Contrasting effects of climate warming on host-parasitoid interactions:
insights from Rocky Mountain aspen leaf miners and their parasitoids
Abstract
Because temperature has pervasive effects on biological rates, climate
warming may alter the outcomes of interactions between insect hosts and
their parasitoids, which, for many host species, constitute the single
largest source of mortality. Many studies report that climate warming is
depressing the performance of parasitoids more than that of hosts. We
examined this consensus by assessing the thermal ecology of a
host-parasitoid interaction in the Rocky Mountains using wild
populations of the aspen leaf miner (Phyllocnistis populiella) and a set
of eulophid wasps that attack them. Host and wasp development rates were
differentially sensitive to temperature. In addition, upper thermal
limits in adult wasps were lower than those of host caterpillars, and
wasps preferred low temperatures in choice experiments. When coupled to
simulations of leaf microclimates in aspen canopies, these observations
suggest, contrary to expectations, that climate warming is likely to
benefit parasitoids at the expense of hosts.