Phylogenetic relatedness of food plants reveals highest insect herbivore specialization at intermediate temperatures along a broad climatic gradient

• Published in: Global change biology Vol. 28; no. 13; pp. 4027 - 4040
• Main Authors: König, Sebastian, Krauss, Jochen, Keller, Alexander, Bofinger, Lukas, Steffan‐Dewenter, Ingolf
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2022
• Subjects: Alps; Altitude; Animals; Availability; Climate change; Climatic conditions; cold; diet breadth; distance‐based specialization index; DNA barcoding; Faecal pellets; Feeding; Food plants; Germany; Grasslands; Habitats; Herbivores; Herbivory; High temperature; Humans; Hypotheses; Insecta; Insects; interaction networks; metabarcoding; microclimate; Niche breadth; Niches; Orthoptera; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; phytophagous insects; Plant resources; plant richness; plant-insect relations; Plants; Plants, Edible; Resource availability; Specialization; Species; summer; Surveys; Temperature; temperature gradient; Temperature gradients; Vegetation surveys; Germany; Alps; plant richness; temperature gradient; metabarcoding; microclimate; herbivores; Orthoptera; diet breadth; interaction networks; distance-based specialization index

The composition and richness of herbivore and plant assemblages change along climatic gradients, but knowledge about associated shifts in specialization is scarce and lacks controlling for the abundance and phylogeny of interaction partners. Thus, we aimed to test whether the specialization of phyto...