Autumn shifts in cold tolerance metabolites in overwintering adult mountain pine beetles

Thompson, K.; Huber, Dezene P. W.; Murray, Brent W.

doi:10.1101/650044

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 35 publications

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“…A critical trait affecting such persistence and expansion is cold‐hardening, which allows overwintering life stages to survive ambient temperatures well below freezing. Cold‐hardening in the MPB involves the production of antifreeze compounds, including glycerol, in response to thermoperiodic cues (Bentz and Mullins 1999, Fraser et al 2017, Thompson et al 2019), dynamic processes that occur with high energetic cost (Danks 1987, Lee 1989). Supercooling points in MPB, indicative of the extent of cold‐hardening, have been shown to differ geographically among populations in the field (Bentz and Mullins 1999), as has been observed in many other insect species with large geographic distributions (Kukal and Duman 1989, Shintani and Ishikawa 2002, Elkinton et al 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Translocation experiment reveals capacity for mountain pine beetle persistence under climate warming

Soderberg

Mock

Hofstetter

et al. 2020

Ecological Monographs

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Predicting species response to climate change is a central challenge in ecology, particularly for species that inhabit large geographic areas. The mountain pine beetle (MPB) is a significant tree mortality agent in western North America with a distribution limited by climate. Recent warming has caused large‐scale MPB population outbreaks within its historical distribution, in addition to migration northward in western Canada. The relative roles of genetic and environmental sources of variation governing MPB capacity to persist in place in a changing climate, and the migratory potential at its southern range edge in the United States, have not been investigated. We reciprocally translocated MPB populations taken from the core and southern edge of their range, and simultaneously translocated both populations to a warmer, low‐elevation site near the southern range boundary where MPB activity has historically been absent despite suitable hosts. We found genetic variability and extensive plasticity in multiple fitness traits that would allow both populations to persist in a warming climate that resembles the thermal regime of our low‐elevation site. We demonstrate, for the first time, that supercooling points in MPBs are influenced both by genetic and environmental factors. Both populations reproduced with seasonally appropriate univoltine generation times at all translocated sites, and bivoltinism was not observed. The highest reproductive success occurred at the warmest, out‐of‐range low‐elevation site, suggesting that southward migration may not be temperature limited.

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