Air pollution and agricultural aphid pests. II chamber filtration experiments

The responses of four major aphid pest species feeding on three major crops were studied in a series of experimental chambers on the roof of Imperial College in South Kensington, London. The experimental chambers were continually circulated with air which had been subjected to a variety of filtration treatments. In the first series of experiments there were three chambers subject to ambient air, charcoal-filtered air, and charcoal plus 'Purafil'-filtered air; in the subsequent experiments there were four chambers, a charcoal plus 'Purafil' plus charcoal treatment being added. These treatments provided a range of concentrations and mixtures of the ambient gases present at the site. The growth rate of aphids was measured both during filtration and post-filtration, the plants being exposed from sowing for either 42 or 84 days. In all cases there were significant effects on aphid performance which seemed to be most strongly linked to absolute and relative NO concentrations. The pattern of responses by the aphids accorded extremely well with those observed in closed-chamber fumigation experiments with stimulation of performance in relatively polluted air in all cases except Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris) feeding on Vicia faba L. where the opposite effect was recorded.