Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Emily K. Meineke, Charles C. Davis, T. Jonathan Davies
Summary: Research found that temperature-sensitive plant species experienced higher levels of insect damage in warm years, while co-occurring species that are less temperature-sensitive did not. With climate warming, warming may lengthen the growing season for temperature-sensitive plant species, exposing their leaves to herbivores for longer periods of time.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Entomology
Aramee C. Diethelm, Konnor E. Kost, Elizabeth G. Pringle
Summary: Intensifying drought conditions caused by global climate change in the western United States are changing plant-insect interactions. The monarch butterfly, a threatened invertebrate, deposited more eggs on water-limited narrowleaf milkweed plants but the change could not be attributed to specific changes in plant chemistry. Specialist herbivores like the monarch butterfly may experience preference shifts under global climate change. Understanding oviposition preferences is important for habitat restoration for this declining insect.
JOURNAL OF INSECT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Christopher A. Halsch, Arthur M. Shapiro, James H. Thorne, Kyle C. Rodman, Adriana Parra, Lee A. Dyer, Zachariah Gompert, Angela M. Smilanich, Matthew L. Forister
Summary: This study examines the effects of climate change on butterfly populations through changes in weather patterns and plant productivity. The results show that snow pack has a positive effect on butterfly occurrence, while low snow pack during droughts leads to reductions in butterfly populations. Additionally, plant primary productivity has consistently negative effects on butterfly occurrence.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Katharine L. Stuble, Leland D. Bennion, Sara E. Kuebbing
Summary: The review of 70 studies involving 1226 observations of plant phenology under experimental warming shows that early-season phenophases of plants are advancing in response to warming, while late-season phenophases are marginally delaying. The magnitude of phenological shifts shows consistency across latitude, elevation, and habitat types, with nonnative annual plants showing a larger response to warming compared to native perennial plants. Experimental warming methods generally yield consistent plant phenological responses, but there are gaps in the literature for non-temperate ecosystems, late-season phenophases, annual plants, nonnative plants, and woody plants and grasses. Further studies should focus on setting up experiments in different biogeographic zones and measuring multiple plant phenophases to improve predictions of warming effects on phenology.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Corne F. H. van Der Linden, Michiel F. WallisDeVries, Sabrina Simon
Summary: Plant chemical defenses play a crucial role in shaping butterfly assemblages, with shared chemical defenses between plant families having a stronger impact on butterfly overlap than phylogenetic relatedness. Variability in butterfly-host relationships is attributed to the diversity of antiherbivore traits across plant families and insect herbivory associations.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Bastien Bellemin-Noel, Stephane Bourassa, Emma Despland, Louis De Grandpre, Deepa S. Pureswaran
Summary: Global warming can lead to phenological shifts that accelerate the development of eastern spruce budworm larvae and advance their pupation and budburst on black spruce and balsam fir. However, under higher temperatures, black spruce may become more susceptible to infestations, resulting in similar success rates for the budworm on both black spruce and balsam fir.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Sydney M. Gilmour, Heather M. Kharouba
Summary: Climate change-induced phenological asynchrony between monarch butterflies and milkweed may not negatively affect larval performance, according to a field study in Canada.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Meredith K. Steck, Amod M. Zambre, Emilie C. Snell-Rood
Summary: Animals often adjust resource choice based on both apparency and quality, but it is challenging to search efficiently and exploit high-quality resources when both factors vary. This study found that time-limited butterflies prioritized resource apparency over quality, even when the more apparent host had lower quality. The presence of a waxy ultraviolet (UV)-reflective layer made cabbage more discriminable and attractive to butterflies compared to radish. These findings indicate that animals may fail to adjust decision making despite changes in resource quality.
Article
Ecology
Anika Neu, Stefan Loetters, Linda Noerenberg, Martin Wiemers, Klaus Fischer
Summary: The study found that the rapid range expansion of the butterfly Pieris mannii was mainly due to the evolution of a broader dietary niche rather than climate change, highlighting the importance of species interactions in shaping species distributions and range shifts.
JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Jorge Cortes-Flores, Martha Lopezaraiza-Mikel, M. Hesajim de Santiago-Hernandez, Silvana Marten-Rodriguez, E. Jacob Cristobal-Perez, Maria J. Aguilar-Aguilar, Francisco Javier Balvino-Olvera, Oliverio Delgado-Carrillo, Roberto Sayago, Eric J. Fuchs, Gumersindo Sanchez-Montoya, Mauricio Quesada
Summary: The role of succession and phenology in plant-pollinator interactions in endangered tropical ecosystems, particularly in tropical dry forests, is poorly understood. This study investigates the patterns of flowering phenology and plant-pollinator interactions across different successional stages and seasons, highlighting the importance of conserving mature forests to ensure critical pollination interactions.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Jari Holopainen, Samuli Helama, Henry Vaere
Summary: This article provides a unique dataset of plant phenological observations made in boreal Europe between 1750 and 1965 in Finland. The dataset contains valuable information for ecological, climate, and global change studies.
Article
Entomology
Mateusz Raczynski, Robby Stoks, Frank Johansson, Kamil Barton, Szymon Sniegula
Summary: This study investigated the effects of climate warming and hatching dates on a cannibalistic damselfly, Ischnura elegans. The results showed that warming had a significant impact on immune function, while hatching dates had a relatively small effect on life history traits. These findings are important for understanding the physiological and life history implications of climate warming on freshwater insects.
Article
Ecology
Lauren B. Buckley, Stuart Graham, Cesar R. Nufio
Summary: Species with different life histories and communities tend to shift their phenology in response to climate warming, leading to increased phenological overlap and potential impacts on species interactions such as resource competition. Shifts in abundance distributions are not strongly influenced by species' seasonal timing or elevations, but phenological overlap increases in warmer years as species adjust their seasonal timing. Overall, grasshopper abundance is relatively robust to climate changes, but increased phenological overlap may decrease abundance by strengthening species interactions.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Plant Sciences
Shaoqun Zhou, Georg Jander
Summary: Plant-derived volatile organic compounds play key roles in interactions with insect herbivores, acting as toxic or deterrent agents, signal molecules, and priming signals for plant tissues. The functions of VOC blends are strongly influenced by environmental conditions and specific plant-insect interactions. The complexity of plant-insect chemical communication via VOCs is enriched by the sophisticated molecular perception mechanisms of insects, which influence insect behavior in ways that are not fully understood.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
(2022)
Article
Entomology
Paul M. Severns, Melinda Guzman-Martinez
Summary: Taylor's checkerspot butterfly, a critically endangered species in northwestern North America, is facing a threat from an invasive plant pathogen that is causing the death of its primary food plant, English plantain, during the winter months. The invasion has disrupted the eco-evolutionary foodplant interactions and poses a risk of extinction to butterfly populations. Despite the presence of a native larval food plant Collinsia parviflora, it is rare in Taylor's checkerspot habitat and may only be suitable for Washington populations.
Article
Plant Sciences
Elsa Fogelstrom, Giulia Zacchello, Daniela Guasconi, Johan P. Dahlgren, Johan Ehrlen
Summary: Climate warming has affected the timing of growing seasons in temperate regions, but little is known about how previous seasonal life-history events, temperature, and plant-resource state simultaneously influence the phenology of plant individuals. In this study, the relationships between leaf-out and shoot senescence were studied in a natural population of the understory herb Lathyrus vernus over 3 years. It was found that plant size, reproductive status, and spring temperature all had effects on spring and autumn phenology.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Torbjorn Lindell, Johan Ehrlen, Johan P. Dahlgren
Summary: This study utilized a 34-year individual-based dataset to investigate the effects of precipitation and temperature variations on flowering and population dynamics. Results showed that climatic variables had a significant impact on flowering, with increased precipitation and lower temperatures leading to more flowering instances, but had no significant effects on individual growth or survival. Furthermore, simulations indicated that persistent changes in precipitation and temperature could result in considerable reductions in population sizes compared to current conditions.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Ditte Marie Christiansen, Lars Lonsmann Iversen, Johan Ehrlen, Kristoffer Hylander
Summary: The study found that after clear-cutting, the temperature preference values of understorey plant communities increase, while they decrease as the forest becomes denser. During forest regeneration and post-inventory periods, changes in CTI values are driven by species colonization and extinction. Changes in understorey CTI values are primarily influenced by changes in forest density, rather than macroclimate change.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Olle Lindestad, Soren Nylin, Christopher W. Wheat, Karl Gotthard
Summary: Geographical variation in voltinism, the number of generations produced per year, has been observed in many insect species. This study used population genomics to compare nine Scandinavian populations of the butterfly Pararge aegeria with different life cycle traits along both north-south and east-west clines. The results identified candidate genes related to the insect circadian clock, including a novel gene deletion in a single population. This research adds to the understanding of circadian gene variation as a potential mechanism for generating local adaptation of life cycles.
Article
Plant Sciences
Laura J. A. an Dijk, Johan Ehrlen, Ayco J. M. Tack
Summary: Plant pathogen traits, such as transmission mode and overwintering strategy, have significant effects on disease dynamics. Combining experimental assays, theory and field surveys, this study shows that pathogen life-history traits can predict pathogen metapopulation dynamics. Fungal pathogens infecting new plants via spores had higher patch occupancies and colonization rates compared to pathogens causing systemic infections and overwintering in rhizomes. Host patch size was positively related to patch occupancy and colonization rates for all pathogens.
Article
Ecology
Elsa Fogelstrom, Giulia Zacchello, Johan Ehrlen
Summary: The timing of different life-history events is often correlated, and selection might only rarely be exerted independently on the timing of a single event. In this study, we found that direct selection favored earlier flowering and shorter timespans between leaf-out and flowering. However, the direction of selection on leaf-out day varied among years and weakened the selection for early flowering. We found no evidence of correlational selection.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Mats Ittonen, Alexandra Hagelin, Christer Wiklund, Karl Gotthard
Summary: Daylength affects diapause induction in butterflies, but northern populations are able to adapt rapidly to their local daylength conditions during range expansions.
Article
Ecology
Caroline Greiser, Loke von Schmalensee, Olle Lindestad, Karl Gotthard, Philipp Lehmann
Summary: Temperature variation at a small-scale can have significant effects on the development and emergence synchrony of butterflies. However, the correlation between different life stages' development times can lead to reduced temporal differences in the overall development. Importantly, the fastest developing sites were not always the warmest, highlighting the unintuitive effects of temperature on population-level consequences.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Alvaro Gaytan, Karl Gotthard, Ayco J. M. Tack
Summary: Climate change affects not only the early season but also the peak and end of the growing season, significantly impacting the preference and performance of multigenerational plant attackers.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Irene Bisang, Johan Ehrlen, Lars Hedenas
Summary: This study found that sex expression levels, sex ratios, and genetic diversity in two moss species were not directly associated with the frequency of sexual reproduction. These relationships and patterns of variation differed between species. It suggests that species-specific life histories, such as longevity, overall degree of successful sexual reproduction and recruitment, and historical factors are important factors in explaining this variation.
Article
Ecology
Fernando Pulido, Bastien Castagneyrol, Francisco Rodriguez-Sanchez, Yonatan Caceres, Adara Pardo, Eva Moracho, Johannes Kollmann, Fernando Valladares, Johan Ehrlen, Alistair S. Jump, Jens-Christian Svenning, Arndt Hampe
Summary: By conducting a meta-analysis on global populations of plants and animals, it was found that marginal populations perform significantly worse than central populations, especially those at low latitudes. This performance difference is likely to be influenced by global climate change, and changes in demographic rates of marginal populations can serve as early-warning signals for range shifts.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Loke von Schmalensee, Pauline Caillault, Katrin Hulda Gunnarsdottir, Karl Gotthard, Philipp Lehmann
Summary: Seasons impose different selection pressures on organisms, leading to varying adaptive strategies. This study investigates the resolution of seasonal conflicts in two closely related butterfly species through field experiments, laboratory work, and citizen science data analyses. The results reveal differences in fitness and population dynamics between Pieris rapae and P. napi across seasons, driven by physiological and behavioral traits. P. rapae maximizes gains during growth seasons but suffers from higher winter mortality, while P. napi minimizes harm during adverse seasons.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Ditte M. Christiansen, Gesa Romer, Johan P. Dahlgren, Malin Borg, Owen R. Jones, Sonia Merinero, Kristoffer Hylander, Johan Ehrlen
Summary: Climate has a strong influence on species distribution and population growth. However, the coarse spatial resolution of climate data used to model distributions can lead to inaccurate assessments of climate effects. This study highlights the importance of using high-resolution climate data to examine the effects of climate on individual performance, population dynamics, and species distributions.
Article
Plant Sciences
Matilda Arnell, Ove Eriksson, Johan Ehrlen
Summary: In this study, the spatial distribution of Daphne mezereum in a forest in Sweden was mapped, showing a positive correlation between the density of individuals and proximity to the forest edge. The number of flowers produced, fruit set, and fruit removal also showed a positive relationship with proximity to forest edges. The study also found that individuals of D. mezereum were aggregated within approximately 10 meters. The flower production of neighboring individuals within 10 meters was negatively related to fruit set, while the fruit production of neighbors was positively related to fruit removal. The spatial distribution of D. mezereum affects reproductive success and fruit removal, which can, in turn, influence the spatial distribution pattern.
NORDIC JOURNAL OF BOTANY
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Ditte Marie Christiansen, Tanya Strydom, Caroline Greiser, Ryan McClory, Johan Ehrlen, Kristoffer Hylander
Summary: The study shows the potential importance of past and present microclimate heterogeneity for the co-existence of species with different temperature preferences in the same landscape, and the possibility to manage microclimates to mitigate climate change impacts on forest biodiversity.
JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE
(2023)