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Abstract
Climate warming is predicted to affect species and trophic interactions worldwide, and alpine ecosystems are expected to be especially sensitive to changes. In this study, we used two ongoing climate warming (open‐top chambers) experiments at Finse, southern Norway, to examine whether warming had an effect on herbivory by leaf‐chewing insects in an alpine Dryas heath community. We recorded feeding marks on the most common vascular plant species in warmed and control plots at two experimental sites at different elevations and carried out a brief inventory of insect herbivores. Experimental warming increased herbivory on Dryas octopetala and Bistorta vivipara. Dryas octopetala also experienced increased herbivory at the lower and warmer site, indicating an overall positive effect of warming, whereas B. vivipara experienced an increased herbivory at the colder and higher site indicating a mixed effect of warming. The Lepidoptera Zygaena exulans and Sympistis nigrita were the two most common leaf‐chewing insects in the Dryas heath. Based on the observed patterns of herbivory, the insects life cycles and feeding preferences, we argue that Z. exulans is the most important herbivore on B. vivipara, and S. nigrita the most important herbivore on D. octopetala. We conclude that if the degree of insect herbivory increases in a warmer world, as suggested by this study and others, complex interactions between plants, insects, and site‐specific conditions make it hard to predict overall effects on plant communities.
Highlights
Global warming is pronounced in northern areas, and mean temperatures are predicted to increase by 0.3–4.8°C by year 2100 (IPCC, 2013)
The remaining marks were found on S. reticulata, Salix herbacea, Vaccinium uliginosum, Saussurea alpina, Parnassia palustris, Poa alpina, Ranunculus acris, Thalictrum alpinum, Tofieldia pusilla, and Carex sp., but were too few to allow for statistical analysis
We have shown that both Dryas octopetala and Bistorta vivipara experienced increased insect herbivory with experimental warming
Summary
Global warming is pronounced in northern areas, and mean temperatures are predicted to increase by 0.3–4.8°C by year 2100 (IPCC, 2013). Many species have expanded their distributions to higher altitudes and latitudes (Klanderud and Birks 2003; Pauli et al 2012; Grytnes et al 2014), and plant phenology is changing with increasing temperature (Oberbauer et al 2013) Some functional groups, such as shrubs and graminoids, are increasing in abundance in many areas, whereas others, such as dwarf shrubs, are decreasing (Klanderud and Totland 2005; Walker et al 2006; Elmendorf et al 2012a,b). Reasons for this inconsistency are suggested to result from interactions with other driving factors, such as site-specific conditions of snow, soil moisture, or herbivore pressure (Elmendorf et al 2012a,b; Grytnes et al 2014)
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