Is winter coming? Climate change, parasitoids and associated trophic webs

Cécile Le Lann

Université de Rennes 1, France

Inter and intra annual environmental fluctuations, including those associated with climate change, can have a knock-on effect from individual to community scales. In particular, changes in species seasonal phenology can modify the structure and composition of communities, with potential consequences on their functioning and the provision of ecosystem services. In areas with milder winter climates, overwintering strategies of arthropods are likely to be altered with subsequent consequences on the interactions between hosts and parasitoids and associated trophic webs. We are studying plastic adjustments and local adaptations of cereal aphid parasitoids to these novel environmental stimuli to better understand the mechanisms behind their overwintering strategies (e.g. diapause) as well as consequences of winter warming on aphid-parasitoid food webs.