Impact of constant versus fluctuating temperatures on the development and life history parameters of Tetranychus urticae (Acari: Tetranychidae)

Abstract

The impact of daily temperature fluctuations on arthropod life history parameters is inadequately studied compared with the ample amount of research that has been conducted on the effects of constant temperatures. Fluctuating temperatures are likely to be more realistic, as they are ecologically more similar to what these arthropods experience in nature. Here, we compared the impact of 11 constant temperatures that ranged from 10 to 35 °C with fluctuating temperatures with the same corresponding mean temperature and an amplitude of 10 °C between high (12 h) and low (12 h) temperatures on the development and life history parameters of Tetranychus urticae under continuous light conditions. No eggs hatched at constant 10 °C, whereas 81.5% of eggs successfully completed development at fluctuating 10 °C (15/5 °C). Egg-to-female adult development was faster under fluctuating temperatures from 12.5 to 27.5 °C than under constant temperatures, whereas the opposite trend was observed at >30 °C. The lower thermal thresholds (T) were 11.63 and 8.63 °C, and thermal constants (K) were 127.81 and 150.69 degree-days for egg-to-female adults at constant and fluctuating temperatures, respectively. The numbers of oviposition days were significantly higher at fluctuating 15 °C than at the corresponding constant temperature, whereas the opposite trend was observed from 20 to 30 °C. The intrinsic rate of increase (r) was higher at fluctuating than at constant 15 °C. The net reproductive rate (R ) was also higher at fluctuating than at constant 15 and 35 °C, but showed an opposite trend at 20 and 25 °C. We conclude that fluctuating temperatures should be considered to accurately predict spider mite population dynamics in nature.

Mathematical modeling of climate change and malaria transmission dynamics: a historical review

“…Paaijmans et al (2013b) also found temperature fluctuations to enhance and inhibit A. stephensi development and survival at low and high temperatures, respectively, and similar results have been obtained for other ectotherms, e.g. Bayu et al (2017). The aforementioned works focused either on the sporgonic cycle (Paaijmans et al 2009(Paaijmans et al , 2010Blanford et al 2013) or Anopheles development (Paaijmans et al 2013b) in isolation, but very recently, Beck-Johnson et al (2017) explored daily and annual temperature variations under their previously discussed 2013 model (Beck-Johnson et al 2013) (Sect.…”

Can interactions among predators alter the natural regulation of an herbivore in a climate change scenario? The case of Tetranychus urticae and its predators in citrus

“…Therefore, both effects (proline accumulation in leaves and down-regulation of the JA pathway) provide a plausible explanation for the unexpected higher densities of T. urticae observed under summer conditions. Moreover, the stimulating effect of fluctuating temperatures (i.e., semi-field trial) relative to constant temperatures (i.e., laboratory assays) on the demographic parameters of T. urticae (Vangansbeke et al 2013(Vangansbeke et al , 2015Bayu et al 2017) should not be neglected. These bottom-up effects alone could result in mite outbreaks in a warmer future.…”

Effect of pollen provision on life‐history parameters of phytoseiid predators under hot and dry environmental conditions

“…On the one hand, in the laboratory, we worked at constant temperature regimes, which can be taken as a worst-case scenario that does not allow the mite to recover, most likely at night, from maximum temperatures attained during the day at field conditions. It is known that fluctuating temperatures have usually a lower impact on arthropod physiology and behaviour than a constant temperature equivalent to their mean (Gotoh et al, 2014;Nguyen & Amano, 2010;Vangansbeke et al, 2013;Bayu et al, 2017). On the other, we observed that the number of phytoseiid escapees in our assays was more extensive than that of dead specimens (Figures 2 and 3), and this may be taken as indicative that in the real world, these individuals would have been able to survive in refuges (i.e.…”