Ecological changes in the phenology and distribution of plants and animals are occurring in all well-studied marine, freshwater, and terrestrial groups These observed changes are heavily biased in the directions predicted from global warming and have been linked to local or regional climate change through correlations between climate and biological variation, field and laboratory experiments, and physiological research Range-restricted species, particularly polar and mountaintop species, show severe range contractions and have been the first groups in which entire species have gone extinct due to recent climate change Tropical coral reefs and amphibians have been most negatively affected Predator-prey and plant-insect interactions have been disrupted when interacting species have responded differently to warming Evolutionary adaptations to warmer conditions have occurred in the interiors of species’ ranges, and resource use and dispersal have evolved rapidly at expanding range margins Observed genetic shifts modulate local effects of climate change, but there is little evidence that they will mitigate negative effects at the species level

https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/documents/R2ES/LitCited/LPC_2012/Parmesan_2006.pdf

Ecological and Evolutionary Responses to Recent Climate Change

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00457602/document

A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests

This review examines the direct effects of climate change on insect herbivores. Temperature is identified as the dominant abiotic factor directly affecting herbivorous insects. There is little evidence of any direct effects of CO2 or UVB. Direct impacts of precipitation have been largely neglected in current research on climate change. Temperature directly affects development, survival, range and abundance. Species with a large geographical range will tend to be less affected. The main effect of temperature in temperate regions is to influence winter survival; at more northerly latitudes, higher temperatures extend the summer season, increasing the available thermal budget for growth and reproduction. Photoperiod is the dominant cue for the seasonal synchrony of temperate insects, but their thermal requirements may differ at different times of year. Interactions between photoperiod and temperature determine phenology; the two factors do not necessarily operate in tandem. Insect herbivores show a number of distinct life-history strategies to exploit plants with different growth forms and strategies, which will be differentially affected by climate warming. There are still many challenges facing biologists in predicting and monitoring the impacts of climate change. Future research needs to consider insect herbivore phenotypic and genotypic flexibility, their responses to global change parameters operating in concert, and awareness that some patterns may only become apparent in the longer term.

http://www.discoverlife.org/pa/or/polistes/pr/2010nsf_macro/references/Bale_et_al2002.pdf

Herbivory in global climate change research: direct effects of rising temperature on insect herbivores

http://sylvain-delzon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Lindner-et-al-2010-FEM.pdf

Climate change impacts, adaptive capacity, and vulnerability of European forest ecosystems

Plant responses to different stresses are highly complex and involve changes at the transcriptome, cellular, and physiological levels. Recent evidence shows that plants respond to multiple stresses differently from how they do to individual stresses, activating a specific programme of gene expression relating to the exact environmental conditions encountered. Rather than being additive, the presence of an abiotic stress can have the effect of reducing or enhancing susceptibility to a biotic pest or pathogen, and vice versa. This interaction between biotic and abiotic stresses is orchestrated by hormone signalling pathways that may induce or antagonize one another, in particular that of abscisic acid. Specificity in multiple stress responses is further controlled by a range of molecular mechanisms that act together in a complex regulatory network. Transcription factors, kinase cascades, and reactive oxygen species are key components of this cross-talk, as are heat shock factors and small RNAs. This review aims to characterize the interaction between biotic and abiotic stress responses at a molecular level, focusing on regulatory mechanisms important to both pathways. Identifying master regulators that connect both biotic and abiotic stress response pathways is fundamental in providing opportunities for developing broad-spectrum stress-tolerant crop plants.

The interaction of plant biotic and abiotic stresses: from genes to the field

Cette determination est fort utile, entre autres, en eco-ethologie. L'etude biometrique (longueur totale du bec et de la tete) semble etre la plus utile des methodes en ce qui concerne les L.

The use of head and bill length to sex live gulls Laridae

Pitfalls and soil heat extraction were used to sample Carabidae in recently felled (1-4 yr from felling), young (5-22 yr after planting), and old plantations (42-63 yr after planting) of Picea sitchensis in northern England. Pitfall catches were useful in recording swift-running species, present at low densities, and a DCA ordination based on the pitfall catches indicated major distribution changes during the plantation cycle. Soil extractions allowed estimation of minimum densities of the abundant species and indicated that both diversity and density were highest in young plantations and lowest in the old plantations. The flightless Trechus obtusus (3.8 mm) was the most abundant species in the soil samples and its population density did not differ significantly between the three stages in the forestry cycle. The winged, highly surface-active species that were early colonisers of clear felled sites and formed a high proportion of the pitfall catch were present at low densities only. The peak in carabid density and diversity coincided with the stage at which the ground flora was most diverse (in both species and structure) and the densities of other soil surface macro-invertebrates were highest. The high carabid density in the young plantations coincided with a the presence of a relatively high proportion of larger carabids ( > 5.9 mm) and it is suggested that the increased carabid biomass m -2 could reflect increased prey availability. The density of winged individuals was higher in the soil samples of carabids from the young plantations than from the clear felled areas and this is attributed to a build up over time of colonising species, adapted to exploiting the short-lived open habitat stage. Species that overwinter in the adult stage were more abundant in the young than in the old plantations and it is suggested that these species are favoured by the relatively high summer daytime temperatures of the open habitat. The interpretation of the successional sequence in the Carabidae was enhanced by the use of heat extraction sampling in conjunction with pitfall catches.

Carabid community succession during the forestry cycle in conifer plantations

1. The phenology of Neophilaenus lineatus (Homoptera: Cercopidae) was studied along altitudinal and latitudinal transects in the UK. The response of the life cycle to these existing temperature gradients has been used to predict the likely effects of future climatic warming. 2. The date of spring egg hatch varied by a maximum of 4 weeks across the altitudinal gradient (440 m) and by 2 weeks in different years of the study. Autumn and winter temperatures do not determine hatching date because the eggs are in diapause during this period. It is only when the eggs terminate diapause in early spring that temperature differences between years and altitudes (or as a result of climatic warming) start to affect the date of egg hatch. 3. The delayed egg hatching with increasing altitude meant that the start of nymphal development was later at higher altitudes. The development rate of nymphs at higher altitudes was not significantly different from that at lower altitudes because the altitudinal lag in temperature was partially compensated for by the more advanced state of the season. Annual differences in spring and summer temperatures resulted in variations in nymphal development rate between years, with a 1 °C temperature rise shortening nymphal development by 3·5 days. 4. The appearance of adults was delayed by 5·6 days for every 100 m increase in altitude, largely as a consequence of the later egg hatch at higher altitudes. The later appearance of the adults at higher altitudes and in colder years, reduces the length of the potential oviposition period as females are killed by autumn frosts. Climatic warming would expand the length of the oviposition period and thus increase the upper altitude limits of N. lineatus. 5. A 4·5 ° latitude difference within the UK appeared to have little effect on the timing of development in N. lineatus, possibly as a result of a geographical cline in temperature or photoperiod response. 6. Annual insects, such as N. lineatus, are likely to show a relatively small geographical displacement as a consequence of climatic warming. This is because of the temperature mitigating responses of diapause and the relative stability of the length of the development period over wide altitudinal and latitudinal ranges.

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1365-2435.1999.00009.x

Predicting responses to climate change: the effect of altitude and latitude on the phenology of the Spittlebug Neophilaenus lineatus

During a two year period 13498 individuals of 66 species of carabids were taken from 44 sites on peat and upland grasslands over an altitude range of 11-847 m in the north of England. The similarities between the carabid faunas of each site have been assessed using a modified form of the Sorensen's Index and the sites clustered according to their similarities. Five carabid communities on peat and three on mineral soils have been identified and the more abundant species have been used to characterise them. Peat Community I occurs on dry heath and is characterised by peat associated species such as Trichocellus cognatus and Bradycellus ruficollis together with widespread open habitat species such as Pterostichus madidus, Notiophilus aquaticus, Calathus melanocephalus and Nebria salina. Peat Community II is found on areas where dry heath and deep wet peat are adjacent and is characterised by the species already mentioned together with typical wet habitat species such as Pterostichus diligens, P. nigrita, Patrobus assimilis. Agonum fuliginosum. Peat Community III is found on blanket bog and is characterised by the wet habitat species in the absence of the species present on the dry heath. Peat Community IV found on the lowland oligotrophic mires is characterised by the small number of species present and the addition of Pterostichus niger and Agonum ericeti to the few wet habitat species present. Peat Community V, on the scarp slope of Dun Fell, consists of the wet habitat species of Peat Community III together with Pterostichus madidus. Nebria salina, Notiophilus aquaticus and Calathus melanocephalus.



Grassland Community I, on the fell tops, is characterised by the presence of Nebria gyllenhali, Notiophilus germinyi and Patrobus assimitis. Grassland Community II and III are less clearly defined but Grassland Community II may be present on wetter sites than III and is characterised by the presence of Pterostichus nigrita, P. diligens and P. strennus together with Notiophilus biguttatus. N. aquaticus, Pterosfichus madidus and Patrobus afrorufus. Grassland Community III consists of the latter group of species together with Nebria salina, Calathus melanocephalus and Notiophilus aestuans. The number of grassland sites studied was small and there may be further communities on the upland grasslands.

Jennifer Butterfield

Papers

Herbivory in global climate change research: direct effects of rising temperature on insect herbivores

The use of head and bill length to sex live gulls Laridae

Carabid community succession during the forestry cycle in conifer plantations

Predicting responses to climate change: the effect of altitude and latitude on the phenology of the Spittlebug Neophilaenus lineatus

The carabid communities on peat and upland grasslands in northern England