Li, D. orcid.org/0000-0003-0471-7917, Brough, B., Rees, J.W. et al. (4 more authors) (2024) Humidity modifies species-specific and age-dependent heat stress effects in an insect host-parasitoid interaction. Ecology and Evolution, 14 (7). e70047. ISSN 2045-7758
Abstract
Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events, and may increase humidity levels, leading to coupled thermal and hydric stress. However, how humidity modulates the impacts of heat stress on species and their interactions is currently unknown. Using an insect host-parasitoid interaction: the Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella, and its endoparasitoid wasp, Venturia canescens, we investigated how humidity interacted with heat stress duration, applied at different host developmental stages, to affect life history traits. Hosts parasitized as 4th instar larvae and unparasitized hosts were maintained in high- (60.8% RH) or low-humidity (32.5% RH) at constant 28°C. They were then exposed to a 38°C thermal stress with a duration of 0 (no heat stress), 6 or 72 h in either the 4th or 5th host instar. Neither humidity nor heat stress duration affected emergence of unparasitized hosts, but increasing heat stress duration during the 4th instar decreased parasitoid emergence irrespective of humidity. When applied during the 5th instar, increasing heat duration decreased parasitoid emergence under low humidity, but no effect of heat stress was found under high humidity. Moreover, experiencing longer heat stress in the 4th instar increased host larval development time and decreased body size under high humidity, but this effect differed under low humidity; increasing heat duration in the 5th instar decreased parasitoid body sizes only under low humidity. Larval stage and heat stress duration directly affected parasitized host survival time, with a concomitant indirect reduction of parasitoid sizes. We show that humidity modifies key life history responses of hosts and parasitoids to heat stress in species-specific ways, highlighting the potential importance of humidity in regulating host-parasitoid interactions and their population dynamics. Finally, we emphasize that interactions between environmental stressors need to be considered in climate change research.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | bottom-up effect, environmental stress, extinction, insect decline, phenotypic traits, species interactions |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 Jul 2024 16:16 |
Last Modified: | 12 Aug 2024 12:23 |
Published Version: | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.7... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/ece3.70047 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:214704 |