Abstract Detail

Phenology and Conservation Implications

Herms, Daniel A. [1].

Phenology and Plant / Insect Interactions in a Changing Climate.

Earth has warmed markedly since the dawn of the industrial revolution, and the warming has accelerated over the last 30 years. Long-term phenological records provide evidence of recent climate warming at regional levels. Integration of climate change and insect phenological models predicts that the distribution of many insect species will continue to migrate northward, and the number of generations per year will increase for some. The phenological window hypothesis postulates the existence of a narrow temporal window when host plant traits are most suitable for the insect herbivores, and predicts that insect growth and survival will decline as host-insect synchronicity is altered. Substantial evidence supports this hypothesis, especially for leaf-feeding and gall-making insects. If interacting organisms exhibit differential physiological responses to variation in temperature, then climate change has the potential to create phenological asynchrony between them, including plants and their herbivores and pollinators. There are a few examples supporting this hypothesis. However, long-term studies in Ohio and Michigan involving more than 50 species of herbivorous arthropods and 70species of plants indicates that the phenological sequence is quite robust to annual variation in degree-day accumulation, suggesting that the phenology of many interacting plant and insects may respond in tandem to a warming climate. None-the-less, it is clear that anthropogenic changes to the climate will have pervasive effects on the physiology, ecology,and evolutionary trajectories of phytophagous insect, thereby affecting their phenology and voltinism patterns, and geographic distributions, with emergent effects on population dynamics, trophic interactions, and community composition.

Broader Impacts:

1 - The Ohio State University, Entomology, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH, 44691, USA

Keywords:
plant / insect interactions
plant-animal interactions
climate change
species distributions
life history.

Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: C7
Location: Union C/Hyatt
Date: Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Time: 3:15 PM
Number: C7007
Abstract ID:1040