Can Climate Change Trigger Massive Diversity Cascades in Terrestrial Ecosystems?

Dyer, Lee A.; Letourneau, Deborah K.

doi:10.3390/d5030479

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 173 publications

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“…Although such multi-trophic connections are not frequently studied in the context of global change, if results such as ours are widespread, then cascading results to other guilds and trophic levels can be expected (20) and warrant immediate concern and management effort. 145…”

Section: Eucereonmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Units of the year coefficient are the natural log of frequency per year. B) Frequency (untransformed) 75 across years for select genera and representative larval and adult images.One of the consequences of extirpation is the loss of interspecific interactions, which underlie ecosystem stability and ecosystem services(20), but questions about loss of interaction diversity are largely absent from global change literature, due to a dearth of quantitative empirical data…”

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confidence: 99%

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Loss of dominant caterpillar genera in a protected tropical forest

Salcido

Forister

Lopez

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Article Information: Abstract: 142 words, Main text: 3525 words, 64 references, 4 figures 23 (main text) 15 figures (including main text and supplemental information), 6 tables 24 (supplemental information only) 25 26 27 2 ABSTRACT 28Abstract: Reports of biodiversity loss have increasingly focused on the abundance and diversity 29 of insects, but it is still unclear if substantive insect diversity losses are occurring in intact low-30 latitude forests. We collected 22 years of plant-caterpillar-parasitoid data in a protected tropical 31 forest and found reductions in diversity and density of these insects that appear to be partly 32 driven by a changing climate and weather anomalies. The decline in parasitism represents a 33 reduction in an important ecosystem service: enemy control of primary consumers. The 34 consequences of these changes are in many cases irreversible and are likely to be mirrored in 35 nearby forests; overall declines in the region will have negative consequences for surrounding 36 agriculture. The decline of important tropical taxa and associated ecosystem function illuminates 37 the consequences of numerous threats to global insect diversity and provides additional impetus 38 for research on tropical diversity. 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 63 Documenting long term population trends and fluctuations in diversity in tropical insect 64communities is especially important because of an unjustified assumption that tropical 65 communities are more stable (13,14) and therefore more resilient to multiple global change 66 disruptions. Threats to insect diversity include climate change, habitat loss, fragmentation, 67 invasive species, pesticides, and pollutants (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20), and the magnitude of these effects and 68 associated levels of ecosystem resilience do indeed vary considerably across biogeographic 69 regions. For example, changes in some climate parameters, such as mean annual temperature are 70 4 most severe at the poles, and some of the most dramatic examples of biotic change have been 71 observed at high latitudes, such as increased overwintering survival and voltinism in pest insects 72 (21, 22). In contrast, increases in extreme weather events will have complex and large effects on 73 lowland tropical communities, where plant-insect food webs may be particularly sensitive 74 because of highly-specialized trophic relationships relative to interactions at higher latitudes 75 (23). Furthermore, vulnerability of tropical communities to global change is exacerbated by the 76 thermal constraints of tropical ectotherms (24-26) high degrees of endemism and high rates of 77 tropical habitat loss (27)(28)(29)(30). 78 79In general, reports on insect declines have mostly included cases where the causes are 80 unspecified or unclear (12, 31), or the consequences to ecosystem services have not been 81 explored (12, 16, 32). Here we contribute to understanding species declines and losses of 82 biological interactions in a protected and well-studied tropical wet forest and examine potential 8...

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Section: Eucereonmentioning

confidence: 93%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Loss of dominant caterpillar genera in a protected tropical forest

Salcido

Forister

Lopez

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…Forests with higher levels of tree diversity have more species options to respond to both climate stresses and postdisturbance opportunities, resulting in relatively incremental adjustments at the forest scale (Fauset et al 2012, Peters et al 2015. In addition, more diverse forests are less likely to experience mortality events driven by outbreaks of biotic agents, whereas low diversity systems (e.g., monocultures) can be far more susceptible (Dyer and Letourneau 2013). In some ecosystems, climate change may actually hurt the insect pest agents that attack trees either through direct climate impacts on population growth or through increases in the abundance of predators which control those agents (Hicke et al 2006, Raffa et al 2008, Jamieson et al 2012.…”

Section: Ecological Feedbacks (Ef)mentioning

confidence: 99%

On underestimation of global vulnerability to tree mortality and forest die‐off from hotter drought in the Anthropocene

2015

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Abstract. Patterns, mechanisms, projections, and consequences of tree mortality and associated broadscale forest die-off due to drought accompanied by warmer temperatures-''hotter drought'', an emerging characteristic of the Anthropocene-are the focus of rapidly expanding literature. Despite recent observational, experimental, and modeling studies suggesting increased vulnerability of trees to hotter drought and associated pests and pathogens, substantial debate remains among research, management and policy-making communities regarding future tree mortality risks. We summarize key mortalityrelevant findings, differentiating between those implying lesser versus greater levels of vulnerability. Evidence suggesting lesser vulnerability includes forest benefits of elevated [CO 2 ] and increased water-use efficiency; observed and modeled increases in forest growth and canopy greening; widespread increases in woody-plant biomass, density, and extent; compensatory physiological, morphological, and genetic mechanisms; dampening ecological feedbacks; and potential mitigation by forest management. In contrast, recent studies document more rapid mortality under hotter drought due to negative tree physiological responses and accelerated biotic attacks. Additional evidence suggesting greater vulnerability includes rising background mortality rates; projected increases in drought frequency, intensity, and duration; limitations of vegetation models such as inadequately represented mortality processes; warming feedbacks from die-off; and wildfire synergies. Grouping these findings we identify ten contrasting perspectives that shape the vulnerability debate but have not been discussed collectively. We also present a set of global vulnerability drivers that are known with high confidence: (1) droughts eventually occur everywhere; (2) warming produces hotter droughts; (3) atmospheric moisture demand increases nonlinearly with temperature during drought; (4) mortality can occur faster in hotter drought, consistent with fundamental physiology; (5) shorter droughts occur more frequently than longer droughts and can become lethal under warming, increasing the frequency of lethal drought nonlinearly; and (6) mortality happens rapidly relative to growth intervals needed for forest recovery. These high-confidence drivers, in concert with research supporting greater vulnerability perspectives, support an overall viewpoint of greater forest vulnerability globally. We surmise that mortality vulnerability is being discounted in part due to difficulties in predicting threshold responses to extreme climate events. Given the profound ecological and societal implications of underestimating global vulnerability to hotter drought, we highlight urgent challenges for research, management, and policy-making communities.

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“…Bottom-up cascade: Increases in plant diversity (including functional or phytochemical diversity) cause greater diversity at upper trophic levels through direct and indirect mechanisms (45).…”

Section: Ia Ibmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phytochemical diversity drives plant–insect community diversity

Richards

Dyer

Forister

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

241

293

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What are the ecological causes and consequences of variation in phytochemical diversity within and between plant taxa? Despite decades of natural products discovery by organic chemists and research by chemical ecologists, our understanding of phytochemically mediated ecological processes in natural communities has been restricted to studies of either broad classes of compounds or a small number of well-characterized molecules. Until now, no studies have assessed the ecological causes or consequences of rigorously quantified phytochemical diversity across taxa in natural systems. Consequently, hypotheses that attempt to explain variation in phytochemical diversity among plants remain largely untested. We use spectral data from crude plant extracts to characterize phytochemical diversity in a suite of co-occurring plants in the tropical genus Piper (Piperaceae). In combination with 20 years of data focused on Piper-associated insects, we find that phytochemical diversity has a direct and positive effect on the diversity of herbivores but also reduces overall herbivore damage. Elevated chemical diversity is associated with more specialized assemblages of herbivores, and the cascading positive effect of phytochemistry on herbivore enemies is stronger as herbivore diet breadth narrows. These results are consistent with traditional hypotheses that predict positive associations between plant chemical diversity, insect herbivore diversity, and trophic specialization. It is clear from these results that high phytochemical diversity not only enhances the diversity of plant-associated insects but also contributes to the ecological predominance of specialized insect herbivores.he Anthropocene has been characterized by huge losses of biodiversity caused by rapid global change, including habitat loss, fragmentation, invasive species, and climate change. Ecologists struggle to understand not only the consequences of diversity loss but also how to quantify ecologically relevant dimensions of diversity, including genetic, taxonomic, and functional diversity. Although it has been difficult to measure, phytochemical diversity (i.e., richness and abundance of plant compounds) is a key axis of functional diversity (1) that affects associated trophic levels and is likely driving other aspects of biodiversity (2-4). Variation in phytochemical or metabolic diversity in plants, which is further downstream than genomic, transcriptomic, or proteomic diversity (5, 6), potentially reflects variation in response to a diversity of natural enemies, including specialist and generalist insect herbivores (7,8). Furthermore, phytochemistry is one of the most relevant traits to measure when determining functional roles of plants in natural and managed communities (9).Considering the importance of phytochemical diversity for numerous natural processes, it is not surprising that a broad range of ecological and evolutionary hypotheses has been proposed to explain their role in interactions between plants and herbivores. From a coevolutionary perspecti...

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Can Climate Change Trigger Massive Diversity Cascades in Terrestrial Ecosystems?

Cited by 15 publications

References 173 publications

Loss of dominant caterpillar genera in a protected tropical forest

Loss of dominant caterpillar genera in a protected tropical forest

On underestimation of global vulnerability to tree mortality and forest die‐off from hotter drought in the Anthropocene

Phytochemical diversity drives plant–insect community diversity

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