Increased fluctuation in a butterfly metapopulation leads to diploid males and decline of a hyperparasitoid.

ABSTRACT: Climate change can increase spatial synchrony of population dynamics, leading to large-scale fluctuation that destabilizes communities. High trophic level species such as parasitoids are disproportionally affected because they depend on unstable resources. Most parasitoid wasps have complementary sex determination, producing sterile males when inbred, which can theoretically lead to population extinction via the diploid male vortex (DMV). We examined this process empirically using a hyperparasitoid population inhabiting a spatially structured host population in a large fragmented landscape. Over four years of high host butterfly metapopulation fluctuation, diploid male production by the wasp increased, and effective population size declined precipitously. Our multitrophic spatially structu

SUBMITTER: Nair A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6125898 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature