Abstract submission and submission of workshop ideas for ISBCW2026 in Rotorua, New Zealand, are now open.
Abstracts
- Check the ‘Session Topics’ below to find out what topics we expect to cover.
- Find the topic that best fits the work you wish to present.
- Consider also which session topic may be a secondary fit for you in case we cannot fit your talk under your first preference.
- We seek submissions for
- full length oral presentations (20 mins, including 5 mins for questions)
- short form oral presentations (5 mins, no question time allowed)
- posters (size A1, Landscape orientation)
- When ready, head over to the Abstract Submission page:
Workshops
Have an idea for a workshop?
Recommended workshop length is between 60 and 90 mins.
Submissions for both workshops and presentation abstracts are open until 4 August 2025.
We will notify you if your abstract/workshop idea has been accepted by the first week of September 2025*.
*We can consider early notification of acceptance where advanced notice is needed for travel approvals. If you require early consideration, please indicate the date in the EARLY CONSIDERATION section of the submission form.
Topics: Operational
1/ Taxonomy and weed biological control
- Important developments.
- Detecting and using cryptic species.
- New tools (e.g. rapid DNA diagnostics, iNaturalist, ID Apps on mobiles).
2/ Target and agent selection
Target weed selection:
- What makes a good target weed for biocontrol (e.g. ecologically, economically, socially)– effective methodologies and prioritisation
- Dealing with a suite of weeds simultaneously – challenges and opportunities.
- Should we target incipient (sleeper) weeds?
Agent selection:
- Why are we still introducing agents that seem to do nothing – current methods to predict efficacy and how to improve them?
- Pre-release off-target safety screening and efficacy testing – current tools and how to improve them?
- Significance of agent microbiomes on physiology, behaviour, host specificity, evolution, etc.
3/ Release and establishment
- Why do some agent species still fail to establish – are we doing better than in past decades?
- Analysing success.
- Release protocols – what do we know about the optimum sizes and spatial and temporal distributions of release cohorts? Habitat selection/manipulation to promote initial establishment?
4/ Climate changes and weed biocontrol
- Agent adaptation to different and changing climates.
- Influence of weather extremes on weeds and biocontrol agents
- How useful are climate-niche and climate-match models?
5/ Post-release monitoring and evaluation, including social and economic assessments of BC
- Measuring impacts on target weeds.
- Secondary plant invasions post biocontrol.
- Habitat-specific analyses of success.
- Ecosystem/food web impacts including major changes to ecosystem services.
- Economics – Do traditional benefit:cost methods serve the purpose well? Are they being applied correctly? What alternative methods are being used? What gaps remain?
- Time frames and uncertainty – public and decision-maker perspectives
- Weed resurgence after decades of successful biocontrol
6/ Integrating weed biocontrol with other weed management methods and post-control restoration
- Case studies and general principles.
- How globally appropriate given cost/limited resources (are IWM and restoration a rich-country luxury?) Citizen science and public involvement to help support these endeavours?
- Follow-up and assessments of long-term effectiveness?
7/ Bioherbicides
Now in main symposium to replace separate International Bioherbicide Group (IBG) workshop
New developments and overcoming the barriers to commercialisation and deployment of bioherbicides.
- Why are there so few bioherbicides?
- Why have bioherbicides not persisted in the marketplace?
- Bioherbicide deployment options – biotech company, cottage industry?
- Biotech industry perspective on the future for bioherbicides.
- Pathogen/plant infection processes – do we know enough?
- Narrow versus broad-host-range pathogens – benefits and risks
- Phytotoxic microbial metabolites, mixtures, and plant products as bioherbicides.
- Microbial propagule options for bioherbicides.
- Enhancing the virulence and selectivity of plant pathogens.
- Formulation and delivery of microbes and metabolites as bioherbicides.
- Bioherbicides in the era of robotics and AI.
Topics: Focussing on the science questions
8/ Using ecological science and modelling to make classical biological control of weeds more predictive
Agent-host interactions and population dynamics:
- Understanding how the population dynamics of biocontrol agent and weed host influence the long-term efficacy of biocontrol at different phases of weed invasion.
Invasion biology:
- Linking current invasion theories to better understand and improve biocontrol (a manipulated invasion).
Ecology and evolution:
- Using biocontrol systems as model systems to develop and test broader ecological theory.
Weed biocontrol agents in food webs:
- Extent of connectiveness predicting agent success/impact.
- Biocontrol failure due to suppression by natural enemies and non-target effects.
- Microbial ecology of plant pathogens.
Topics: Governance, regions and people
9/ Regulations
- Barriers and/or opportunities?
- Values, risk perception and conflict in biological control. Role of social media and disinformation in garnering/eroding public support for biocontrol.
- How do we try and streamline the red tape?
- Implementation of access and benefit-sharing measures: consequences for classical biological control of weeds and lessons learnt
10/ CBC in developing countries including small island states/nations?
- Differences and parallels in classical weed biocontrol in developing world and small island nations vs. developed countries.
- Are different types of targets prioritised in developing world and small island nations compared to developed countries?
- Unique challenges or benefits/advantages for classical weed biocontrol in developing world and especially small island nations
- Setting up for success in developing world and small island nations
- Weed biocontrol in Pacific Island states (of particular interest from our perspective in New Zealand)
11/ CBC in developed countries
Encouraging the late starters:
- Barriers to overcome
- Opportunities
- Way forward for where biocontrol is not normally even considered as an option
12/ Community engagement and education
- What does good outreach look like – lessons in how (or how not) to do it?
- Benefits/consequences if you get it right/wrong?
- Who should do it, and who pays for it?
13/ Weed biological control and involvement of indigenous communities?
- Indigenous knowledge for weed management – what can we learn? How do we avoid colonising the knowledge shared?
- Indigenous world views compatibility with, new opportunities, and additional considerations for classical weed biocontrol
- Regulatory frameworks/systems overseeing weed biocontrol: how do they incorporate indigenous world views and indigenous rights & data sovereignty?
14/ Why classical weed biocontrol and bioherbicides remain a side-show in global weed management
- Moving towards a consensus between the more theoretical end of ecology and alien weed management – “conservation’s blind spot?”
- Lack of implementation at the practical end of weed management
- Bridging the gap between research and implementation
- Patchy stakeholder engagement (including participating in funding).
- Why as biocontrol practitioners do we seem to be making our case to apparently reluctant audiences? How do we fix this?
Topics: Crystal-ball gazing
15/ Novel methods for classical biocontrol:
- Novel habitats/ecosystems e.g. marine?
- Novel interactions e.g. insects as vectors of indigenous plant pathogens?
- Novel integration of multiple nature-based approaches to weed management?
- Non-traditional e.g. detritivores to reduce grass fuel loads/fire risk.
- Leveraging/enhancing biotic resistance – integrating classical biocontrol agents with local herbivores/pathogens
16/ New technologies and their application to weed biocontrol:
- Surprise and intrigue the audience with insights into weed biocontrol
- The application of novel techniques – “omics”, remote sensing, genetic modification/technologies etc.
- Application of remote sensing for landscape scale monitoring