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The federal government is investing $500,000 in the University of Tennessee's biological arms race to beat the hemlock woolly adelgid, an unwelcome invader that has been killing off hemlock trees in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The funding is included in federal appropriations for fiscal year 2010. The funds were awarded to a team of faculty in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology for "Improving Hemlock Health in Tennessee."

This project involves expanding plans to breed natural predators of the adelgids. At UT's Lindsay Young Beneficial Insects Laboratory, natural predators that feed on the insects are mass-produced to control the pest. Since 2003, nearly 500,000 predaceous beetles reared at the lab have been released on public lands in Tennessee, primarily in the Smokies and the Cherokee National Forest.

Both U.S. Rep. John J. "Jimmy" Duncan and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander were involved in securing the funds.

The appropriations bill also includes $2 million for two other research projects housed within the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.

BioEnergy Production and Carbon Sequestration, a project of UT AgResearch, was awarded $1 million for scientists to continue their efforts to understand and improve the sequestration of carbon in plants, particularly energy crops, and to develop feedstock for biofuel production.

The project "Phytosensors for Crop Security and Precision Agriculture" was also awarded $1 million. This project combines state-of-the art technologies in biotechnology and photonics to produce crop plants that can be used as early-warning sentinels for the detection of plant disease.