Species energy and Thermal Performance Theory predict 20‐yr changes in ant community abundance and richness

Kaspari, Michael; Bujan, Jelena; Roeder, Karl A.; Beurs, Kirsten M. de; Weiser, Michael D.

doi:10.1002/ecy.2888

Cited by 27 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…A decelerating benefit of temperature in locations with greater increases in temperature is consistent with previous long-term studies of insects. In a study of two surveys of ant communities across North America conducted 20 years apart, and finding that sites with the largest increases in temperature had the largest declines in colony density (Kaspari et al, 2019). Hallmann et al (2017) found a positive effect of temperature on insect biomass; however, biomass loss over time was greatest in mid-summer, when temperatures are highest.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The effects of climate change are geographically pervasive (Wilson and Fox 2020) and may explain insect decline in natural areas (Rada et al 2019, Janzen and Hallwachs 2019, Baranov et al 2020, Welti et al 2020a. Some insect taxa are currently benefiting from rising temperatures, which can increase local populations (Kaspari et al 2019, Baker et al 2021), diversity (Hofmann et al 2018), and species' range sizes (Termaat et al 2019). However, as temperatures continue to rise and increase more rapidly, temperature is expected to decrease insect productivity (Warren et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The effects of climate change are geographically pervasive (Wilson & Fox, 2020) and may explain recent reports of insect decline in natural areas (Janzen & Hallwachs, 2019;Rada et al, 2019;Baranov et al, 2020;Welti et al, 2020b). Some insect taxa are currently benefiting from rising temperatures, which can increase local populations (Kaspari et al, 2019;Baker et al, 2021), diversity (Hofmann et al, 2018), and species' range sizes (Termaat et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, as temperatures continue to rise and increase more rapidly, temperature is expected to negatively affect insect productivity (Warren et al, 2018). Thermal performance theory captures this non-linearity in predicting a unimodal relationship between temperature and insect fitness, as measured by biomass or other performance indicators (Kingsolver & Huey, 2008;Kühsel & Blüthgen, 2015;Sinclair et al, 2016;Kaspari et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temperature drives variation in flying insect biomass across a German malaise trap network

Welti

Zajíček

Ayasse

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Using data from the first year of a new, long-term, standardized German Malaise Trap Program coordinated by the German Long-Term Ecological Research network, we apply an ecological gradients approach to examine the effects of climate and land cover on flying insect biomass. We hypothesized that biomass would display a unimodal relationship with temperature, consistent with thermal performance theory, would decrease with precipitation due to reduced flying activity, and would decrease in areas with more heavily human-modified land cover. Flying insect biomass was quantified from malaise traps at 84 locations across Germany throughout the 2019 growing season. We used an AICc approach to parse drivers of temperature, deviation in 2019 temperature from long-term averages, precipitation, land cover, geographic coordinates, elevation, and sampling period. We further examined how effects of temperature on insect biomass change across space by testing for interactions between temperature and latitude. Flying insect biomass increased linearly with monthly temperature across all samples. However, positive effects of temperature on flying insect biomass declined with latitude, suggesting the warm 2019 summer temperatures in southern Germany may have exceeded local insect optimums, and highlighting the spatial variation in climate change-driven impacts on insect communities. Land cover explained less variation in insect biomass, with the largest effect being lower biomass in forested sites. Future work from this newly begun German Malaise Trap Program will add a multi-year dimension to this large-scale, distributed sampling network, with the aim of disentangling the roles of multiple drivers on flying insect communities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temperature drives variation in flying insect biomass across a German malaise trap network

Welti

Zajíček

Ayasse

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In 2016–2017, ants were resampled from May to August across North America at 33 sites previously sampled in 1994–1997 (Fig. 1; Kaspari et al 2000, Kaspari et al 2019). These sites spanned 15.7° in latitude and 51.6° in longitude from warm southwestern deserts in California to cool northeastern deciduous forests in Massachusetts.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal traits predict the winners and losers under climate change: an example from North American ant communities

et al. 2021

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Across the globe, temperatures are predicted to increase with consequences for many taxonomic groups. Arthropods are particularly at risk as temperature imposes physiological constraints on growth, survival, and reproduction. Given that arthropods may be disproportionately affected in a warmer climate—the question becomes which taxa are vulnerable and can we predict the supposed winners and losers of climate change? To address this question, we resurveyed 33 ant communities, quantifying 20‐yr differences in the incidence of 28 genera. Each North American ant community was surveyed with 30 1‐m2 plots, and the incidence of each genus across the 30 plots was used to estimate change. From the original surveys in 1994–1997 to the resurveys in 2016–2017, temperature increased on average 1°C (range, −0.4°C to 2.5°C) and ~64% of ant genera increased in more than half of the sampled communities. To test Thermal Performance Theory's prediction that genera with higher average thermal limits will tend to accumulate at the expense of those with lower limits, we quantified critical thermal maxima (CTmax: the high temperatures at which they lose muscle control) and minima (CTmin: the low temperatures at which ants first become inactive) for common genera at each site. Consistent with prediction, we found a positive decelerating relationship between CTmax and the proportion of sites in which a genus had increased. CTmin, by contrast, was not a useful predictor of change. There was a strong positive correlation (r = 0.85) between the proportion of sites where a genus was found with higher incidence after 20 yr and the average difference in number of plots occupied per site, suggesting genera with high CTmax values tended to occupy more plots at more sites after 20 yr. Thermal functional traits like CTmax have thus proved useful in predicting patterns of long‐term community change in a dominant, diverse insect taxon.

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Plant diversity and functional identity alter ant occurrence and activity in experimental grasslands

et al. 2022

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Increasing plant species richness has been shown to positively affect the diversity of a range of other organisms, both above-and belowground. Although ants have a multitude of interactions with other organisms through their role as predators and mutualists, ants are a taxon that has rarely been investigated in studies of biodiversity effects. Ants are known to respond to changes in microclimatic conditions such as temperature and humidity, and these microclimatic conditions are known to be affected by vegetation characteristics such as standing biomass, which in turn can be affected by plant diversity. We investigated the effects of plant species richness (1-60), the number of plant functional groups (FGs; 1-4), and the presence of particular FGs on the occurrence and activity of ants, in the context of a grassland biodiversity experiment. Ant abundance, estimated as the mean number of workers in pitfall traps, and the number of colonies within plots, but not ant species richness, were negatively affected by plant species richness, and also by the identity of plant FGs, particularly legumes (negative effects) and grasses (positive effects). Statistical approaches showed that these effects were largely mediated by biotic (aboveground plant biomass: negative effect) and abiotic variables (soil temperature: positive effect). Notably, ant activity, measured as the mean number of workers foraging on baits and with a disproportionate dominance of a single species (Lasius niger), showed a more complex pattern, where plant species richness and number of FGs interacted to explain differential attractiveness to different resources (represented by sugar and tuna baits), likely representing current nutritional requirements for ants. Similarly, increasing soil temperature increased the level of ant activity, indicating that abiotic factors might impose thermal constraints on ectotherms inhabiting temperate grasslands. Our results indicate that a higher number of plant species and higher plant biomass had a negative effect on ants in experimental grasslands. Understanding the responses of an ecologically important group such as ants will allow us to infer the effects that biodiversity loss could have on animal-mediated ecosystem processes.

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Species energy and Thermal Performance Theory predict 20‐yr changes in ant community abundance and richness

Cited by 27 publications

References 40 publications

Temperature drives variation in flying insect biomass across a German malaise trap network

Temperature drives variation in flying insect biomass across a German malaise trap network

Thermal traits predict the winners and losers under climate change: an example from North American ant communities

Plant diversity and functional identity alter ant occurrence and activity in experimental grasslands

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