Managing Coextinction of Insects in a Changing Climate Final Report
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Managing coextinction of insects in a changing climate Final Report Melinda Moir and Mei Chen Leng MANAGING COEXTINCTION OF INSECTS IN A CHANGING CLIMATE Developing management strategies to combat increased coextinction rates of plant-dwelling insects through global climate change AUTHORS Melinda L Moir (University of Melbourne) MC Leng (University of Melbourne) Published by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility ISBN: 978-1-925039-03-0 NCCARF Publication 32/13 © 2013 The University of Melbourne and National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the copyright holder. Please cite this report as: Moir, ML, Leng, MC 2013 Developing management strategies to combat increased coextinction rates of plant-dwelling insects through global climate change. National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, 111 pp. Acknowledgements This work was carried out with financial support from the Australian Government (Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) and the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility. The role of NCCARF is to lead the research community in a national interdisciplinary effort to generate the information needed by decision makers in government, business and in vulnerable sectors and communities to manage the risk of climate change impacts. The authors acknowledge Peter Vesk, Mick McCarthy (University of Melbourne), David Coates, Karl Brennan (WA DEC), Lesley Hughes (Macquarie University) and David Keith (NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service) for their support at the project’s inception and throughout the duration.They thank Sarah Barrett (WA DEC) for her support with field logistics, particularly with the translocation of insects and the following for field assistance in often very difficult terrain; Karl Brennan, Don Moir, Sean White, Farhan Bokhari and Sonja Creese. Melinda L Moir gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided to her through the Australian Research Council’s Centre for Excellence in Environmental Decisions (CEED). Finally, we thank the University of Melbourne for administrative support, and the University of Western Australia plus the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation for use of their facilities. Disclaimer The views expressed herein are not necessarily the views of the Commonwealth or NCCARF, and neither the Commonwealth nor NCCARF accept responsibility for information or advice contained herein. Cover images © Melinda L Moir Internal images © Melinda L Moir and MC Leng © Sonja Creese (Figure 14, Pseudococcus markharveyi) © Peter Gillespie (Figure 15) TABLE OF CONTENTS ACRONYMS .................................................................................................................................. II LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES....................................................................................................... III ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................. 2 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 3 1. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH ........................................................................................ 5 1.1 DELIVERABLES ...................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 TIMELINE ......................................................................................................................... 5 2. RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AND METHODS ............................................................................. 7 2.1 ENVIRONMENTAL DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................. 7 2.1 PLANT SELECTION ........................................................................................................... 8 2.2 INSECT/PLANT DATABASE ................................................................................................. 8 2.3 INSECT COLLECTION ........................................................................................................ 8 2.4 MOLECULAR ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................... 8 2.5 HOST SPECIFICITY MODELS AND DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................... 9 2.6 INSECT NOMINATIONS .................................................................................................... 10 2.7 INSECT TRANSLOCATIONS .............................................................................................. 10 2.8 END-USER ENGAGEMENT ............................................................................................... 12 3. RESULTS AND OUTPUTS .................................................................................................... 14 3.1 ENVIRONMENTAL DATA ........................................................................................................ 14 3.2 INSECT ASSEMBLAGE RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE .......................................................... 20 3.3.1 Species: Thomasia sp. “Toolbrunup” ...................................................................... 20 3.3.2 Species: Lasiopetalum dielsii .................................................................................. 22 3.3.3 Family Malvaceae ................................................................................................... 23 3.4.1 Species: Acacia veronica ........................................................................................... 23 3.4.2 Species: Gastrolobium crenulatum ......................................................................... 25 3.4.3 Genus Gastrolobium ............................................................................................... 26 3.5 FAMILY PROTEACEAE .................................................................................................... 27 3.5.1 Species: Banksia grandis, Banksia solandri and Banksia oreophila ...................... 27 3.6 SPECIES LEVEL INSECT DATA ......................................................................................... 28 3.6.1 Acizza veski (Insecta: Hemiptera: Psyllidae) ............................................................. 29 3.6.2 Acizza sp. 12 (Insecta: Hemiptera: Psyllidae) ......................................................... 32 3.6.3 Acizza sp. 70 (Insecta: Hemiptera: Psyllidae) ......................................................... 33 3.6.4 Trioza sp. 30 (Insecta: Hemiptera: Triozidae) ......................................................... 35 3.6.5 Pseudococcus markharveyi (Insecta: Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Pseudococcidae) ... 37 3.6.6 Aleyrodidae (Insecta: Hemiptera) .............................................................................. 39 3.6.7 Austroasca species (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadellidae).......................................... 42 3.6.8 Curculionidae (Insecta: Coleoptera)........................................................................ 43 3.6.9 Chrysomelidae (Insecta: Coleoptera)...................................................................... 45 3.6.10 Swaustraltingis isobellae (Insecta: Heteroptera: Tingidae) ................................. 46 3.6.11 Ceratocader species (Insecta: Heteroptera: Tingidae) ....................................... 47 3.7 TRANSLOCATIONS ......................................................................................................... 48 3.7.1 Acizzia veski (Vesk’s plant-louse) ........................................................................... 48 3.7.2 Trioza sp. 30 (Banksia brownii plant-louse) ............................................................ 50 3.7.3 Pseudococcus markharveyi (Banksia montana mealybug) .................................... 53 3.8 END-USER ENGAGEMENT ............................................................................................... 54 3.8.1 End-user perspectives ............................................................................................ 54 3.8.2 Management Framework ........................................................................................ 57 Managing coextincton of insects in a changing climate i 4. DISCUSSION .......................................................................................................................... 64 4.1 CLIMATE CHANGE AND INSECTS ..................................................................................... 64 4.1.1 NUMBERS OF THREATENED TAXA AND HOST BREADTH ..................................................... 64 4.1.2 Movement rates and dispersal ................................................................................ 65 4.1.3 Environmental variables and insects....................................................................... 66 4.1.4 Summary ................................................................................................................. 68 4.2 TRANSLOCATIONS ......................................................................................................... 68 5. GAPS AND FUTURE RESEARCH ......................................................................................