Pliocene Insect Herbivory Dynamics in Central Europe as Key to the Future

最近关于深层植物-昆虫相互作用的研究表明，气候变化等全球变化因素可以改变生物多样性和营养相互作用。他们还表明，生物多样性的丧失可能会极大地阻碍营养相互作用，并改变生态系统的整体食物网络结构。这些研究大多发生在早新生代，当时发生了重大的气候变化。新近纪，特别是上新世，从来没有对植物/昆虫组合进行过如此详细的调查。作为世界上最著名的植物区之一和欧洲上新世植物群最丰富的地区之一，上新世拉格斯塔特·威勒豪森是评估全球气候、大气二氧化碳和全球变化对多营养相互作用和生物多样性关系的理想环境，条件比今天温暖得多，但具有相似的古地理配置。此外，该项目还涵盖了对多营养相互作用的一般影响，例如寄主植物的利用和寄主-分类群联合的保护，这往往是由改变生物环境的地理变化或气候变化引发的。由于壳斗科(山毛榉科)是古老的威勒豪森湖周围的常见组成部分，化石叶子可以分析橡树群落进化中的系统发育模式，这似乎是由它们的长期进化历史驱动的，具有最丰富物种谱系的恼人昆虫-橡树画眉蜂属(膜翅目，食蜂科，食蚁蜂科)。

Recent studies on plant-insect interactions in deep time have shown that global change components, such as climate change, can change biodiversity and trophic interactions. They have also shown that biodiversity loss may greatly impede trophic interactions and change the overall food web structure of ecological systems. Most of these studies were situated in the early Cenozoic were major climate shifts took place. The Neogene and particularly the Pliocene have never been subject to such a detailed investigation on plant/insect associations. As being among the most famous plant localities in the world and being one of the richest Pliocene floras in Europe, the Upper Pliocene Lagerstätte Willershausen is an ideal setting for the evaluations of relationships among global climate, atmospheric CO2, and global change on multitrophic interactions and biodiversity under conditions significantly warmer than today, but with a similar palaeogeographic configuration. Furthermore, the project covers also general effects on multitrophic interactions, such as host plant use and conservation of host-taxon associations, which may often be triggered by geographic shifts or climatic changes that alter the biotic environment. As Fagaceae (beech family) are a common component around the acient Willershausen lake, the fossil leaves allow an analysis of phylogenetic patterns in the evolution of oak associations that seems to be driven by their long-term evolutionary history, with the most species-rich lineages of galling insects - the oak gallwasps (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae, Cynipini).