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Timothy D Schowalter - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Insect Ecology : An Ecosystem Approach Ed. 4
    2016
    Co-Authors: Timothy D Schowalter
    Abstract:

    Insect Ecology: An Ecosystem Approach, Fourth Edition, follows a hierarchical organization that begins with relatively easy-to-understand chapters on adaptive responses of Insect populations to various environmental changes, disturbances, and anthropogenic activities, how Insects find food and habitat resources, and how Insects allocate available energy and nutrients. Chapters build on fundamental information to show how Insect populations respond to changing environmental conditions, including spatial and temporal distribution of food and habitat. The next section integrates populations of interacting species within communities and how these interactions determine structure of communities over time and space. Other works in Insect Ecology stop there, essentially limiting presentation of Insect Ecology to evolutionary responses of Insects to their environment, including the activities of other species. The unique aspect of this book is its four chapters on ecosystem structure and function, and how herbivores, pollinators, seed predators, and detritivores drive ecosystem dynamics and contribute to ecosystem stability.Provides the most advanced synthesis of Insect Ecology, with updated material throughout and new chaptersPresents the roles of Insects in delivery of ecosystem services and applications to pest management and conservationFeatures full coverage of ecosystem structure and function balanced with essential background on evolutionary aspectsIncludes case studies highlighting practical and theoretical applications for topics covered in each chapter

  • Chapter 18 – Summary and Synthesis
    Insect Ecology, 2016
    Co-Authors: Timothy D Schowalter
    Abstract:

    Insect Ecology addresses an astounding variety of interactions between Insects and their environment. A unifying theme is the diversity of positive and negative direct and indirect feedbacks that govern Insect responses to environmental changes and their potential regulation of primary production, energy and nutrient fluxes, and climate. Feedback integration among species and hierarchical levels occurs primarily through responses to variation in environmental conditions and functions to stabilize ecosystem conditions. Insect behavioral and physiological attributes that affect their interactions with all aspects of their environment are under genetic control. Evolution represents feedback on individual attributes that affect higher levels of organization. Insects contribute greatly to feedback between ecosystem properties and environmental variation. This aspect of Insect Ecology has important consequences for ecosystem responses to global changes resulting from anthropogenic activities. Advances in understanding of factors controlling patterns of species diversity, community assembly, and feedbacks between Insects and ecosystem dynamics will improve prediction of species responses to various environmental changes and resulting changes in biotic control of ecosystem structure, function, and services.

  • Chapter 15 – Insects as Regulators of Ecosystem Processes
    Insect Ecology, 2016
    Co-Authors: Timothy D Schowalter
    Abstract:

    The hypothesis that phytophagous Insects regulate ecosystem processes is one of the most important and controversial concepts to emerge from research on Insect Ecology. Although natural selection directly shapes individual attributes, individual attributes affect other organisms and environmental conditions in ways that generate feedback on individual fitness. Such feedback selection contributes to the inclusive fitness of an individual. The intensity of this feedback reflects genetic relatedness and frequency of interaction. Frequent interspecific interaction can lead to negative feedback (eg, competition and predation) and reciprocal cooperation (mutualism), with fitness reflecting the trade-off between balancing individual sacrifice, if any, and traits that benefit the group, for example, stabilization of population, food web, or ecosystem structure. Stability may be achieved, not at the patch scale, but rather at the landscape scale where conditional stability is achieved through relatively constant proportions of various ecosystem types (eg, metacommunities). The relationship of stability to diversity has been a major topic of debate. Effects of different species often are complementary, such that more diverse assemblages should be buffered better against changes in ecosystem properties in heterogeneous environments. Phytophagous Insects may regulate primary production. Phytophagous Insects possess the key criteria of cybernetic regulators, that is, small biomass, rapid amplification of effect at the ecosystem level, sensitivity to airborne or waterborne cues indicating ecosystem conditions, and stabilizing feedback on primary production and other processes. Low intensity of herbivory, under conditions of low densities or optimal condition of hosts, tends to stimulate primary production, whereas higher intensities, under conditions of high host density or stress, tend to reduce primary production. Clearly, this aspect of Insect Ecology has significant implications for our approaches to managing ecosystem resources and “pests.”

  • Insect Ecology (Second Edition) - Insects as Regulators of Ecosystem Processes
    Insect Ecology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Timothy D Schowalter
    Abstract:

    The hypothesis that phytophagous Insects regulate ecosystem processes is one of the most important and controversial concepts to emerge from research on Insect Ecology. Although natural selection directly shapes individual attributes, individual attributes affect other organisms and environmental conditions in ways that generate feedback on individual fitness. Such feedback selection contributes to the inclusive fitness of an individual. The intensity of this feedback reflects genetic relatedness and frequency of interaction. Frequent interspecific interaction can lead to negative feedback (eg, competition and predation) and reciprocal cooperation (mutualism), with fitness reflecting the trade-off between balancing individual sacrifice, if any, and traits that benefit the group, for example, stabilization of population, food web, or ecosystem structure. Stability may be achieved, not at the patch scale, but rather at the landscape scale where conditional stability is achieved through relatively constant proportions of various ecosystem types (eg, metacommunities). The relationship of stability to diversity has been a major topic of debate. Effects of different species often are complementary, such that more diverse assemblages should be buffered better against changes in ecosystem properties in heterogeneous environments. Phytophagous Insects may regulate primary production. Phytophagous Insects possess the key criteria of cybernetic regulators, that is, small biomass, rapid amplification of effect at the ecosystem level, sensitivity to airborne or waterborne cues indicating ecosystem conditions, and stabilizing feedback on primary production and other processes. Low intensity of herbivory, under conditions of low densities or optimal condition of hosts, tends to stimulate primary production, whereas higher intensities, under conditions of high host density or stress, tend to reduce primary production. Clearly, this aspect of Insect Ecology has significant implications for our approaches to managing ecosystem resources and “pests.”

  • Insect Ecology (Second Edition) - 3 – Resource Acquisition
    Insect Ecology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Timothy D Schowalter
    Abstract:

    This chapter addresses the physiological and behavioral mechanisms for finding and exploiting resources. Insects, as do all organisms, must acquire energy and material resources to synthesize the organic molecules necessary for life processes of maintenance, growth, and reproduction. Dietary requirements reflect the size and the life stage of the Insect and the quality of the food resources. Insects exhibit a variety of physiological and behavioral strategies for finding, evaluating, and exploiting potential resources. The defensive chemistry of plants and Insects affects their quality as food, and is a basis for host choice by herbivorous and entomophagous Insects respectively. The nutritional value of resources varies among host species, among tissues of a single organism, and even within tissues of a particular type. Chemicals also communicate the availability of food and provide powerful cues that influence Insect foraging behavior. Insects are capable of detecting food resources over considerable distances. The perception of chemical cues that indicate availability of hosts is influenced by concentration gradients in air or water, environmental factors that affect downwind or downstream dispersion of the chemical, and sensitivity to particular odors. The efficiency of resource acquisition may improve over time as a result of learning. Although much of Insect behavior may be innate, learning has been documented for many Insects.

Deborah L Finke - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Insect Ecology: Parasite and host interactions
    Insect Ecology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Peter W. Price, Micky D Eubanks, Deborah L Finke, Robert F. Denno, Ian Kaplan
    Abstract:

    When considering the word “parasite” various kinds of organisms may spring to mind, depending upon the audience. Veterinarians may think of scabies, mange mites, warble flies, helminthes such as liver flukes, bird lice and disease organisms that cause rabies, plague, West Nile Virus and bird flu. Medical entomologists may be more concerned about malaria, sleeping sickness and vectors of disease like mosquitoes and blackflies. Agriculturalists would perhaps worry about plant pathogenic diseases and nematode parasites. Those involved with the biological control of weeds or Insect herbivores may well think of diseases of plants and Insects, and parasitoid wasps and flies. But springing to mind among only a few Insect ecologists, perhaps, would be the Insect herbivores themselves: caterpillars of the moths, butterflies and sawflies, larvae of chrysomelid beetles, bark beetles, weevils, grubs of root-feeding Insects such as rootworms, and wood-boring larvae, such as cerambycid and buprestid beetles, and clearwing and carpenter moths. And yet, when the definition of the term parasite is appreciated, we can begin to recognize the vast convergence of many lineages toward the parasitic way of life. In common usage is the term “host plant” for Insect herbivores, with the clear implication that plants are hosts to parasites. Explicit recognition of herbivorous Insects as parasites is provided in the definition of a gall: “Galls are abnormal growths formed from tissues of a plant or other host, due to the parasitic activity of another organism” (Redfern and Shirley 2002, p. 207). This broad view of what is a parasite is somewhat controversial because of the ingrained emphasis on parasites of animals, particularly in the field of parasitology. However, plant pathology treats parasitic diseases extensively and we can observe life-history convergence in parasites on animals and plants (Section 8.6), so we should recognize the common features of all kinds of parasites. In this chapter we emphasize the diversity of Insect parasites, as well as the convergence of many groups toward similar life cycles, their main characteristics and how they relate to host species. We compare parasites with other ways of life such as predation, emphasizing that intimacy and duration of relationships between parasite and host have major importance in understanding evolutionary pathways in parasite lineages: life-history convergence, adaptive radiation and phylogenetic tracking of host lineages. Kinds of damage inflicted on hosts are discussed. Host responses in the form of defenses, how parasites can modify host behavior, and the population dynamics of host and parasite all contribute to a general appreciation of the parasite's ecological and evolutionary roles.

  • Insect Ecology: The scope of Insect Ecology
    Insect Ecology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Peter W. Price, Micky D Eubanks, Deborah L Finke, Robert F. Denno, Ian Kaplan
    Abstract:

    Everybody is conscious of Insects, and even concerned about them. In fact, we each have an ecological relationship with their kind. We share our houses and gardens with them, our walks and picnics, and our adventures. So should we not understand them? Their richness in species and interactions, their beauty and behavioral intricacy, all enrich our lives if we understand who they are, and what they are doing. Therefore, the Ecology of Insects is for everybody. Eisner (2003, p. 1), in his latest book, For Love of Insects , starts by writing that “This book is about the thrill of discovery.” And, Wilson (1994, p. 191), in his autobiographical, Naturalist , advised, “Love the organisms for themselves first, then strain for general explanations, and, with good fortune, discoveries will follow. If they don't, the love and the pleasure will have been enough.” Here is sound advice from two of the greatest practitioners of entomology and Ecology, for discovery is thrilling, and the deeper the fascination one develops, the greater will be the discoveries that follow.

  • Insect Ecology: Demography, population growth and life tables
    Insect Ecology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Peter W. Price, Micky D Eubanks, Deborah L Finke, Robert F. Denno, Ian Kaplan
    Abstract:

    Demography has been defined as “The processes of birth, death, immigration and emigration that determine the size, fluctuations and age structure of populations. Also the study of these processes and their effects” (Calow 1998, p. 175). Thus, the science includes the study of the size and density of populations, their growth and decline, and their movements and distributions. The field emphasizes numbers of individuals and their ages, times of reproduction, fecundity and the time of death, concentrating on description rather than the whys and wherefores. Why populations fluctuate is addressed by the subject of population dynamics (Chapter 11). In this chapter we will cover important ingredients of demography, which include how populations grow, how populations survive and how much they reproduce. Life tables are quantitative descriptions of population survival, which may also include the timing of births into the population, or fecundity schedules, and estimates of emigration and immigration. These kinds of information form the basis for the study of population dynamics, so that some of the elementary aspects of population dynamics are treated in this chapter.

  • Robert F. Denno (1945–2008): Insect Ecologist Extraordinaire
    Annual Review of Entomology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Micky D Eubanks, Michael J Raupp, Deborah L Finke
    Abstract:

    Robert F. Denno was widely recognized as one of the leading Insect ecologists in the world. He made major contributions to the study of plant-Insect interactions, dispersal, interspecific competition, predator-prey interactions, and food web dynamics. He was especially well known for his detailed and comprehensive study of the arthropods that inhabit salt marshes. Denno promoted a research approach that included detailed knowledge of the natural history of the study system, meticulous experiments that often pushed logistical possibilities, and a focus on important ecological questions of the day. He was an enthusiastic collaborator and excellent mentor who invested incredible amounts of time and energy in the training and placement of graduate students and postdoctoral associates. As a result, Denno's legacy will continue to shape the field of Insect Ecology for generations to come.

  • robert f denno 1945 2008 Insect ecologist extraordinaire
    Annual Review of Entomology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Micky D Eubanks, Michael J Raupp, Deborah L Finke
    Abstract:

    Robert F. Denno was widely recognized as one of the leading Insect ecologists in the world. He made major contributions to the study of plant-Insect interactions, dispersal, interspecific competition, predator-prey interactions, and food web dynamics. He was especially well known for his detailed and comprehensive study of the arthropods that inhabit salt marshes. Denno promoted a research approach that included detailed knowledge of the natural history of the study system, meticulous experiments that often pushed logistical possibilities, and a focus on important ecological questions of the day. He was an enthusiastic collaborator and excellent mentor who invested incredible amounts of time and energy in the training and placement of graduate students and postdoctoral associates. As a result, Denno's legacy will continue to shape the field of Insect Ecology for generations to come.

Micky D Eubanks - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Insect Ecology: Parasite and host interactions
    Insect Ecology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Peter W. Price, Micky D Eubanks, Deborah L Finke, Robert F. Denno, Ian Kaplan
    Abstract:

    When considering the word “parasite” various kinds of organisms may spring to mind, depending upon the audience. Veterinarians may think of scabies, mange mites, warble flies, helminthes such as liver flukes, bird lice and disease organisms that cause rabies, plague, West Nile Virus and bird flu. Medical entomologists may be more concerned about malaria, sleeping sickness and vectors of disease like mosquitoes and blackflies. Agriculturalists would perhaps worry about plant pathogenic diseases and nematode parasites. Those involved with the biological control of weeds or Insect herbivores may well think of diseases of plants and Insects, and parasitoid wasps and flies. But springing to mind among only a few Insect ecologists, perhaps, would be the Insect herbivores themselves: caterpillars of the moths, butterflies and sawflies, larvae of chrysomelid beetles, bark beetles, weevils, grubs of root-feeding Insects such as rootworms, and wood-boring larvae, such as cerambycid and buprestid beetles, and clearwing and carpenter moths. And yet, when the definition of the term parasite is appreciated, we can begin to recognize the vast convergence of many lineages toward the parasitic way of life. In common usage is the term “host plant” for Insect herbivores, with the clear implication that plants are hosts to parasites. Explicit recognition of herbivorous Insects as parasites is provided in the definition of a gall: “Galls are abnormal growths formed from tissues of a plant or other host, due to the parasitic activity of another organism” (Redfern and Shirley 2002, p. 207). This broad view of what is a parasite is somewhat controversial because of the ingrained emphasis on parasites of animals, particularly in the field of parasitology. However, plant pathology treats parasitic diseases extensively and we can observe life-history convergence in parasites on animals and plants (Section 8.6), so we should recognize the common features of all kinds of parasites. In this chapter we emphasize the diversity of Insect parasites, as well as the convergence of many groups toward similar life cycles, their main characteristics and how they relate to host species. We compare parasites with other ways of life such as predation, emphasizing that intimacy and duration of relationships between parasite and host have major importance in understanding evolutionary pathways in parasite lineages: life-history convergence, adaptive radiation and phylogenetic tracking of host lineages. Kinds of damage inflicted on hosts are discussed. Host responses in the form of defenses, how parasites can modify host behavior, and the population dynamics of host and parasite all contribute to a general appreciation of the parasite's ecological and evolutionary roles.

  • Insect Ecology: The scope of Insect Ecology
    Insect Ecology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Peter W. Price, Micky D Eubanks, Deborah L Finke, Robert F. Denno, Ian Kaplan
    Abstract:

    Everybody is conscious of Insects, and even concerned about them. In fact, we each have an ecological relationship with their kind. We share our houses and gardens with them, our walks and picnics, and our adventures. So should we not understand them? Their richness in species and interactions, their beauty and behavioral intricacy, all enrich our lives if we understand who they are, and what they are doing. Therefore, the Ecology of Insects is for everybody. Eisner (2003, p. 1), in his latest book, For Love of Insects , starts by writing that “This book is about the thrill of discovery.” And, Wilson (1994, p. 191), in his autobiographical, Naturalist , advised, “Love the organisms for themselves first, then strain for general explanations, and, with good fortune, discoveries will follow. If they don't, the love and the pleasure will have been enough.” Here is sound advice from two of the greatest practitioners of entomology and Ecology, for discovery is thrilling, and the deeper the fascination one develops, the greater will be the discoveries that follow.

  • Insect Ecology: Demography, population growth and life tables
    Insect Ecology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Peter W. Price, Micky D Eubanks, Deborah L Finke, Robert F. Denno, Ian Kaplan
    Abstract:

    Demography has been defined as “The processes of birth, death, immigration and emigration that determine the size, fluctuations and age structure of populations. Also the study of these processes and their effects” (Calow 1998, p. 175). Thus, the science includes the study of the size and density of populations, their growth and decline, and their movements and distributions. The field emphasizes numbers of individuals and their ages, times of reproduction, fecundity and the time of death, concentrating on description rather than the whys and wherefores. Why populations fluctuate is addressed by the subject of population dynamics (Chapter 11). In this chapter we will cover important ingredients of demography, which include how populations grow, how populations survive and how much they reproduce. Life tables are quantitative descriptions of population survival, which may also include the timing of births into the population, or fecundity schedules, and estimates of emigration and immigration. These kinds of information form the basis for the study of population dynamics, so that some of the elementary aspects of population dynamics are treated in this chapter.

  • Robert F. Denno (1945–2008): Insect Ecologist Extraordinaire
    Annual Review of Entomology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Micky D Eubanks, Michael J Raupp, Deborah L Finke
    Abstract:

    Robert F. Denno was widely recognized as one of the leading Insect ecologists in the world. He made major contributions to the study of plant-Insect interactions, dispersal, interspecific competition, predator-prey interactions, and food web dynamics. He was especially well known for his detailed and comprehensive study of the arthropods that inhabit salt marshes. Denno promoted a research approach that included detailed knowledge of the natural history of the study system, meticulous experiments that often pushed logistical possibilities, and a focus on important ecological questions of the day. He was an enthusiastic collaborator and excellent mentor who invested incredible amounts of time and energy in the training and placement of graduate students and postdoctoral associates. As a result, Denno's legacy will continue to shape the field of Insect Ecology for generations to come.

  • robert f denno 1945 2008 Insect ecologist extraordinaire
    Annual Review of Entomology, 2011
    Co-Authors: Micky D Eubanks, Michael J Raupp, Deborah L Finke
    Abstract:

    Robert F. Denno was widely recognized as one of the leading Insect ecologists in the world. He made major contributions to the study of plant-Insect interactions, dispersal, interspecific competition, predator-prey interactions, and food web dynamics. He was especially well known for his detailed and comprehensive study of the arthropods that inhabit salt marshes. Denno promoted a research approach that included detailed knowledge of the natural history of the study system, meticulous experiments that often pushed logistical possibilities, and a focus on important ecological questions of the day. He was an enthusiastic collaborator and excellent mentor who invested incredible amounts of time and energy in the training and placement of graduate students and postdoctoral associates. As a result, Denno's legacy will continue to shape the field of Insect Ecology for generations to come.

Stephen F. Hubbard - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Insect endosymbionts: manipulators of Insect herbivore trophic interactions?
    Protoplasma, 2010
    Co-Authors: Emily L. Clark, Alison J. Karley, Stephen F. Hubbard
    Abstract:

    Throughout their evolutionary history, Insects have formed multiple relationships with bacteria. Although many of these bacteria are pathogenic, with deleterious effects on the fitness of infected Insects, there are also numerous examples of symbiotic bacteria that are harmless or even beneficial to their Insect host. Symbiotic bacteria that form obligate or facultative associations with Insects and that are located intracellularly in the host Insect are known as endosymbionts. Endosymbiosis can be a strong driving force for evolution when the acquisition and maintenance of a microorganism by the Insect host results in the formation of novel structures or changes in physiology and metabolism. The complex evolutionary dynamics of vertically transmitted symbiotic bacteria have led to distinctive symbiont genome characteristics that have profound effects on the phenotype of the host Insect. Symbiotic bacteria are key players in Insect–plant interactions influencing many aspects of Insect Ecology and playing a key role in shaping the diversification of many Insect groups. In this review, we discuss the role of endosymbionts in manipulating Insect herbivore trophic interactions focussing on their impact on plant utilisation patterns and parasitoid biology.

Emily L. Clark - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Insect endosymbionts: manipulators of Insect herbivore trophic interactions?
    Protoplasma, 2010
    Co-Authors: Emily L. Clark, Alison J. Karley, Stephen F. Hubbard
    Abstract:

    Throughout their evolutionary history, Insects have formed multiple relationships with bacteria. Although many of these bacteria are pathogenic, with deleterious effects on the fitness of infected Insects, there are also numerous examples of symbiotic bacteria that are harmless or even beneficial to their Insect host. Symbiotic bacteria that form obligate or facultative associations with Insects and that are located intracellularly in the host Insect are known as endosymbionts. Endosymbiosis can be a strong driving force for evolution when the acquisition and maintenance of a microorganism by the Insect host results in the formation of novel structures or changes in physiology and metabolism. The complex evolutionary dynamics of vertically transmitted symbiotic bacteria have led to distinctive symbiont genome characteristics that have profound effects on the phenotype of the host Insect. Symbiotic bacteria are key players in Insect–plant interactions influencing many aspects of Insect Ecology and playing a key role in shaping the diversification of many Insect groups. In this review, we discuss the role of endosymbionts in manipulating Insect herbivore trophic interactions focussing on their impact on plant utilisation patterns and parasitoid biology.