Potential of the alien biocontrol agent Amblydromalus limonicus to become invasive in Austria under climate warming scenarios
Abstract
Climate change and invasive species currently pose two of the most important ecological chal-lenges worldwide. Although these two factors are known to be tightly linked, they are often viewed independently. However, climate warming may create optimal conditions for alien species in regions, where these species were previously not able to survive. Our main objective is to evaluate the invasion potential of a greenhouse biocontrol agent, the predatory mite Amblydromalus limonicus (Acari: Phytoseiidae), in Austria under present temperature conditions and under temperature conditions predicted by IPCC for 2100. We hypothesize that A. limonicus possesses traits that under climate warming allow its invasion into native Austrian plant-inhabiting mite communities. A. limonicus is an exotic predator originating from temperate and sub-tropical regions in America, Australia and New Zealand and commercially available since 2011 in some European countries for thrips control in greenhouse crops. The first unattended record of A. limonicus in the open field comes from Nord-eastern Spain in 2011, where A. limonicus was found at three locations in high population densities, indicating its potential for invasion. Our specific hypotheses are that (1) A. limonicus is well able to cope with the prevailing abiotic resistance of Austrian ecosystems because of its high temperature tolerance and the predicted temperature rise allows at least its seasonal or casual establishment in mild winters in Austria, (2) the ability to invade and establish in Austria differs among strains of A. limonicus, (3) A. limonicus is superior over native phytoseiid species in the capacity for population increase and is a highly aggressive IG predator, allowing to cope with the biotic resistance of the native predatory mite communities, (4) A. limonicus becomes a dominant species when invading plants occupied by an established native predatory mite guild, and (5) climate warm-ing dramatically increases the regions appropriate for invasion of A. limonicus in Europe. We propose to perform three experimental series on (1) the effects of temperature on the development, reproduction and overwintering potential of A. limonicus, (2) the capacity for population increase and intraguild predation performance of A. limonicus, and (3) the potential of A. limonicus to invade an established native predatory mite community on plants. Finally, we develop a distribution model of A. limonicus under present and predicted tempera-ture regimes based on biological and ecological characteristics of A. limonicus generated from the results of our experiments and derived from the literature.
keywords climate change invasion biological control predatory mites
Publikationen
Project staff
Andreas Walzer
Mag. Dr. Andreas Walzer
andreas.walzer@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-95308
Project Leader
01.06.2014 - 31.03.2018
BOKU partners
External partners
Landcare Research, Lincoln
none
partner
IRTA, Department of Agriculture, Girona
none
partner
Biohelp
none
partner
Koppert
none
partner
INRA Montpellier
none
partner