Sagehen Creek Field Station

10 Jul, 08 AM - 18 Jul, 03 AM

Over half of all described organisms in the world are involved in plant-insect-parasitoid interactions, yet basic ecological assumptions about these interactions have not been documented due to a lack of coordinated long term studies across multiple sites. This long term research expand and continue the current ecological study of plant-caterpillar-parasitoid interactions at sites across the Americas, with a focus on starting a new database in the Sierra Nevada and the Great Basin in California and Nevada. The data will be used along with data from other sites to test a broad array of hypotheses that require long-term and large-scale data sets. This work focuses on two general hypotheses: 1) extreme weather events disrupt tritrophic interactions leading to herbivore outbreaks, and 2) there is a latitudinal gradient in dietary specialization. The focal groups for which these hypotheses will be tested are parasitoids (parasitic Hymenoptera and Diptera), the caterpillars they attack (Lepidoptera), and the caterpillars? host plants. There are two clear empirical gaps in the ecology of climate change and diversity gradients. First, while there is much concern about mean changes in global climate, the impact of climatic variability itself on species interactions has been little explored. It is difficult to make specific predictions as to how climates will change and how these changes will impact specific herbivore-parasitoid associations. Our multi-site, long-term monitoring of herbivores and their associated parasitoids in response to climate is necessary to predict the responses of ecological communities to climatic variability. Second, a major challenge in community ecology and evolutionary biogeography is to reveal the mechanisms underlying the latitudinal gradient in diversity. For herbivorous and parasitic insects, one such mechanism leading to an increased number of tropical species could be increased ecological specialization, resulting in a greater proportion of insect species occupying narrow niches within tropical communities. The research will add to one of the few extensive data sets appropriate for testing a latitudinal gradient in insect specialization.

Visit #18324 @Sagehen Creek Field Station

Approved

Under Project # 10622 | Research

Climate change and multi-trophic interactions.

faculty - University of Nevada

Reservation Members(s)

lee dyer Jul 10 - 18, 2009 (9 days)
lee dyer Jul 10 - 18, 2009 (9 days)
Group of 9 Volunteer Jul 10 - 18, 2009 (9 days)

Reserve Resources(s) | Create Invoice

Classroom 11 Jul 10 - 18, 2009
Lab / Classroom 11 Jul 10 - 18, 2009
North Cabin (Upper Camp) 11 Jul 10 - 18, 2009
South Cabin (Upper Camp) 11 Jul 10 - 18, 2009