Integrating more biological and ecological realism into studies of multitrophic interactions

Harvey, Jeffrey A.; Malcicka, Miriama; Ellers, Jacintha

doi:10.1111/een.12204

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…In contrast with older studies which use artificially selected crops grown in simple agro-ecosystems (Harvey et al, 2015 ), much work in the last decade focused on more naturalistic insect–plant interactions. For instance, a particularly interesting mutually beneficial association exists in the Sonoran Desert in Southwest USA between M. sexta and the jimsonweed D. wrightii : while flowers are pollinated by adults (Alarcón et al, 2008 ; Riffell et al, 2008b ), the plants serve as food resources for the larvae (Mechaber and Hildebrand, 2000 ; Figures 1A,B ).…”

Section: Host Plants Chemical Signalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The neural bases of host plant selection in a Neuroecology framework

Reisenman

Riffell

2015

Front. Physiol.

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Understanding how animals make use of environmental information to guide behavior is a fundamental problem in the field of neuroscience. Similarly, the field of ecology seeks to understand the role of behavior in shaping interactions between organisms at various levels of organization, including population-, community- and even ecosystem-level scales. Together, the newly emerged field of “Neuroecology” seeks to unravel this fundamental question by studying both the function of neurons at many levels of the sensory pathway and the interactions between organisms and their natural environment. The interactions between herbivorous insects and their host plants are ideal examples of Neuroecology given the strong ecological and evolutionary forces and the underlying physiological and behavioral mechanisms that shaped these interactions. In this review we focus on an exemplary herbivorous insect within the Lepidoptera, the giant sphinx moth Manduca sexta, as much is known about the natural behaviors related to host plant selection and the involved neurons at several level of the sensory pathway. We also discuss how herbivore-induced plant odorants and secondary metabolites in floral nectar in turn can affect moth behavior, and the underlying neural mechanisms.

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Section: Host Plants Chemical Signalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The neural bases of host plant selection in a Neuroecology framework

Reisenman

Riffell

2015

Front. Physiol.

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“…brassicae has also been recently studied on Arabidopsis thaliana , where a single plant is too small to support the development of even a single caterpillar, let alone 50 or more [ 33 – 35 ]. Clearly studies ignoring quantitative constraints are lacking in ecological realism [ 36 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant Quantity Affects Development and Survival of a Gregarious Insect Herbivore and Its Endoparasitoid Wasp

et al. 2016

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Virtually all studies of plant-herbivore-natural enemy interactions focus on plant quality as the major constraint on development and survival. However, for many gregarious feeding insect herbivores that feed on small or ephemeral plants, the quantity of resources is much more limiting, yet this area has received virtually no attention. Here, in both lab and semi-field experiments using tents containing variably sized clusters of food plants, we studied the effects of periodic food deprivation in a tri-trophic system where quantitative constraints are profoundly important on insect performance. The large cabbage white Pieris brassicae, is a specialist herbivore of relatively small wild brassicaceous plants that grow in variable densities, with black mustard (Brassica nigra) being one of the most important. Larvae of P. brassicae are in turn attacked by a specialist endoparasitoid wasp, Cotesia glomerata. Increasing the length of food deprivation of newly molted final instar caterpillars significantly decreased herbivore and parasitoid survival and biomass, but shortened their development time. Moreover, the ability of caterpillars to recover when provided with food again was correlated with the length of the food deprivation period. In outdoor tents with natural vegetation, we created conditions similar to those faced by P. brassicae in nature by manipulating plant density. Low densities of B. nigra lead to potential starvation of P. brassicae broods and their parasitoids, replicating nutritional conditions of the lab experiments. The ability of both unparasitized and parasitized caterpillars to find corner plants was similar but decreased with central plant density. Survival of both the herbivore and parasitoid increased with plant density and was higher for unparasitized than for parasitized caterpillars. Our results, in comparison with previous studies, reveal that quantitative constraints are far more important that qualitative constraints on the performance of gregarious insect herbivores and their gregarious parasitoids in nature.

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“…The simultaneous arrival of associated species is increasingly likely to occur in nature as a result of climate‐driven species expansions (Hickling et al., ), or multiple accidental introductions (Gardner et al., ; Herlihy, Talamas, & Weber, ). As illustrated in Figure , our results reflect the complexity and diversity of the ecological mechanisms that mediate the effects of concurrent range expanding species on native interaction networks (see Engelkes & Mills, ; Harvey, Malcicka, & Ellers, ). In this study the effects range from chemically mediated foraging strategies to direct and indirect competition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

With or without you: Effects of the concurrent range expansion of an herbivore and its natural enemy on native species interactions

Carrasco

Desurmont

Laplanche

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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Global climatic changes may lead to the arrival of multiple range-expanding species from different trophic levels into new habitats, either simultaneously or in quick succession, potentially causing the introduction of manifold novel interactions into native food webs. Unraveling the complex biotic interactions between native and range-expanding species is critical to understand the impact of climate change on community ecology, but experimental evidence is lacking. In a series of laboratory experiments that simulated direct and indirect species interactions, we investigated the effects of the concurrent arrival of a range-expanding insect herbivore in Europe, Spodoptera littoralis, and its associated parasitoid Microplitis rufiventris, on the native herbivore Mamestra brassicae, and its associated parasitoid Microplitis mediator, when co-occurring on a native plant, Brassica rapa. Overall, direct interactions between the herbivores were beneficial for the exotic herbivore (higher pupal weight than the native herbivore), and negative for the native herbivore (higher mortality than the exotic herbivore). At the third trophic level, both parasitoids were unable to parasitize the herbivore they did not coexist with, but the presence of the exotic parasitoid still negatively affected the native herbivore (increased mortality) and the native parasitoid (decreased parasitism rate), through failed parasitism attempts and interference effects. Our results suggest different interaction scenarios depending on whether S. littoralis and its parasitoid arrive to the native tritrophic system separately or concurrently, as the negative effects associated with the presence of the parasitoid were dependent on the presence of the exotic herbivore. These findings illustrate the complexity and interconnectedness of multitrophic changes resulting from concurrent species arrival to new environments, and the need for integrating the ecological effects of such arrivals into the general theoretical framework of global invasion patterns driven by climatic change.

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Integrating more biological and ecological realism into studies of multitrophic interactions

Cited by 12 publications

References 26 publications

The neural bases of host plant selection in a Neuroecology framework

The neural bases of host plant selection in a Neuroecology framework

Plant Quantity Affects Development and Survival of a Gregarious Insect Herbivore and Its Endoparasitoid Wasp

With or without you: Effects of the concurrent range expansion of an herbivore and its natural enemy on native species interactions

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