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Aphids in a Changing World

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Aphid Biodiversity under Environmental Change

Abstract

When in 1824 the French mathematician Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier suggested that the Earth’s temperature was slowly increasing it was not readily accepted. Some years later Svante Arrhenius (1896) and Guy Callendar (1938) supported this hypothesis and added that the planet’s temperature is increasing due to man’s activities, in particular the production of CO2, which has a crucial role in this matter. Several authors question how global warming is going to affect the planet and life forms. This question is addressed here, in particular how it is likely to influence aphids. Will they move to different locations, adapt to the change in conditions in their current habitat or go extinct? An analysis of the literature on the reactions to the sort of changes aphids will be exposed to in global change scenarios revealed that the results are contradictory, indicating positive, negative or no effect. The consensus is that it is extremely difficult to do experiments that simulate future conditions, especially when more than one parameter is considered. Nevertheless, the paleontological data provide a good record of how insects have responded to previous climatic changes. The evidence indicates that aphids are most likely to move to different geographical locations in order to track more suitable conditions, which may be more difficult than in the past because of habitat fragmentation and habitat loss.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank to António Pombinho for his support and critical reading of the early versions of this manuscript. The paper also greatly benefited from discussions with Professor Tony Dixon. The work was supported by the grant No. LC 06073 of the MSMT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Theoretical Ecology, Institute of Systems Biology and Ecology AS CR, CZ-370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Olga M.C.C. Ameixa

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  1. Olga M.C.C. Ameixa
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Correspondence to Olga M.C.C. Ameixa .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Systems Biology & Ecology, Biodiversity Research Centre, ASCR Ceske Budejovice, Ceske Budejovice, 370 05, Czech Republic

    Pavel Kindlmann

  2. School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom

    A.F.G. Dixon

  3. , Department of Entomology, Kansas State Univeristy, 240th Ave. 1232, Hays, 67601, USA

    J.P. Michaud

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Ameixa, O.M. (2010). Aphids in a Changing World. In: Kindlmann, P., Dixon, A., Michaud, J. (eds) Aphid Biodiversity under Environmental Change. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8601-3_2

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