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1200 years of regular outbreaks in alpine insects.

ABSTRACT: The long-term history of Zeiraphera diniana Gn. (the larch budmoth, LBM) outbreaks was reconstructed from tree rings of host subalpine larch in the European Alps. This record was derived from 47513 maximum latewood density measurements, and highlights the impact of contemporary climate change on ecological disturbance regimes. With over 1000 generations represented, this is the longest annually resolved record of herbivore population dynamics, and our analysis demonstrates that remarkably regular LBM fluctuations persisted over the past 1173 years with population peaks averaging every 9.3 years. These regular abundance oscillations recurred until 1981, with the absence of peak events during recent decades. Comparison with an annually resolved, millennium-long temperature reconstruction representative for the European Alps (r=0.72, correlation with instrumental data) demonstrates that regular insect population cycles continued despite major climatic changes related to warming during medieval times and cooling during the Little Ice Age. The late twentieth century absence of LBM outbreaks, however, corresponds to a period of regional warmth that is exceptional with respect to the last 1000+ years, suggesting vulnerability of an otherwise stable ecological system in a warming environment.

SUBMITTER: Esper J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2197206 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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1200 years of regular outbreaks in alpine insects.

Esper Jan J Büntgen Ulf U Frank David C DC Nievergelt Daniel D Liebhold Andrew A

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20070301 1610

The long-term history of Zeiraphera diniana Gn. (the larch budmoth, LBM) outbreaks was reconstructed from tree rings of host subalpine larch in the European Alps. This record was derived from 47513 maximum latewood density measurements, and highlights the impact of contemporary climate change on ecological disturbance regimes. With over 1000 generations represented, this is the longest annually resolved record of herbivore population dynamics, and our analysis demonstrates that remarkably regula ...[more]

PMID: 17254991

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Project description:With their high persistence in the environment and their potential for long-range atmospheric transport, persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals (PBTs) may be among the numerous anthropogenic threats to insect populations worldwide. The effects of PBTs on insects have been investigated in the laboratory, but topical field studies are scarce. A reason might be the multiple challenges faced by PBT-related field studies on wild insects. We studied two species of bumblebees (Bombus spp.) and of ants (Formica spp.) in two high-elevation locations in the Austrian and German Alps to tackle two of these challenges. First, PBTs occur in minuscule concentrations compared with other substances in the environment. Therefore, the practicability of body burden data from pooled individuals was tested. Second, fitness proxies like fecundity, which typically are endpoints for chemical toxicity, are difficult to quantify in the field. Hence, fluctuating asymmetry of bumblebee wings and ant heads was tested as an alternative endpoint. To exclude the possibility that fluctuating asymmetry was caused by genetic stressors, inbreeding levels were estimated using population-genetic markers, and their relationships to fluctuating asymmetry in the same individuals were assessed. We successfully quantified polychlorinated biphenyls and Hg as PBTs using the pooled samples and found PBT data from pooled individuals useful, in that significant correlations to fluctuating asymmetry were identified in bumblebees and ants. This finding confirmed the potential of fluctuating asymmetry to indicate PBT effects in wild insects. Inbreeding did not interfere with PBT links to fluctuating asymmetry in any instance. Our findings contribute to the development of a quantitative methodological framework for investigating the effects of persistent environmental chemicals on wild insects. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:1215-1227. © 2022 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.

Dataset Information

1200 years of regular outbreaks in alpine insects.

Publications

1200 years of regular outbreaks in alpine insects.

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