Continental drift and climate change drive instability in insect assemblages

Abstract

Global change has already had observable effects on ecosystems worldwide, and the accelerated rate of global change is predicted in the future. However, the impacts of global change on the stability of biodiversity have not been systematically studied in terms of both large spatial (continental drift) and temporal (from the last inter-glacial period to the next century) scales. Therefore, we analyzed the current geographical distribution pattern of Plecoptera, a thermally sensitive insect group, and evaluated its stability when coping with global change across both space and time throughout the Mediterranean region—one of the first 25 global biodiversity hotspots. Regional biodiversity of Plecoptera reflected the geography in both the historical movements of continents and the current environmental conditions in the western Mediterranean region. The similarity of Plecoptera assemblages between areas in this region indicated that the uplift of new land and continental drift were the primary determinants of the stability of regional biodiversity. Our results revealed that climate change caused the biodiversity of Plecoptera to slowly diminish in the past and will cause remarkably accelerated biodiversity loss in the future. These findings support the theory that climate change has had its greatest impact on biodiversity over a long temporal scale.

Seasonality, species richness and poor dispersion mediate intraspecific trait variability in stonefly community responses along an elevational gradient

“…This conclusion strongly agrees with Tierno de Figueroa et al. (), and is supported by more recent studies (Conti, Schmidt‐Kloiber, Grenouillet, & Graf, ; Li et al., ; Sheldon, ), which suggested how at least 324 taxa of the European Plecoptera (62.79%) can be included in one or more categories of vulnerability to climate change by range retractions and even local extinctions. In Sierra Nevada, other strategies facing climate change are found for freshwater invertebrates.…”

“…Freshwater insects are generally active dispersers, yet compared with other orders of freshwater insects, stoneflies are highly dispersal‐limited (Fochetti & Tierno de Figueroa, ; Graf et al., ; Li et al., ). Communities of short‐dispersing species tend to be assembled by environmental filtering at the local scale and, therefore, species‐specific patterns of ITV are critical for ensuring species survival (Kichenin et al., ; Thompson & Townsend, ; Villéger & Mouillot, ).…”

“…Here, we studied stoneflies (Insecta: Plecoptera), which are cool‐water adapted species that should cover the entire elevational range studied (~1,000–2,000 m). Stoneflies are usually associated with clean and well‐oxygenated waters due to very narrow environmental tolerances (Brittain, ; Fochetti & Tierno de Figueroa, ; Li, Tierno de Figueroa, Lek, & Park, ; Rosenberg & Resh, ; Zwick, ). Moreover, (1) adults have limited dispersal abilities due to their relatively low flight capacity and short imaginal longevity, so the site where they are captured can be easily attributed to their emergence location, (2) in common to all insects, the size of the adult stage reflects the complete nymphal growth, without subsequent shedding stages, (3) the greatest species richness is found in mountains and (4) in pristine high altitude streams, stonefly species assemblages are generally comprised of many that inhabit specific habitat conditions, have particular growth rates and vary in emergence phenologies, which causes a seasonal pattern of species emergence throughout the year (Brittain, ; DeWalt, Kondratieff, & Sandberg, ; Fochetti & Tierno de Figueroa, ; Graf et al., ; Monaghan, Hieber, Robinson, Spaak, & Ward, ; Tierno de Figueroa, Luzón‐Ortega, & Sánchez‐Ortega, ).…”

“…Here, we studied stoneflies (Insecta: Plecoptera), which are coolwater adapted species that should cover the entire elevational range studied (~1,000-2,000 m). Stoneflies are usually associated with clean and well-oxygenated waters due to very narrow environmental tolerances (Brittain, 1990;Fochetti & Tierno de Figueroa, 2006;Li, Tierno de Figueroa, Lek, & Park, 2015;Rosenberg & Resh, 1993;Zwick, 1980 , 2015).…”

Diversity and Distribution of Endemic Stream Insects on a Nationwide Scale, South Korea: Conservation Perspectives

“…Consequently, current and future changes caused from human activities are likely to have a stronger influence on their diversity than past anthropogenic alterations [52]. Global warming especially threats the potential future distribution and persistence of the sensitive habitats used by endemic Plecoptera [13,53], even though this phenomenon was not directly considered in our study. Several studies have also shown that land use is an influential factor in determining species distribution, even though, in our study, this influence was relatively weak based on NMS.…”