Abstract
Climate warming has a remarkable effect on the distribution, phenology, and development of insects. Although the embryonic development and phenology of non-diapause grasshopper species are more susceptible to warming than those of diapause species, the responses of developmental traits in conspecifically different populations to climate warming remain unknown. Here, we compared the mtDNA sequences and embryonic development of eight populations of grasshopper species (Chorthippus dubius) in field-based manipulated warming and laboratory experiments. The mtDNA sequences showed a significant genetic differentiation of the southernmost population from the other seven populations on the Mongolian Plateau. The embryonic development of the southernmost population was significantly slower than those of the northern populations at the same incubation temperatures. Interestingly, laboratory experiments showed that a significant difference exists in the effective accumulated degree days (EADD) but not in the lower development threshold temperatures (LDTT) among the different populations. The high-latitude populations required less EADD than the low-latitude populations. The warming treatments significantly accelerated the embryonic development in the field and decreased duration from embryos to hatchlings of all eight populations in the incubation. In addition, warming treatments in field significantly increased EADD requirement per stage in the incubation. Linear regression model confirmed that the embryonic development characteristics of eight populations were correlated with the annual mean temperature and total precipitation of embryonic development duration. The results indicated that grasshopper species have evolved a strategy of adjusting their EADD but not their LDTT to adapt to temperature changes. The variations in the EADD among the different populations enabled the grasshopper eggs to buffer the influences of higher temperatures on development and preserve their univoltine nature in temperate regions while encountering warmer climatic conditions. Thus, the findings of this study is valuable for our understanding species variation and evolution, and as such has direct implication for modeling biological response to climate warming.
Highlights
The responses of the developmental rates of insects to climate warming are a major issue in ecology, contributing to the understanding and prediction of the distributions, phenological patterns and diversity conservation of insects under conditions of global change (Deutsch et al, 2008; Duffy et al, 2015; GarciaRobledo et al, 2016)
Pearson correlations were calculated between a series of developmental parameters and the annual mean temperature (AMT), mean temperature of embryonic development duration (MTEDD), annual total precipitation (ATP), and mean precipitation of embryonic development duration (MPEDD), respectively
The median-joining haplotype network displayed no split among populations (Figure 2A), these population samples represent a latitudinal gradient of approximately 10◦
Summary
The responses of the developmental rates of insects to climate warming are a major issue in ecology, contributing to the understanding and prediction of the distributions, phenological patterns and diversity conservation of insects under conditions of global change (Deutsch et al, 2008; Duffy et al, 2015; GarciaRobledo et al, 2016). 63% of 35 non-migrating butterfly species in Europe expanded their distributions northward by 35–240 km (Parmesan et al, 1999). These aspects are associated with the developmental rate shift of a given species and environmental temperature variations, especially the developmental rate of the insect species, which is highly correlated with the physiological and ecological traits of the insect. The underlying mechanism that only certain groups of insect species expand their distributions or advance their phenologies while others do not is not clear
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