Experimental warming influences species abundances in a Drosophila host community through direct effects on species performance rather than altered competition and parasitism

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245029
• Publication Date: 2021-02-11T23:24:50Z
• Authors: Mélanie Thierry; Nicholas A. Pardikes; Chia-Hua Lue; Owen T. Lewis; Jan Hrček
• Keywords: Community

Global warming is expected to have direct effects on species through their sensitivity temperature, and also via biotic interactions, with cascading indirect species, communities, entire ecosystems. To predict the community-level consequences of global climate change we need understand relative roles both warming. We used a laboratory experiment investigate how affects tropical community three Drosophila hosts interacting two parasitoids over single generation. Our experimental design allowed us distinguish between temperature host performance, altered interactions (competition among parasitism by parasitoid wasps). Although significantly decreased for all host-parasitoid pairs, competition abundances frequencies did not vary across temperatures. Instead, were species-specific, one dominating at warmer temperatures, irrespective treatments. results show that shaped directly differences in species’ thermal its influences interactions.