M.B. (2007). Spatial variation in pathogen virulence mediated by environmental temperature and thermal behaviour: implications for biological control of locusts and grasshoppers. Agriculture and Forest Entomology 9, 189-199.

Thomas, M.B. & Read, A.F. (2007). Can fungal biopesticides control malaria? Nature Reviews Microbiology 5, 377-383.

Casula, P., Wilby, A. & Thomas, M.B. (2006). Understanding biodiversity effects on prey in multi-enemy systems. Ecology Letters 9, 995-1004.

Blanford, S., Chan, B.H.K., Jenkins, N.E., Sim, D., Turner, R.J., Read, A.F. & Thomas, M.B. (2005). Fungal pathogen reduces potential for malaria transmission. Science 308, 1638-1641.

Wilby, A., Villareal, S.C., Lan, L.P. , Heong, K.L & Thomas, M.B. (2005). Functional benefits of predator species diversity depend on prey identity. Ecological Entomology 30, 497-501.

Thomas, M.B. & Blanford, S. (2003). Thermal biology in insect-pathogen interactions. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18, 344-350.

Thomas, M.B., Watson. E.L. & Valverde-Garcia, P. (2003). Mixed infections and insect-pathogen interactions. Ecology Letters 6, 183-188.

Blanford, S., Thomas, M.B., Pugh, C. & Pell, J.K. (2003). Temperature checks the Red Queen? Resistance and virulence in a fluctuating environment. Ecology Letters 6, 2-5.

van Lenteren, J.C., Babendreier, D., Bigler, F., Burgio, G., Hokkanen, H.M.T., Loomans, A., Menzler-Hokkanen, I., van Rijn, P.C.J., Thomas, M.B. & Tommasini, G. (2003). Environmental risk assessment of exotic natural enemies used in inundative biological control. BioControl 48, 3-38.

Elliot, S.L., Blanford, S. & Thomas, M.B. (2002). Host-pathogen interactions in a varying environment: temperature, behavioural fever and fitness. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 269, 1599-1607.

Lynch, L.D., Ives, A.R., Waage, J.K., Hochberg, M.E. & Thomas, M.B. (2002). The risks of biocontrol: transient impacts and minimum nontarget densities. Ecological Applications 12, 1872-1882.

Wilby A. & Thomas, M.B. (2002). Natural enemy diversity and pest control: patterns of pest emergence with agricultural intensification. Ecology Letters 5, 353-360.

Wilson, K., Thomas, M.B., Blanford, S., Dogget, M.J., Simpson, S.J. & Moore, S.L. & (2002). Coping with crowds: density-dependent disease resistance in desert locusts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99, 5471-5475.

Thomas, M.B. (1999). Ecological approaches and the development of ‘truly integrated’ pest management. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 96, 5944-5951.

Willis, A.J., Thomas, M.B. & Lawton, J.H. (1999). Is the increased vigour of invasive weeds explained by a trade-off between growth and herbivore resistance? Oecologia 120, 588-594.

Thomas, M.B. & Willis, A.J. (1998). Biocontrol - risky but necessary? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 13, 325-329.

Hawkins, B.A., Thomas, M.B. & Hochberg, M.E. (1993). Refuge theory and biological control. Science 262, 1429-1432.

Thomas, M.B., Wratten, S.D. & Sotherton, N.W. (1991). Creation of island habitats in farmland to manipulate populations of beneficial arthropods: predator densities and emigration. Journal of Applied Ecology 28, 906-917.

Click for link to full publication list (pdf file)