The first time Algerian biologist Rassim Khelifa went out searching for dragonflies, he netted a species that had not been seen in a century — now he studies the diet of these flying predatory insects to see if they can be used on farms to control insect pests.
Khelifa, a quantitative ecology postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia’s Biodiversity Research Centre, says humanity still relies heavily on pesticides to control insect pests, which is the largest driver of insect decline globally.
“According to a series of papers released in early 2021, insect diversity worldwide is declining steeply in places with high human impact, but little is has been studied in less-inhabited areas.
Reducing the use of pesticides while maintaining yield is challenging, and it requires a good understanding of which natural agents could contribute to reducing pests,” he says, “Dragonflies have been overlooked as a potential pest control despite their regular use of agricultural lands and ability to predate a wide range of insects.”
Close-up of dragonfly on twig, Mila,Algeria, GETTY
Khelifa says the biggest challenge is his work is to catch some of the largest species who fly very fast and rarely land.
“I am conducting genetic analyses of their feces to determine what they eat and how their diet change across different farms with different agricultural practices.”
From Civil War to Science
Khelifa grew up in Guelma, in northeastern Algeria, a town settled by the ancient Phoenicians and later, Romans. There are still many traces of this ancient history there, including a large amphitheater.
ALGERIA – SEPTEMBER 10: Roman theatre, Guelma[-(Calama), Algeria. Roman Civilisation, 1st century BC-5th century AD. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images) DE AGOSTINI VIA GETTY IMAGES
He says that despite his current fascination with nature, this did not start as a child.
“I grew up during a civil war and natural areas were unsafe to visit,” Khelifa says, adding that his “Eureka moment” actually came in his early 20s when he was studying biology at the University of Guelma.
“The first time I used a hand net to catch dragonflies, I caught a rare damselfly that has not been observed for a century, with my first ever day of sweep netting… I didn’t know what I caught at the time,” he says.
Khelifa presented his find to his professor and says seeing the look of astonishment from the person who had spent 15 years looking for the same species, was “beautiful to watch.”
Beyond One Perspective
Khelifa says the solutions to many global environmental challenges require a tight collaboration between the Global South and Global North.
“Currently, the scientific opinion is still mainly driven by perspectives from the Global North because of their economic and linguistic advantages for publishing in top journals,” he says.
Khelifa says scientists in the Global South have scientific perspectives that are not known in the Global North because they often publish in low-profile journals or local journals in their own (non-English) languages.
“We have seen recent studies showing that monolingual (English-only) analysis of the literature could include biases and lead to misleading results,” he says, adding that performing multilingual literature search enriches the scientific perspective and reduces biases in the results.
“In addition, many biodiversity hot-spots of the world occur in the Global South where local people know local species the best, so I believe that scientists in the Global South have a pivotal role in solving global environmental issues,” he says.
