Financial and technical cooperation /morphological and molecular identification of ambrosia beetles

The National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension is the most prominent Jordanian national interface for scientific research and agricultural extension, and it is the chair of the Presidential Presidency for Agriculture. As it is the largest agricultural research institution at the national level, it is entrusted with the task of its applied agricultural contribution and governmental agricultural trends. Its location is Canadian, which remains about 15 km north of Ras Amman. .

Therefore, the National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension is intensifying its spread throughout the Kingdom, as these doctors are considered the arms of the main center in the hospital, and therefore these wings and stations are affiliated with it, including research stations and extension research units, for the sake of hot agricultural research, whether it is experiments in the stations or observations at Farmers or research days and other work workshops are among the activities of interest to the Jordanian school, and among these centers are (Ramtha, Al-Rabadiyah, Derla, Al-Mashgar, Al-Shoubak, Al-Mafraq, Al-Tafileh, the Wadi Araba Center, and Music Studies).

The process of agricultural scientific research began through the Ministry of Agriculture, where the first step was achieved after the establishment of the Scientific Research Network in 1958. In 1970, the name of the Directorate of Agricultural Research and Rashad was changed, which operated in the Jubaiha region until 1985, when what was known as the National Center for Agricultural Research was established. Diversified technology was entrusted with the responsibility of carrying out agricultural research and monitoring technology at the national level, and in October 2007, agricultural research and extension were merged into one institution under the supervision of the “National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension”.

The National Agricultural Research Strategy marked a new stage in the history of agricultural scientific research since the opening of the Center, which included many agricultural studies and research, the outputs of which contributed to achieving the goals of comprehensive agricultural development. The strategy coincided with the beginning of the implementation of the establishment of the first five years of the National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension.

The Center for Relations with Many Agricultural Researchers in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the Arab Center for Studies of International Agricultural Agricultural Lands (FAO), the Environmental Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the Arab Center for Studies of Good Agricultural Agricultural Lands (ACAD Consortium), scientific field Agricultural Development in West Asia and the Near East (ARINIA), the Arab Incident for Social and Economic Development, the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, the Japanese International Film Agency (JICA), and various other organizations.

Climate change and ambrosia beetles have significant impacts on biodiversity in Jordan Bark beetles and ambrosia beetles, wood-boring insects of the Coleoptera family Curculionidae (subfamily Scolytinae), infest stressed or deceased trees, creating galleries within to foster and propagate their fungal partners, primarily Ambrosiella, Fusarium, and Raffaelea. These beetles depend on their insect carriers for dispersal and are challenging to detect due to their diminutive size and remarkable longevity. They readily hitch rides in wood items, particularly packaging materials and tree logs, exploiting their reproductive tactics to swiftly adapt to new habitats. Lacking host specificity, they target live trees over decaying ones, with some of their symbiotic fungi causing plant diseases like Fusarium dieback and wilt, impacting over 58 plant families globally in regions such as Africa, the Americas, and Palestine.The incursion of exotic ambrosia beetles from Southeast Asia in 2002 has led to significant disruptions in the production of avocados, oranges, grapes, peaches, and macadamia trees, along with severe environmental consequences worldwide, including the devastation of crucial tree species. The rapid global spread of these beetles has caused extensive damage and substantial economic setbacks to natural and agricultural ecosystems, jeopardizing the pollination of vital tree crops. This infestation has the potential to eliminate around 27 million trees (38%) in Southern California's urban region, with costs reaching millions for tree removal and treatment, impacting ecosystem services like carbon storage, storm water management, and air quality control.Urban forest trees in California annually absorb the carbon equivalent of 120,000 cars (567,748 tons of CO2) and provide ecosystem services valued at $1.0 billion. The avocado industry in Florida faces a threat from laurel wilt, which has already devastated over 200,000 commercial trees in Miami-Dade County since 2010. Ambrosia bark beetles, initially from Florida, have caused significant economic losses in regions like Palestine and South Africa, with estimates of losses ranging from $16 billion to $100 billion in Africa. Laurel wilt has also ravaged forests in the USA, killing an estimated 300,000 redbay trees and causing substantial economic losses. Ambrosia beetles have inflicted around $63 million in damages in coastal British Columbia. In Lebanon, ambrosia beetles were detected in oak forests and avocado orchards during a field survey led by an Italian expert in 2019.The proliferation of ambrosia beetles in Jordan's border countries has both economic and environmental repercussions, leading to the extinction of native forest trees. This has resulted in reduced carbon sequestration, loss of shade, higher temperatures, and increased environmental pollution due to climate change, exacerbating the spread of wood-boring insects like ambrosia beetles. Efforts are underway to develop a national program for managing invasive ambrosia beetles through early detection and rapid response to mitigate their adverse effects on the ecosystem.Transboundary species management faces key challenges: timely detection of target species and swift implementation of measures for their control or elimination. The project aims to identify high-risk invasive alien species, pathways of introduction, and raise awareness to address them effectively. It also seeks to update authorities on recent scolytid distribution and utilize project outcomes to guide stakeholders in prioritizing research and response efforts.
Main objective : 1. Identifying potential invasive alien species with high risks of introduction, identifying potential pathways for their introduction, and providing necessary awareness and guidance to deal with these invasive alien species.2. Monitor populations of possibly newly introduced exotic scolytidae at selected high level.3. Provide the competent authorities with current distribution information on scolytids that may have recently been evacuated to the country.4. Identify possible gaps and problems in detection protocols, taxonomic skills, and reference needs, and develop recommendations to address the gaps.5. Use the expected outputs of the project to help stakeholders prioritize research, development and response activities, and adjust protocols accordingly

Ambrosia beetles
Shot hole borer
Crypholus spp