Artificial light at night causes diapause inhibition and sex-specific life history changes in a moth

Rapidly increasing levels of light pollution subject nocturnal organisms to major alterations of their habitat, the ecological consequences of which are largely unknown. Moths are well-known to be attracted to light at night, but effects of light on other aspects of moth ecology, such as larval development and life-history, remain unknown. Such effects may have important consequences for fitness and thus for moth population sizes. To study the effects of artificial night lighting on development and life-history of moths, we experimentally subjected Mamestra brassicae (Noctuidae) caterpillars to low intensity green, white, red or no artificial light at night and determined their growth rate, maximum caterpillar mass, age at pupation, pupal mass and pupation duration. We found sex-specific effects of artificial light on caterpillar life-history, with male caterpillars subjected to green and white light reaching a lower maximum mass, pupating earlier and obtaining a lower pupal mass than male caterpillars under red light or in darkness. These effects can have major implications for fitness, but were absent in female caterpillars. Moreover, by the time that the first adult moth from the dark control treatment emerged from its pupa (after 110 days), about 85% of the moths that were under green light and 83% of the moths that were under white light had already emerged. These differences in pupation duration occurred in both sexes and were highly significant, and likely result from diapause inhibition by artificial night lighting. We conclude that low levels of nocturnal illumination can disrupt life-histories in moths and inhibit the initiation of pupal diapause. This may result in reduced fitness and increased mortality. The application of red light, instead of white or green light, might be an appropriate measure to mitigate negative artificial light effects on moth life history

Lack of local adaptation of feeding and calling behaviours by Yponomeuta cagnagellus moths in response to artificial light at night

Environmental Biolog

Plants on the move: plant-soil interactions in poleward shifting plant species

As a result of recent global climate change, areas that have previously been climatically unsuitable for species have now become suitable new habitats. Many plant-species are expanding their range polewards, colonizing these newly available areas. If these species are able to expand their range faster than their natural enemies they can become released from these limiting factors. A similar mechanism has been reported for invasive plant species, introduced into foreign continent, which are often found to be released from natural enemies. An example of an invasive plant species that is introduced into a foreing contintinent is Carpobrotus edulis. This species was found to be negatively affected by the soil community collected in the native range, while the soil communities from the invaded range did not have an effect on plant performance compared to a sterilized control. I hypothesized that a similar reduction of the negative effects of the soil community can occur when plant species shift their range. This hypothesis was tested in a greenhouse experiment. I compared plant-soil feedbacks of three plant species that have recently expanded their range into The Netherlands, with three related native species. The non-native species experienced a significantly less negative effect of plant-soil feedback than the native plant species. Concurrently with these range shifts local climate is changing and this might affect plant-soil feedback as well. In order to test this plant-soil feedbacks of six range expanding and six related native species were compared at two temperatures, 20°C and 25°C daytime temperature. While again native species showed a more negative plant-soil feedback than the non-native species, temperature did not affect the strength or direction of plant-soil feedback. Besides pair wise comparisons between native and non-native species in the invaded range, comparisons between the native and non-native range of a range expanding plant can be used to test for effects of range shifts on plant-soil interactions. Rhizosphere soil was collected from populations of Tragopogon dubius in both the native and the recently colonized range. The soil communities from the native range had a more negative effect on plant performance than the soil communities from the invaded range as compared to sterilized controls. T. pratensis, which is native to the entire studied range, did not show this pattern. As plant-soil interactions are the net effect of many positive and negative factors the less negative effect of plant-soil feedback can be either a result of more positive or less negative effects of the soil community. One of the mutualistic groups of organisms, the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are known to be a major factor contributing to ecosystem functioning and to the maintenance of plant biodiversity and the most important soil-borne mutualists for many plants. I therefore focus on this group of soil organisms. I compared the association of T.dubius with AMF in the new part of its range with T. pratensis native to this area. Three measures for plant-fungal affinity were compared between these two plant species; the density of AMF propagules able to colonize the plant, the percentage of root length colonized by arbuscular mycorrhiza, and the composition of the resulting AMF community in the roots. This was done for four replicate soil inocula from different sites in The Netherlands. The two plant species did not differ in any of the tested factors. As there are no differences in the association with the most important mutualist the observed differences in plant-soil interaction are likely an effect of release from negative components in the soil community, e.g. soil pathogens, but further studies are needed to test this. Alterations in biotic interactions, through climate change and range shifts, such as a release of soil-borne natural enemies, can have significant effects on the performance of plants. Predictions of future ranges and impact of range expanding plant species on invaded ecosystems can therefore not be accurately made without a thorough understanding of its biotic interactions and the way these interactions are changed by the range shifts. <br/

Strong recovery of dragonflies in recent decades in The Netherlands

Many dragonfly species in The Netherlands declined in the 20th century because of acidification, eutrophication, and desiccation of lotic and lentic habitats and canalization of streams and rivers. These pressures peaked in the 1970s, when 26 of 65 native species had an unfavorable conservation status on the 1997 Dutch Red List. Since the 1980s, environmental regulations have led to improved water quality, and any habitat restoration projects have been carried out. We used standardized monitoring data (1999–2013) and unstandardized observations (1991–2013) to investigate how dragonflies have changed in the last 20 y on a national scale. We compared trends of dragonfly species from different habitat types and with southern vs northern distribution in Europe. Dragonflies recovered strongly in The Netherlands in a period of ~20 y, probably because of recent habitat improvements. Lotic species have benefitted more than lentic species, and southern species have more positive trends than northern species, suggesting that climate change has contributed to the recovery. Dragonflies were resilient and able to quickly recover when their habitats were restored. Recovery has led to a better conservation status for many species. Unstandardized data delivered results consistent with those from monitoring data and had greater statistical power to detect trends because many more unstandardized data than standardized data were available. Thus, when the goal is to provide a general overview of changes in dragonflies, unstandardized data can outperform standardized abundance data. However, abundance data may deliver complementary information for individual species. Our results support the suitability of dragonflies as indicators of freshwater habitat condition, but they recover more strongly in The Netherlands than many other insects, possibly because of their higher dispersal abilities or different habitat requirements

Is male puddling behaviour of tropical butterflies targeted at sodium for nuptial gifts or activity?

An apparent sexual difference in adult feeding behaviour in many species of Lepidoptera relates to puddling on mud, dung and carrion. In most butterfly species, puddling is exclusively a male behaviour. A possible explanation for this division in feeding behaviour is that nutrients derived from puddling are transferred to the female in the spermatophore during mating as a nuptial gift. Sodium derived from puddling has been shown to act as a nuptial gift in a few Lepidoptera species. It can also be used for neuromuscular activity in both males and females and may therefore correlate with flight morphology. In this study, we examine the generality of these two hypotheses in comparative work on a community of African fruit-feeding butterflies. We investigated puddling behaviour of males and females on carrion and dung together with sodium preferences, polyandry, relative wing-size, sexual size dimorphism and sodium concentrations in the bodies and spermatophores of several species. The results show that sodium as a nuptial gift can explain the sexual division in puddling in some species, but not in all. Species in which both sexes puddle transfer little sodium in the nuptial gift, which is consistent with the nuptial gift theory. Wing loading and puddling are not significantly correlated, but the trend followed the direction predicted by the activity hypothesis. However, the sodium concentration in the species with the smallest wing area to thoracic volume (WA/TV) ratio (the largest Charaxes spp.), was relatively low. Moreover, in all investigated species, the sodium concentration was higher in the abdomen than in the thorax. The results are discussed in the light of differences between the sexes in foraging behaviour in both larvae and adults, and with respect to alternative explanations for puddlin

Release from soil pathogens plays an important role in the success of invasive Carpobrotus in the Mediterranean

Introduced plant species can become locally dominant and threaten native flora and fauna. This dominance is often thought to be a result of release from specialist enemies in the invaded range, or the evolution of increased competitive ability. Soil borne microorganisms have often been overlooked as enemies in this context, but a less deleterious plant soil interaction in the invaded range could explain local dominance. Two plant species, Carpobrotus edulis and the hybrid Carpobrotus X cf. acinaciformis, are considered major pests in the Mediterranean basin. We tested if release from soil-borne enemies and/or evolution of increased competitive ability could explain this dominance. Comparing biomass production in non-sterile soil with that in sterilized soil, we found that inoculation with rhizosphere soil from the native range reduced biomass production by 32% while inoculation with rhizosphere soil from the invaded range did not have a significant effect on plant biomass. Genotypes from the invaded range, including a hybrid, did not perform better than plants from the native range in sterile soil. Hence evolution of increased competitive ability and hybridization do not seem to play a major role. We conclude that the reduced negative net impact of the soil community in the invaded range may contribute to the success of Carpobrotus species in the Mediterranean basin

Plant–soil interactions in the expansion and native range of a poleward shifting plant species

Climate warming causes range shifts of many species toward higher latitudes and altitudes. However, range shifts of host species do not necessarily proceed at the same rates as those of their enemies and symbionts. Here, we examined how a range shifting plant species performs in soil from its original range in comparison with soil from the expansion range. Tragopogon dubius is currently expanding from southern into north-western Europe and we examined how this plant species responds to soil communities from its original and expansion ranges. We compared the performance of T. dubius with that of the closely related Tragopogon pratensis, which has a natural occurrence along the entire latitudinal gradient. Inoculation with the rhizosphere soil from T. dubius populations of the original range had a more negative effect on plant biomass production than inoculation with rhizosphere soil from the expansion range. Interestingly, the nonrange expander T. pratensis experienced a net negative soil effect throughout this entire range. The effects observed in this species pair may be due to release from soil born enemies or accumulation of beneficial soil born organisms. If this phenomenon applies broadly to other species, then range expansion may enable plants species to show enhanced performance.

Plant-soil interactions in the expansion and native range of a poleward shifting plant species

Climate warming causes range shifts of many species toward higher latitudes and altitudes. However, range shifts of host species do not necessarily proceed at the same rates as those of their enemies and symbionts. Here, we examined how a range shifting plant species performs in soil from its original range in comparison with soil from the expansion range. Tragopogon dubius is currently expanding from southern into north-western Europe and we examined how this plant species responds to soil communities from its original and expansion ranges. We compared the performance of T. dubius with that of the closely related Tragopogon pratensis, which has a natural occurrence along the entire latitudinal gradient. Inoculation with the rhizosphere soil from T. dubius populations of the original range had a more negative effect on plant biomass production than inoculation with rhizosphere soil from the expansion range. Interestingly, the nonrange expander T. pratensis experienced a net negative soil effect throughout this entire range. The effects observed in this species pair may be due to release from soil born enemies or accumulation of beneficial soil born organisms. If this phenomenon applies broadly to other species, then range expansion may enable plants species to show enhanced performanc