DISSERTATION RESEARCH: How will climate change affect trophic interactions?

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Global climate change is believed to pose a huge threat to ecological systems. But there is much uncertainty about the way interactions among species will be affected and, consequently, how the environmental services these species provide to human kind are going to be altered. This study reduces this uncertainty by experimentally evaluating the capacity of species to adapt with a changing climate. Using an experimental system of grassland plants, grasshopper herbivores, and spider predators, this study will evaluate the ability of predators to adapt with warming and continue to control the herbivores in the system. To do this, the experiment will evaluate spider performance in controlling grasshoppers along a gradient of temperature reflective of the changes predicted by climate change models.This research is especially relevant to tax payers and policy makers concerned with how ecological and agricultural systems are going to be affected by climate change. Insect species like grasshoppers can be quite destructive to agricultural crops, requiring government aid to cover monetary losses. Global warming may enhance the likelihood of this outcome. This study, on the other hand, will evaluate the extent to which natural enemies of grasshoppers can adapt to climate change and thereby keep damage from herbivores in check.