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Interannual dynamics of aerial and arboreal green spruce aphid populations

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Population Ecology

Abstract

Partial defoliation of spruce by the green spruce aphid Elatobium abietinum (Walker) is a recurrent event in European and, increasingly, North American forests. The patterns of insect abundance on trees have never been satisfactorily described by a numerical model despite considerable knowledge of endogenous and exogenous factors in the population dynamics of the species. Long-term field population estimates of the aphid on foliage provided the opportunity to evaluate such a model. Unlike comparable models for tree-dwelling aphids, this was also applicable to almost completely independent aphid field data derived from the Rothamsted Insect Survey’s nationwide network of suction traps. Although based on relatively few parameters, the model was robust in its predictions of alate aphids geographically remote from the forest in which the original population was estimated. The population maximum, which causes the greatest forest damage, is reached in early summer and can be predicted from knowledge of winter temperature (chill bouts), spring temperature (thermal sum), and interannual negative feedback (density dependence). The model provides confirmation that alate populations of spruce aphids, upon which a number of other extensive studies have been based, are ultimately influenced by similar endogenous and climatic factors and that they are a reasonable proxy for aphids on trees.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency for permission to use data from the Edinburgh (East Craigs) suction trap, and to all of the suction-trap operators and aphid identifiers. Rothamsted Research receives grant-aided support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom. The authors are also grateful for constructive comments on earlier versions of the manuscript made by David Griffiths, Nigel Straw, and Ian Woiwod. The fieldwork associated with this research complied with the current laws of the United Kingdom.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine, BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland, UK

    Keith Richard Day

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA

    Matthew P. Ayres

  3. Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, UK

    Richard Harrington

  4. School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, CF10 3US, UK

    Neil A. C. Kidd

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  1. Keith Richard Day
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Correspondence to Keith Richard Day.

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Day, K.R., Ayres, M.P., Harrington, R. et al. Interannual dynamics of aerial and arboreal green spruce aphid populations. Popul Ecol 52, 317–327 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-009-0190-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-009-0190-0

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