Warming and drought combine to increase pest insect fitness on urban trees

PLoS One. 2017 Mar 9;12(3):e0173844. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173844. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Urban habitats are characterized by impervious surfaces, which increase temperatures and reduce water availability to plants. The effects of these conditions on herbivorous insects are not well understood, but may provide insight into future conditions. Three primary hypotheses have been proposed to explain why multiple herbivorous arthropods are more abundant and damaging in cities, and support has been found for each. First, less complex vegetation may reduce biological control of pests. Second, plant stress can increase plant quality for pests. And third, urban warming can directly increase pest fitness and abundance. These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, and the effects of temperature and plant stress are particularly related. Thus, we test the hypothesis that urban warming and drought stress combine to increase the fitness and abundance of the scale insect, Melanaspis tenebricosa, an urban tree pest that is more abundant in urban than rural areas of the southeastern U.S. We did this by manipulating drought stress across an existing mosaic of urban warming. We found support for the additive effect of temperature and drought stress such that female embryo production and body size increased with temperature and was greater on drought-stressed than watered trees. This study provides further evidence that drivers of pest insect outbreaks act in concert, rather than independently, and calls for more research that manipulates multiple abiotic factors related to urbanization and climate change to predict their effects on ecological interactions. As cities expand and the climate changes, warmer temperatures and drought conditions may become more widespread in the native range of this pest. These changes have direct physiological benefits for M. tenebricosa, and potentially other pests, that may increase their fitness and abundance in urban and natural forests.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Climate
  • Climate Change
  • Droughts*
  • Hemiptera / physiology*
  • Herbivory / physiology*
  • Host-Parasite Interactions*
  • Southeastern United States
  • Trees / growth & development
  • Trees / parasitology*
  • Urbanization*

Grants and funding

Raleigh Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources provided tree maps and approved this study. The project described in this publication was supported by Cooperative Agreement no. G11AC20471, G13AC00405, and G15AP00153 from the United States Geological Survey. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Southeast Climate Science Center or the USGS. This manuscript is submitted for publication with the understanding that the United States Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for governmental purposes. Funding for this work was also provided by a Southeast Climate Science Center graduate fellowship awarded to Adam Dale. This research was also supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2013-02476 to SDF. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.