| 1. |
- Navarro-Cano, Jose A., et al.
(författare)
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Climate change, phenology, and butterfly host plant utilization
- 2015
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Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 44:S!, s. S78-S88
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Knowledge of how species interactions are influenced by climate warming is paramount to understand current biodiversity changes. We review phenological changes of Swedish butterflies during the latest decades and explore potential climate effects on butterfly-host plant interactions using the Orange tip butterfly Anthocharis cardamines and its host plants as a model system. This butterfly has advanced its appearance dates substantially, and its mean flight date shows a positive correlation with latitude. We show that there is a large latitudinal variation in host use and that butterfly populations select plant individuals based on their flowering phenology. We conclude that A. cardamines is a phenological specialist but a host species generalist. This implies that thermal plasticity for spring development influences host utilization of the butterfly through effects on the phenological matching with its host plants. However, the host utilization strategy of A. cardamines appears to render it resilient to relatively large variation in climate.
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| 2. |
- Posledovich, Diana, 1984-
(författare)
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Effects of climate on phenological synchrony between butterflies and their host plants
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Shifts in species’ phenologies and phenological asynchronies between the interacting organisms have received a lot of attention in the context of climate change. Changes in temporal overlap between species, caused by phenological asynchrony, make species depending on one another become so separated in time that they can no longer interact. This may have important consequences both for single species, like fluctuations in abundances, and for the functioning of whole communities by creating mismatches between trophic levels and rearrangements of community structure. This thesis focuses on the impact of temperatures on spring timing and phenological synchrony in a herbivorous insect – host plant system, consisting of the orange tipbutterfly Anthocharis cardamines and five of its Brassicaceae host plant species. Paper I demonstrates that diapause duration and winter thermal conditions can determine the timing of spring emergence in the herbivore, and these traits may differ between species with different feeding strategies. In paper II we show that thermal reaction norms of post-winterdevelopment of A. cardamines display cogradient latitudinal variation.Paper III shows that temperature-mediated phenological plasticity of A. cardamines butterflies and a majority of the most used host plant species is similar within populations originating from different latitudes. Thus, the species’ timing appeared well conserved in response to thermal variation. In paper IV we explored the importance of the butterfly’s adult emergence and thermal conditions on the succeeding part of the butterfly’s life-cycle – larval development. The outcome from the interaction was examined for both the insect and the plant side. The degree in phenological overlap between the female butterflies and host plants as well as temperatures during larval development were found to influence larval development but had no effect on plant reproductive fitness. The four papers of the presented thesis demonstrate that developmental preadaptations, evolvedin a herbivore to maintain phenological synchrony with host plants across yearly variation of spring conditions, can prevent disruption of the interaction under a wide range of temperatures. This indicates that temporary constrained interactions are not always vulnerable to decoupling, particularly if they involve generalist strategy.
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| 3. |
- Posledovich, Diana, et al.
(författare)
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Latitudinal variation in diapause duration and post-winter development in two pierid butterflies in relation to phenological specialization
- 2015
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Ingår i: Oecologia. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0029-8549 .- 1432-1939. ; 177:1, s. 181-190
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Diapause plays a central role in insect life cycles by allowing survival during adverse seasonal conditions as well as synchronizing life cycles with the period of mate and food availability. Seasonal timing is expected to be particularly important for species that are dependent on resources available during a short time window-so-called phenological specialists-and latitudinal clines in seasonality are expected to favor local adaptation in phenological timing. However, to what degree latitudinal variation in diapause dynamics and post-winter development due to such local adaptation is influenced by the degree of phenological specialization is not well known. We experimentally studied two pierid butterfly species and found that the phenological specialist Anthocharis cardamines had shorter diapause duration than the phenological generalist Pieris napi along a latitudinal gradient in Sweden. Moreover, diapause duration increased with latitude in P. napi but not in A. cardamines. Sensitivity of the two species to winter thermal conditions also differed; additional cold temperature during the winter period shortened diapause duration for P. napi pupae but not for A. cardamines pupae. In both species, post-winter pupal development was faster after longer periods of cold conditions, and more southern populations developed faster than northern populations. Post-winter development was also invariably faster at higher temperatures in both species. We argue that the observed differences in diapause dynamics between the two species might be explained by the difference in phenological specialization that influences the costs of breaking diapause too early in the season.
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| 4. |
- Posledovich, Diana, et al.
(författare)
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Latitudinal variation in thermal reaction norms of post-winter pupal development in two butterflies differing in phenological specialization
- 2014
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Ingår i: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0024-4066 .- 1095-8312. ; 113:4, s. 981-991
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Latitudinal clines in thermal reaction norms of development are a common phenomenon in temperate insects. Populations from higher latitudes often develop faster throughout the range of relevant temperatures (i.e countergradient variation) because they must be able to complete their life cycle within a shorter seasonal time window compared to populations at lower latitudes. In the present study, we experimentally demonstrate that two species of butterflies Anthocharis cardamines (L.) and Pieris napi (L.) instead show a cogradient variation in thermal reaction norms of post-winter pupal development so that lower latitude populations develop faster than higher latitude populations. The two species share host plants but differ in the degree of phenological specialization, as well as in the patterns of voltinism. We suggest that the pattern in A. cardamines, a univoltine phenological specialist feeding exclusively on flowers and seedpods, is the result of selection for matching to the phenological pattern of its local host plants. The other species, P. napi, is a phenological generalist feeding on the leaves of the hosts and it shows a latitudinal cline in voltinism. Because the latitudinal pattern in P. napi was an effect of slow development in a fraction of the pupae from the most northern population, we hypothesize that this population may include both bivoltine and univoltine genotypes. Consequently, although the two species both showed cogradient patterns in thermal reaction norms, it appears likely that this was for different reasons.
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| 5. |
- Posledovich, Diana, et al.
(författare)
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Phenological synchrony between a butterfly and its host plants : Experimental test of effects of spring temperature
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Animal Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0021-8790 .- 1365-2656. ; 87:1, s. 150-161
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1. Climate-driven changes in the relative phenologies of interacting species may potentially alter the outcome of species interactions. 2. Phenotypic plasticity is expected to be important for short-term response to new climate conditions, and differences between species in plasticity are likely to influence their temporal overlap and interaction patterns. As reaction norms of interacting species may be locally adapted, any such climate-induced change in interaction patterns may vary among localities. However, consequences of spatial variation in plastic responses for species interactions are understudied. 3. We experimentally explored how temperature affected synchrony between spring emergence of a butterfly, Anthocharis cardamines, and onset of flowering of five of its host plant species across a latitudinal gradient. We also studied potential effects on synchrony if climate-driven northward expansions would be faster in the butterflies than in host plants. Lastly, to assess how changes in synchrony influence host use we carried out an experiment to examine the importance of the developmental stage of plant reproductive structures for butterfly oviposition preference. 4. In southern locations, the butterflies were well-synchronized with the majority of their local host plant species across temperatures, suggesting that thermal plasticity in butterfly development matches oviposition to host plant development and that thermal reaction norms of insects and plants result in similar advancement of spring phenology in response to warming. In the most northern region, however, relative phenology between the butterfly and two of its host plant species changed with increased temperature. We also show that the developmental stage of plants was important for egg-laying, and conclude that temperature-induced changes in synchrony in the northernmost region are likely to lead to shifts in host use in A.cardamines if spring temperatures become warmer. Northern expansion of butterfly populations might possibly have a positive effect on keeping up with host plant phenology with more northern host plant populations. 5. Considering that the majority of insect herbivores exploit multiple plant species differing in their phenological response to spring temperatures, temperature-induced changes in synchrony might lead to shifts in host use and changes in species interactions in many temperate communities.
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| 6. |
- Posledovich, Diana, et al.
(författare)
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The developmental race between maturing host plants and their butterfly herbivore – the influence of phenological matching and temperature
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Animal Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0021-8790 .- 1365-2656. ; 84:6, s. 1690-1699
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Interactions between herbivorous insects and their host plants that are limited in time are widespread. Therefore, many insect-plant interactions result in a developmental race, where herbivores need to complete their development before plants become unsuitable, while plants strive to minimize damage from herbivores by outgrowing them. When spring phenologies of interacting species change asymmetrically in response to climate warming, there will be a change in the developmental state of host plants at the time of insect herbivore emergence. In combination with altered temperatures during the subsequent developmental period, this is likely to affect interaction strength as well as fitness of interacting species. Here, we experimentally explore whether the combined effect of phenological matching and thermal conditions influence the outcome of an insect-host interaction. We manipulated both developmental stages of the host plants at the start of the interaction and temperature during the subsequent developmental period in a model system of a herbivorous butterfly, Anthocharis cardamines, and five of its Brassicaceae host plant species. Larval performance characteristics were favoured by earlier stages of host plants at oviposition as well as by higher developmental temperatures on most of the host species. The probability of a larva needing a second host plant covered the full range from no influence of either phenological matching or temperature to strong effects of both factors, and complex interactions between them. The probability of a plant outgrowing a larva was dependent only on the species identity. This study demonstrates that climatic variation can influence the outcome of consumer-resource interactions in multiple ways and that its effects differ among host plant species. Therefore, climate warming is likely to change the temporal match between larval and plant development in some plant species, but not in the others. This is likely to have important implications for host plant use and possibly influence competitive relationships.
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| 7. |
- Posledovich, Diana, et al.
(författare)
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Weak effect of spring temperatures on phenological synchrony between herbivore emergence and host plant suitability
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many species interactions are maintained by precise timing of life-cycle events across seasonal variation. Ecological implications of changes in phenologies, associated with climate change, with respect to species interactions are to a large extent unexplored. Changes in phenological distance between herbivores and their host plant species under new environmental conditions may potentially lead to shifts in host use patterns, with some plant species becoming more or less available at the time of a herbivore’s emergence. In addition, latitudinal variation in the timing of phenological events can lead to different patterns in host use shifts among populations of a given herbivore. Here we explored latitudinal variation in the effects of temperature on the degree of phenological synchrony between emergence of a butterfly, A. cardamines, and five of its herbaceous host plant species in a set of laboratory experiments to investigate the possibility that there will be shifts in the butterfly’ host utilization due to changes in thermal environment. The results suggest a similar temperature-mediated phenological plasticity between the butterflies and their host plants in three latitudinally divergent populations. In general, butterflies appeared to be well-synchronized with the majority of their host plant species across temperatures. In the most northern region, however, phenological distance between the butterfly and two out of four plant species was affected by temperature and decreased in warmer treatments. We relate this to a lower diversity of plant species and shorter period of host availability in the northern region. This creates a stronger selection pressure on the northern butterflies for a closer matching of their emergence to the plant flowering period. As the butterflies discriminated against non-flowering hosts with respect to oviposition, we conclude that a shift in host use in A. cardamines appears to be a possible scenario under spring warming, especially in the northern region.
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| 8. |
- Stålhandske, Sandra, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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Phenological matching rather than genetic variation in host preference underlies geographical variation in host plants used by the orange tip butterflies
- 2016
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Ingår i: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0024-4066 .- 1095-8312. ; 119:4, s. 1060-1067
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An insect species that shows variation in host species association across its geographical range may do so either because of local adaptation in host plant preference of the insect, or through environmentally or genetically induced differences in the plants, causing variation in host plant suitability between regions. Here we experimentally investigate host plant preference of Anthocharis cardamines (orange tip butterfly) of two populations from UK and two from Sweden. Previous reports indicate that A. cardamines larvae are found on different host plant species in different regions of the United Kingdom, and some variation has been reported in Sweden. Host plant choice trials showed that females prefer to oviposit on plants in an earlier phenological stage, as well as on larger plants. When controlling for plant phenological stage and size, the host species had no statistically significant effect on the choice of the females. Moreover, there were no differences in host plant species preference among the four butterfly populations. Based on our experiment, the oviposition choice by A. cardamines mainly depends on the phenological stage and the size of the host plant. This finding supports the idea that the geographical patterns of host-plant association of A. cardamines in the UK and Sweden are consequences of the phenology and availability of local hosts, rather than regional genetic differences in host species preference of the butterfly.
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| 9. |
- Toftegaard, Tenna, et al.
(författare)
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Butterfly-host plant synchrony determines patterns of host use across years and regions
- 2019
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Ingår i: Oikos. - : Wiley. - 0030-1299 .- 1600-0706. ; 128:4, s. 493-502
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Variation in the degree of synchrony among host plants and herbivores can disrupt or intensify species interactions, alter the strength of natural selection on traits associated with phenological timing, and drive novel host plant associations. We used field observations from three regions during four seasons to examine how timing of the butterfly herbivore Anthocharis cardamines relative to six host plant species (Arabis hirsuta, Cardamine pratensis, Arabis glabra, Arabidopsis thaliana, Thlaspi caerulescens and Capsella bursa-pastoris) influenced host species use and the choice of host plant individuals within populations. Butterflies laid a larger fraction of their eggs on species that were closer to the butterfly's preferred stage of development than on other host species. Within host plant populations, butterflies showed a stronger preference for individuals with a late phenology when plants within the population were on average more developed at the time of butterfly flight. Our results suggest that changes in synchrony between herbivores and their host plants are associated with changes in both host species use and the choice of host plant individuals differing in phenology within populations. This is likely to be an important mechanism generating variation in interaction intensities and trait selection in the wild, and therefore also relevant for understanding how anthropogenic induced changes, such as global warming, will influence natural communities.
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| 10. |
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