Publication details
Body size but not predation risk modulate life history responses to warming in mayfly larvae
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Understanding the effects of temperature on individual life histories and species interactions is essential to predict the impact of the ongoing climate change on entire communities. Life histories of ectotherms are primarily driven by temperature. Moreover, many species respond strongly to predation risk, but the joint effects of temperature and predation risk are virtually unknown. We focused on life history responses of the larvae of mayfly Cloeon dipterum to different temperature conditions exposed to predation risk cues by dragonfly larvae. We ran a full-factorial laboratory experiment with a gradient of four temperatures covering current and future expected environmental conditions (18–27 °C) crossed with presence/absence of predation risk cues. We reared the mayfly larvae individually under unlimited food conditions and followed them until emergence. Overall, individual growth rates, development time and size at maturation were affected by temperature and initial body size but not by predation risk. Individuals of the same size grew faster and had shorter development at higher temperatures as expected. Surprisingly, the response of body size to temperature was unimodal with maximum size at intermediate temperature. Moreover, the effect of initial body size differed between sexes and temperatures. Our results show that aspects of individual ontogeny may overshadow biotic interactions in individual responses of ectotherms to climate change. |