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Life histories and production of three Rocky Mountain aquatic insects along an elevation-driven temperature gradient

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Abstract

Although temperature is known to influence individual traits such as growth, body size, and fecundity, few studies have examined how these relationships influence population-level secondary production in natural settings. We quantified life history traits and production of three dominant aquatic insects (Ephemeroptera: Ephemerella infrequens; Drunella doddsii; Trichoptera: Hydropsyche cockerelli) along an elevation-driven thermal gradient in the northern Rockies. We predicted that production would be highest at sites where temperature regimes lead to the largest terminal body size, individual fecundity, and reproductive potential (i.e., eggs per female x abundance of mature nymphs or larvae). In general, we found that temperature had idiosyncratic effects on life history traits of the study taxa, with no consistent effect of temperature on production. Although growth rates were generally highest during the warm months, growth did not consistently covary with temperature among sites along the elevation gradient. Terminal body size also differed among sites and was inconsistently related to mean temperature and reproductive potential. One of three taxa, D. doddsii, showed patterns entirely consistent with predictions, including smallest body size, reproductive potential, and secondary production at the warmest, low-elevation sites. Our findings suggest that connections among temperature regime, life history characteristics, and secondary production may not be straightforward, and are likely influenced by characteristics unmeasured in our study, including factors that influence survivorship throughout the larval phase, as well as adult mating or oviposition success. Such additional information will enrich our understanding of thermal effects on aquatic insects, and may contribute to predicting how these taxa may respond to ongoing changes in climate.

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Funding

Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology (Grant #1556684 to LKA and WFC), Montana State University’s Undergraduate Scholars and Work Study programs, and the Montana Institute on Ecosystems. Thank you to Thomas McMahon for his critiques, suggestions, and time. We greatly thank James Junker for his guidance with statistics, modeling, and R code; the Cross and Albertson lab members for their support; and all technicians and volunteers for their field and laboratory technical assistance.

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  1. Jennifer D. McCarty

    Present address: SWCA Environmental Consultants, Broomfield, CO, 80021, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, 59717, USA

    Jennifer D. McCarty, Wyatt F. Cross, Lindsey K. Albertson & Benjamin B. Tumolo

  2. Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Leonard S. Sklar

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Contributions

Conceptualization: Wyatt Cross; Methodology: Wyatt Cross and Jenny McCarty; Formal analysis and investigation: Jenny McCarty, Benjamin Tumulo, Wyatt Cross; Writing original draft: Jenny McCarty; Writing review and editing: Jenny McCarty, Benjamin Tumulo, Wyatt F. Cross, Lindsey Albertson, Leonard Sklar; Funding acquisition: Wyatt F. Cross, Lindsey Albertson, Leonard Sklar; Supervision: Wyatt F. Cross.

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McCarty, J.D., Cross, W.F., Albertson, L.K. et al. Life histories and production of three Rocky Mountain aquatic insects along an elevation-driven temperature gradient. Hydrobiologia 849, 3633–3652 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-04978-7

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