Effects of industrial pollution and ambient air temperature on larval performance and population dynamics of Eriocrania leafminers (Lepidoptera)
: Kozlov, Mikhail V.; Zverev, Vitali
Publisher: Elsevier
: 2024
: Science of the Total Environment
: Science of The Total Environment
: 174342
: 946
: 0048-9697
: 1879-1026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174342
: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174342
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/457111777
Pollution is an integral part of global environmental change, yet the combined and interactive effects of pollution and climate on terrestrial ecosystems remain inadequately understood. This study aims to explore whether pollution alters the impacts of ambient air temperature on the population dynamics of herbivorous insects. Between 1995 and 2005, we studied populations of two closely related moths, Eriocrania semipurpurella and E. sangii, at eight sites located 1 to 64 km from a large copper‑nickel smelter in Monchegorsk, Russia. We found that pollution and temperature influence the performance of Eriocrania larvae mining in the leaves of mountain birch, Betula pubescens var. pumila, through multiple pathways. This is evident from the unconsistent changes observed in larval and frass weight, mine area, and leaf size. We found increases in both leaf quality and larval weight with decreasing pollution levels at both spatial and temporal scales and attributed these to the impact of sulphur dioxide, rather than trace elements (nickel and copper). The quality of birch leaves increased with spring (May) temperatures, enabling Eriocrania larvae to achieve greater weight while consuming less biomass. During the larval growth period (early June to early July), Eriocrania larvae increased their consumption with rising temperatures, presumably to compensate for increased metabolic expenses. Contrary to our expectations, the per capita rate of population change did not correlate with larval weight and did not vary along the pollution gradient. Nevertheless, we detected interactive effects of pollution and climate on the rate of population change. This rate decreased with rising winter temperatures in slightly polluted and unpolluted sites but remained unchanged in heavily polluted sites. We conclude that pollution disrupts mechanisms regulating the natural population dynamics of Eriocrania moths.
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The study was supported by the Research Council of Finland (projects 122133, 211662, 213969, 214824, and researcher posts of M. Kozlov), EC through the BASIS and BALANCE projects carried out under contracts ENV4-CT97-0637 and EVK2-2002-00169, Turku University Foundation and Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation.
