Environmental change is anticipated to negatively affect both plant and animal populations. As abiotic factors rapidly change habitat suitability, projections range from altered genetic diversity to wide‐spread species loss. Here, we assess the degree to which changes in atmospheric composition associated with environmental change will influence not only the abundance, but also the genotypic/phenotypic diversity, of herbivore...

While the effects of global atmospheric changes on vegetation and resulting insect populations(‘bottom‐up interactions’) are being increasingly studied, how these gases modify interactions among insects and their natural enemies (‘top‐down interactions’) is less clear. As natural enemy efficacy is governed largely by behavioural mechanisms, altered prey finding and prey defence may change insect population dynamics. Here we sh...

Changes in atmospheric composition affect plant quality and herbivore performance. We used the Aspen Free Air CO 2 Enrichment (FACE) facility to investigate the impacts of elevated carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and ozone (O 3 ) on the performance of the aphid Cepegillettea betulaefoliae Granovsky feeding on paper birch ( Betula papyrifera Marsh.). In Year 1, we simultaneously measured individual performance and population growth rate...

This review examines the direct effects of climate change on insect herbivores. Temperature is identified as the dominant abiotic factor directly affecting herbivorous insects. There is little evidence of any direct effects of CO 2 or UVB. Direct impacts of precipitation have been largely neglected in current research on climate change. Temperature directly affects development, survival, range and abundance. Species with a lar...

In future elevated CO 2 environments, chewing insects are likely to perform less well than at present because of the effects of increased carbon fixation on their host plants. When the aphid, Aulacorthum solani was reared on bean ( Vicia faba ) and tansy ( Tanacetum vulgare ) plants under ambient and elevated CO 2, performance was enhanced on both hosts at elevated CO 2 . The nature of the response was different on each plant...