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Shameer KS, Hardy ICW. Host-parasitoid trophic webs in complex agricultural systems. CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE 2024:101253. [PMID: 39153528 DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2024.101253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2024] [Revised: 08/09/2024] [Accepted: 08/12/2024] [Indexed: 08/19/2024]
Abstract
The composition and dynamics of ecological communities are complex because of the presence of large numbers of organisms, belonging to many different species, each with their own evolutionary history, and their numerous interactions. The construction and analysis of trophic webs summarizes interactions across trophic levels and links community structure to properties such as ecosystem services. We focus on agro-ecological communities, which may be simpler than natural communities but nonetheless present considerable challenges to describe and understand. We review the characteristics and study of communities comprised of plants, phytophagous insects and insect parasitoids with particular regard to the maintenance of sustainable agro-ecological communities and ecosystem services, especially biological pest control. We are constrained to largely overlook other members of these communities, such as hyper-parasitoids, predators, parasites and microbes. We draw chiefly on recent literature while acknowledging the importance of many advances made during the immediately preceding decades. Trophic web construction and analysis can greatly improve the understanding of the role and impact of herbivores and natural enemies in agro-ecological communities and the various species interactions, such as apparent competition, which assists biocontrol strategies. The study of trophic webs also helps in predicting community ecology consequences of externally-driven changes to agro-ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- K S Shameer
- Insect Ecology and Ethology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Calicut, Calicut University P.O., Malappuram, Kerala 673635, India; Department of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 27, University of Helsinki, FI-00014, Finland.
| | - Ian C W Hardy
- Department of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 27, University of Helsinki, FI-00014, Finland.
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Ramos Aguila LC, Li X, Akutse KS, Bamisile BS, Sánchez Moreano JP, Lie Z, Liu J. Host-Parasitoid Phenology, Distribution, and Biological Control under Climate Change. Life (Basel) 2023; 13:2290. [PMID: 38137891 PMCID: PMC10744521 DOI: 10.3390/life13122290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2023] [Revised: 11/21/2023] [Accepted: 11/23/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Climate change raises a serious threat to global entomofauna-the foundation of many ecosystems-by threatening species preservation and the ecosystem services they provide. Already, changes in climate-warming-are causing (i) sharp phenological mismatches among host-parasitoid systems by reducing the window of host susceptibility, leading to early emergence of either the host or its associated parasitoid and affecting mismatched species' fitness and abundance; (ii) shifting arthropods' expansion range towards higher altitudes, and therefore migratory pest infestations are more likely; and (iii) reducing biological control effectiveness by natural enemies, leading to potential pest outbreaks. Here, we provided an overview of the warming consequences on biodiversity and functionality of agroecosystems, highlighting the vital role that phenology plays in ecology. Also, we discussed how phenological mismatches would affect biological control efficacy, since an accurate description of stage differentiation (metamorphosis) of a pest and its associated natural enemy is crucial in order to know the exact time of the host susceptibility/suitability or stage when the parasitoids are able to optimize their parasitization or performance. Campaigns regarding landscape structure/heterogeneity, reduction of pesticides, and modelling approaches are urgently needed in order to safeguard populations of natural enemies in a future warmer world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis Carlos Ramos Aguila
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; (X.L.); (Z.L.); (J.L.)
| | - Xu Li
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; (X.L.); (Z.L.); (J.L.)
| | - Komivi Senyo Akutse
- International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), Nairobi P.O. Box 30772-00100, Kenya;
- Unit of Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa
| | | | - Jessica Paola Sánchez Moreano
- Grupo Traslacional en Plantas, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, Parroquia Muyuna km 7 vía Alto Tena, Tena 150150, Napo, Ecuador;
| | - Zhiyang Lie
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; (X.L.); (Z.L.); (J.L.)
| | - Juxiu Liu
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; (X.L.); (Z.L.); (J.L.)
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Calcagno V, Cunniffe NJ, Hamelin FM. Metacommunity dynamics and the detection of species associations in co‐occurrence analyses: why patch disturbance matters. Funct Ecol 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.14047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Vincent Calcagno
- Université Côte d’Azur INRAE CNRS Institut Sophia Agrobiotech Sophia‐Antipolis France
| | - Nik J. Cunniffe
- Department of Plant Sciences University of Cambridge Cambridge United Kingdom
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Abstract
Understanding the persistence of populations in fragmented landscapes is critical for predicting the consequences of habitat destruction, yet analytical tools are largely lacking. Metapopulation capacity provides one such tool, because it summarizes the influences of habitat area and distribution on population persistence in a single metric. However, surprisingly few efforts have extended this theory to multispecies communities. Our analyses demonstrate the power of metapopulation capacity theory in predicting the persistence of prey–predator pairs and food chains in heterogeneous, fragmented landscapes. Such analytic insights serve as a benchmark to predict the consequences of habitat changes. Our findings thus have broad implications for both ecological research and conservation practices. Metapopulation capacity provides an analytic tool to quantify the impact of landscape configuration on metapopulation persistence, which has proven powerful in biological conservation. Yet surprisingly few efforts have been made to apply this approach to multispecies systems. Here, we extend metapopulation capacity theory to predict the persistence of trophically interacting species. Our results demonstrate that metapopulation capacity could be used to predict the persistence of trophic systems such as prey–predator pairs and food chains in fragmented landscapes. In particular, we derive explicit predictions for food chain length as a function of metapopulation capacity, top-down control, and population dynamical parameters. Under certain assumptions, we show that the fraction of empty patches for the basal species provides a useful indicator to predict the length of food chains that a fragmented landscape can support and confirm this prediction for a host–parasitoid interaction. We further show that the impact of habitat changes on biodiversity can be predicted from changes in metapopulation capacity or approximately by changes in the fraction of empty patches. Our study provides an important step toward a spatially explicit theory of trophic metacommunities and a useful tool for predicting their responses to habitat changes.
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Opedal ØH, Ovaskainen O, Saastamoinen M, Laine AL, van Nouhuys S. Host-plant availability drives the spatiotemporal dynamics of interacting metapopulations across a fragmented landscape. Ecology 2020; 101:e03186. [PMID: 32892363 PMCID: PMC7757193 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3186] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2020] [Revised: 07/01/2020] [Accepted: 07/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
The dynamics of ecological communities depend partly on species interactions within and among trophic levels. Experimental work has demonstrated the impact of species interactions on the species involved, but it remains unclear whether these effects can also be detected in long‐term time series across heterogeneous landscapes. We analyzed a 19‐yr time series of patch occupancy by the Glanville fritillary butterfly Melitaea cinxia, its specialist parasitoid wasp Cotesia melitaearum, and the specialist fungal pathogen Podosphaera plantaginis infecting Plantago lanceolata, a host plant of the Glanville fritillary. These species share a network of more than 4,000 habitat patches in the Åland islands, providing a metacommunity data set of unique spatial and temporal resolution. To assess the influence of interactions among the butterfly, parasitoid, and mildew on metacommunity dynamics, we modeled local colonization and extinction rates of each species while including or excluding the presence of potentially interacting species in the previous year as predictors. The metapopulation dynamics of all focal species varied both along a gradient in host plant abundance, and spatially as indicated by strong effects of local connectivity. Colonization and to a lesser extent extinction rates depended also on the presence of interacting species within patches. However, the directions of most effects differed from expectations based on previous experimental and modeling work, and the inferred influence of species interactions on observed metacommunity dynamics was limited. These results suggest that although local interactions among the butterfly, parasitoid, and mildew occur, their roles in metacommunity spatiotemporal dynamics are relatively weak. Instead, all species respond to variation in plant abundance, which may in turn fluctuate in response to variation in climate, land use, or other environmental factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Øystein H Opedal
- Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, SE-223 62, Sweden
| | - Otso Ovaskainen
- Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, N-7491, Norway
| | - Marjo Saastamoinen
- Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,Helsinki Institute of Life Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Anna-Liisa Laine
- Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, CH-8057, Switzerland
| | - Saskya van Nouhuys
- Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14853, USA
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