Climate change, phenology, and butterfly host plant utilization

Navarro‐Cano, José A.; Karlsson, Bengt; Posledovich, Diana; Toftegaard, Tenna; Wiklund, Christer; Ehrlén, Johan; Gotthard, Karl

doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0602-z

Cited by 37 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 43 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…; Navarro‐Cano et al . ). Local adaptations in pupal development are likely to be engendered by the need of females to match emergence to the flowering period of their host plants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The developmental race between maturing host plants and their butterfly herbivore – the influence of phenological matching and temperature

Posledovich

Toftegaard

Wiklund

et al. 2015

Journal of Animal Ecology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary 1.Interactions between herbivorous insects and their host plants that are limited in time are widespread. Therefore, many insect-plant interactions result in a developmental race, where herbivores need to complete their development before plants become unsuitable, while plants strive to minimize damage from herbivores by outgrowing them. 2. When spring phenologies of interacting species change asymmetrically in response to climate warming, there will be a change in the developmental state of host plants at the time of insect herbivore emergence. In combination with altered temperatures during the subsequent developmental period, this is likely to affect interaction strength as well as fitness of interacting species. 3. Here, we experimentally explore whether the combined effect of phenological matching and thermal conditions influence the outcome of an insect-host interaction. We manipulated both developmental stages of the host plants at the start of the interaction and temperature during the subsequent developmental period in a model system of a herbivorous butterfly, Anthocharis cardamines, and five of its Brassicaceae host plant species. 4. Larval performance characteristics were favoured by earlier stages of host plants at oviposition as well as by higher developmental temperatures on most of the host species. The probability of a larva needing a second host plant covered the full range from no influence of either phenological matching or temperature to strong effects of both factors, and complex interactions between them. The probability of a plant outgrowing a larva was dependent only on the species identity. 5. This study demonstrates that climatic variation can influence the outcome of consumer-resource interactions in multiple ways and that its effects differ among host plant species. Therefore, climate warming is likely to change the temporal match between larval and plant development in some plant species, but not in the others. This is likely to have important implications for host plant use and possibly influence competitive relationships.

show abstract

“…; Navarro‐Cano et al . ). Local adaptations in pupal development are likely to be engendered by the need of females to match emergence to the flowering period of their host plants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The developmental race between maturing host plants and their butterfly herbivore – the influence of phenological matching and temperature

Posledovich

Toftegaard

Wiklund

et al. 2015

Journal of Animal Ecology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Epigenetic processes are fast and may be important under changing environmental conditions (Bossdorf et al ., ; Johannes et al ., ; Nicotra et al ., ; Franks & Hoffmann, ). Finally, while we here exclusively looked at direct effects of temperature, indirect effects may be equally important through changes in host‐plant quality (Bauerfeind & Fischer, ) or phenology (e.g., Navarro‐Cano et al ., ; Stålhandske et al ., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in adult stress resistance does not explain vulnerability to climate change in copper butterflies

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ongoing climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. However, although many species clearly suffer from ongoing climate change, others benefit from it, for example, by showing range expansions. However, which specific features determine a species' vulnerability to climate change? Phenotypic plasticity, which has been described as the first line of defence against environmental change, may be of utmost importance here. Against this background, we here compare plasticity in stress tolerance in 3 copper butterfly species, which differ arguably in their vulnerability to climate change. Specifically, we investigated heat, cold and desiccation resistance after acclimatization to different temperatures in the adult stage. We demonstrate that acclimation at a higher temperature increased heat but decreased cold tolerance and desiccation resistance. Contrary to our predictions, species did not show pronounced variation in stress resistance, though plastic capacities in temperature stress resistance did vary across species. Overall, our results seemed to reflect population-rather than species-specific patterns. We conclude that the geographical origin of the populations used should be considered even in comparative studies. However, our results suggest that, in the 3 species studied here, vulnerability to climate change is not in the first place determined by stress resistance in the adult stage. As entomological studies focus all too often on adults only, we argue that more research effort should be dedicated to other developmental stages when trying to understand insect responses to environmental change.

show abstract

“…We found no evidence for population differentiation in host plant species preference in A. cardamines , although there were strong effects of plant traits on host plant choice. The geographical variation in host plant association found in A. cardamines in the UK and Sweden (Courtney & Duggan, ; Navarro‐Cano et al ., ) is therefore most likely a result of variation in plant availability and in the matching of butterfly and host phenologies, rather than inherent differences in preference among butterfly populations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenological matching rather than genetic variation in host preference underlies geographical variation in host plants used by orange tip butterflies

Stålhandske

Olofsson

Gotthard

et al. 2016

Biol. J. Linn. Soc.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An insect species that shows variation in host species association across its geographical range may do so either because of local adaptation in host plant preference of the insect or through environmentally or genetically induced differences in the plants, causing variation in host plant suitability between regions. In the present study, we experimentally investigate the host plant preference of Anthocharis cardamines (orange tip butterfly) in two populations from the UK and two from Sweden. Previous reports indicate that A. cardamines larvae are found on different host plant species in different regions of the UK, and some variation has been reported in Sweden. Host plant choice trials showed that females prefer to oviposit on plants in an earlier phenological stage, as well as on larger plants. When controlling for plant phenological stage and size, the host species had no statistically significant effect on the choice of the females. Moreover, there were no differences in host plant species preference among the four butterfly populations. Based on our experiment, the oviposition choice by A. cardamines mainly depends on the phenological stage and the size of the host plant. This finding supports the idea that the geographical patterns of host-plant association of A. cardamines in the UK and Sweden are consequences of the phenology and availability of the local hosts, rather than regional genetic differences in the host species preference of the butterfly.

show abstract

Climate change, phenology, and butterfly host plant utilization

Cited by 37 publications

References 43 publications

The developmental race between maturing host plants and their butterfly herbivore – the influence of phenological matching and temperature

The developmental race between maturing host plants and their butterfly herbivore – the influence of phenological matching and temperature

Variation in adult stress resistance does not explain vulnerability to climate change in copper butterflies

Phenological matching rather than genetic variation in host preference underlies geographical variation in host plants used by orange tip butterflies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About