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Thermal biology of the alien ground beetle Merizodus soledadinus introduced to the Kerguelen Islands

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Abstract

Thermal tolerance is one of the major determinants of successful establishment and spread of invasive aliens. Merizodus soledadinus (Coleoptera, Carabidae) was accidentally introduced to Kerguelen from the Falkland Islands in 1913. On Kerguelen, the climate is cooler than the Falklands Islands but has been getting warmer since the 1990s, in synchrony with the rapid expansion of M. soledadinus. We aimed to investigate the thermal sensitivity in adults of M. soledadinus and hypothesised that climate warming has assisted the colonisation process of M. soledadinus. We examined (1) survival of constant low temperatures and at fluctuating thermal regimes, (2) the critical thermal limits (CTmin and CTmax) of acclimated individuals (4, 8 and 16°C), (3) the metabolic rates of acclimated adults at temperatures from 0 to 16°C. The FTRs moderately increased the duration of survival compared to constant cold exposure. M. soledadinus exhibited an activity window ranged from −5.5 ± 0.3 to 38 ± 0.5°C. The Q 10 after acclimation to temperatures ranging from 0 to 16°C was 2.49. Our work shows that this species is only moderately cold tolerant with little thermal plasticity. The CTmin of M. soledadinus are close to the low temperatures experienced in winter on Kerguelen Islands, but the CTmax are well above summer conditions, suggesting that this species has abundant scope to deal with current climate change.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs that funded the travel of D. Renault from France to Canada (French–Canada scientific cooperation). The work in Canada was funded by NSERC and Canadian Foundation for Innovation grants to BJS. This research was supported by the Institut Polaire Francais (IPEV, programme 136 coordinated by Marc Lebouvier), the CNRS (Zone-Atelier de Recherches sur l’Environnement Antarctique et Subantarctique), and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-07-VULN-004, Vulnerability of native communities to invasive insects and climate change in sub-Antarctic Islands, EVINCE). We also thank Peter Convey, Steve Colwell and Thomas Bracegirdlle (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge UK) for the meteorological data from the Falklands Islands. This research is linked with the SCAR Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic research programme. We thank Jeff Bale for the jacketed glass cylinder and Roger Worland and an anonymous referee for comments that improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Rennes 1, UMR CNRS 6553, 263 Avenue du Gal Leclerc, CS 74205, 35042, Rennes Cedex, France

    L. Lalouette & D. Renault

  2. Department of Biology, The University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond Street, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada

    C. M. Williams & B. J. Sinclair

  3. Université de Strasbourg IPHC, UMR CNRS 7178, 23 Rue Becquerel, 67087, Strasbourg, France

    M. Cottin

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  1. L. Lalouette
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Correspondence to L. Lalouette.

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Lalouette, L., Williams, C.M., Cottin, M. et al. Thermal biology of the alien ground beetle Merizodus soledadinus introduced to the Kerguelen Islands. Polar Biol 35, 509–517 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-011-1096-9

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