PESTOLIVE: a mediterranean research project for understanding and managing soil-borne parasites on olive using historical and ecological approaches

PESTOLIVE (Contribution of olive history for the management of soil-borne parasites in the Mediterranean Basin) is a project funded by ARIMNet, an ERANET action supported by the 7th European Framework Programme and by non-European Mediterranean countries. PESTOLIVE aims at producing knowledge and tools for a new and efficient management of plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN) and plant-pathogenic fungi (PPF) in olive (Olea europaea L.) cropping systems and nurseries, while reducing the use of pesticides. Because of the anthropic continuum from Olea post-glacial refuges to Oleasters (domestication) and then to olive-trees (breeding and cropping), the fragmentation of the PPN and PPF communities and of their natural enemies could explain the scattered diversity of the control techniques (especially resistance rootstocks, biocontrol, cropping strategies) developed and applied all around the Mediterranean Basin. The novelty of PESTOLIVE is based on: i) the analysis and the management of the parasite diversity (ecology of communities) instead of controlling emblematic species (population approach), and ii) the involvement of knowledge about the historical co-adaptation of soil-borne parasite and natural enemies communities to olive-tree domestication (origins and past assemblages) and breeding that follows the history of O. europaea around the Mediterranean Basin.