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Published on: November 21, 2015
Grasshopper community response to climatic change: variation along an elevational gradient.
César R Nufio1, Chris R McGuire, M Deane Bowers
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America. nufio@colorado.edu
Plos One
|October 2, 2010
Summary
Climate change advances grasshopper adulthood timing, especially at higher elevations. Warming trends directly correlate with earlier insect development, offering a mechanistic understanding of phenological shifts.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Climate Change Biology
- Entomology
Background:
- Climate change impacts on species phenology are widely documented but often correlational.
- Assessing causal links between climate shifts and phenological changes requires mechanistic studies.
- Grasshopper communities along an elevational gradient in Colorado provide a model system for this research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To mechanistically link climate warming to phenological advancements in grasshopper communities.
- To quantify the relationship between warming amount/timing and grasshopper development timing.
- To establish a process-oriented framework for predicting community phenological responses to climate change.
Main Methods:
- Comparison of historical (1959-1960) and recent (2006-2008) grasshopper community surveys.
- Analysis of daily temperature records across four elevational sites (1752 m to 3048 m).
- Quantification of phenological shifts in grasshopper adult emergence timing relative to warming patterns.
Main Results:
- Phenological advancement to adulthood was strongly dependent on the degree of local warming.
- Higher elevation sites experiencing the most warming showed significant grasshopper phenological advancements.
- Late-developing species exhibited the greatest advancement, correlating with increased late-season warming rates.
Conclusions:
- Warming amount and timing during the growing season are primary drivers of observed phenological variation.
- This study provides strong, process-based evidence linking climate change to community-level phenological shifts.
- Findings offer a predictive framework for understanding ecological responses to ongoing climate change.
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