Altered rainfall patterns reduce plant fitness and disrupt interactions between below‐ and aboveground insect herbivores

Martin Aguirrebengoa,Rosa Menéndez,Adela González‐Megías,Caroline Müller

doi:10.1002/ecs2.3127

Martin Aguirrebengoa, Rosa Menéndez + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3127

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Abstract

AbstractEvidence is accumulating of the disruptive effects of climate change on species interactions. However, little is known about how changes in climate patterns, such as temporal shifts in rainfall events, will affect multitrophic interactions. Here, we investigated the effects of changes in rainfall patterns on the interactions between root herbivores, a plant, and its associated aboveground insects in a semiarid region by experimentally manipulating in the field rainfall intensity and frequency. We found that a shift in rainfall severely constrained biomass acquisition and flowering of the plant Moricandia moricandioides, resulting in fitness reduction. Importantly, enhanced rainfall affected the interactions between below‐ and some aboveground herbivores, disrupting the positive effects of root herbivores on chewing insects. The shifts in precipitation had also plant‐mediated consequences for planthoppers, the dominant sapsuckers in our study system. A combination of mechanisms involving biomass acquisition and plant defenses seemed to be responsible for the different responses of insects and their interactions with the plant. This study provides evidence that altered rainfall patterns due to climate change affect not only trophic groups differentially but also their interactions.

Highlights

Climate change is considered one of the most significant global change drivers (Tylianakis et al 2008, Valladares et al 2015)
Understanding and predicting how biotic interactions will respond to climate change remains a great challenge (Tylianakis et al 2008, Barnett and Facey 2016), since both disrupting (Durant et al 2007, Memmott et al 2007, Singer and Parmesan 2010) and strengthening effects of climate change on species interactions have been observed (O’Connor 2009)
We focus on understanding the impact of changes in rainfall patterns on the interactions between root herbivores, its host plant, and its associated aboveground herbivorous insects

Summary

Introduction

Climate change is considered one of the most significant global change drivers (Tylianakis et al 2008, Valladares et al 2015). Understanding and predicting how biotic interactions will respond to climate change remains a great challenge (Tylianakis et al 2008, Barnett and Facey 2016), since both disrupting (Durant et al 2007, Memmott et al 2007, Singer and Parmesan 2010) and strengthening effects of climate change on species interactions have been observed (O’Connor 2009). This variety of results arises partly since responses to climate change differ between trophic levels Arid and semiarid plants are up to a certain point resilient to changes in rainfall frequency and intensity (Miranda et al, 2009), the effects vary among plants depending on life cycle, rooting system, phenological state, and physiological and morphological readiness for water uptake and growth (Ogle and Reynolds 2004, Reynolds et al 2004, Yahdjian and Sala 2010, Zhang et al 2019)

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