Concurrent anthropogenic air pollutants enhance recruitment of a specialist parasitoid.

ABSTRACT: Air pollutants-such as nitrogen oxides, emitted in diesel exhaust, and ozone (O₃)-disrupt interactions between plants, the insect herbivore pests that feed upon them and natural enemies of those herbivores (e.g. parasitoids). Using eight field-based rings that emit regulated quantities of diesel exhaust and O₃, we investigated how both pollutants, individually and in combination, altered the attraction and parasitism rate of a specialist parasitoid (Diaeretiella rapae) on aphid-infested and un-infested Brassica napus plants. Individual effects of O₃ decreased D. rapae abundance and emergence by 37% and 55%, respectively, compared with ambient (control) conditions. When O₃ and diesel exhaust were emitted concomitantly, D. r

SUBMITTER: Ryalls JMW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9653229 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature