Climate change impact on extrinsic and intrinsic competition between egg parasitoids

Abstract

Climate changing is a real phenomenon and the last decade was the warmest decade ever. The impact of climate change on animal communities is complex, affecting species interactions in all trophic levels, in different ways and in different bio-geographic zones. Here we will discuss about the possible effects of climate changes in shaping the competition between egg parasitoid species to consume the same hosts. Egg parasitoids are important biological control agents due to their ability to kill the pest before the crop-feeding stages emerge. Competitive effects can be divided in “extrinsic competition”, the indirect interactions between adult females searching for hosts, and “intrinsic competition”, the competition that occurs between larvae developing in the same host. The climate change impact will be addressed taking into account: 1) how quantitative and qualitative variation in plant volatile organic compound (VOC) emission may affect extrinsic competition; 2) how changes in host’s biology may affect intrinsic competition as consequence of global warming. Finally data on intraguild interactions under global warming scenario between two sympatric egg parasitoids of a true bug will be presented.