SUSTAINABLE PEST MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS RELY ON BIOLOGICALLY-BASED STRATEGIES THAT HARNESS MULTITROPHIC ECOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS FOR PEST SUPPRESSION. DESPITE THE BROAD SUCCESS AND INCREASING ADOPTION OF THESE STRATEGIES, OUR ABILITY TO IMPLEMENT AND ADVANCE ECOLOGICAL PEST MANAGEMENT FACES A SEVERE AND INCREASINGLY COMMON THREAT: EXTREME WEATHER, INCLUDING FLOODS AND HEAT WAVES. EXTREME WEATHER CHALLENGES OUR ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND AND EFFECTIVELY MANAGE AGRICULTURAL PESTS BECAUSE IT CAN DISRUPT THE ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO PEST CONTROL, AND ALSO BECAUSE OUR FUNDAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF AGROECOLOGY WAS LARGELY DEVELOPED OUTSIDE THE CONTEXT OF EXTREME EVENTS. THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS DEVELOPING A FOUNDATIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF HOW HEAT WAVES INFLUENCE THE MULTITROPHIC ECOLOGY OF PEST MANAGEMENT ON A KEY CROP, POTATO, THROUGH IMPACTS ON CROP-PEST, PEST-ENEMY, AND TRITROPHIC INTERACTIONS. FIRST, WE WILL USE LAB EXPERIMENTS TO MEASURE THE DIRECT, PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF HEAT WAVES ON POTATO GROWTH AND DEFENSE, INSECT PESTS, AND NATURAL ENEMIES. SECOND, WE WILL EXPERIMENTALLY GENERATE HEAT WAVE CONDITIONS IN THE FIELD TO QUANTIFY HOW HEAT WAVES ALTER CROP-PEST, PEST-ENEMY, AND TRITROPHIC INTERACTIONS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO PEST SUPPRESSION. OUR EXPERIMENTS WILL VARY THE TIMING AND DURATION OF HEAT WAVE TREATMENTS IN ORDER TO DEVELOP A PREDICTIVE UNDERSTANDING OF HOW THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A HEAT WAVE INFLUENCE ITS EFFECTS ON PEST MANAGEMENT. THIS PROJECT WILL ADVANCE THE PROGRAM AREA PRIORITY BY GENERATING FOUNDATIONAL KNOWLEDGE THAT WILL LEAD TO NOVEL STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING AGRICULTURAL PESTS BIOLOGICALLY IN THE FACE OF EXTREME WEATHER, THEREBY IMPROVING THE RESILIENCE OF U.S. AGRICULTURE.