Received: 2 July 2018 | Accepted: 17 December 2018 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13277 RESEARCH ARTICLE Differential effects of climate warming on reproduction and functional responses on insects in the fourth trophic level Cong Chen1,2 | Rieta Gols3 | Arjen Biere1 | Jeffrey A. Harvey1,2 1Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Abstract Wageningen, The Netherlands 1. Understanding the effects of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) on species 2 Department of Ecological Science, Section interactions is essential for predicting community responses to climate change. Animal Ecology, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands However, while effects of AGW on resource–consumer interactions at the first 3Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen and second trophic level have been well studied, little is known about effects on University & Research, Wageningen, The interactions at higher trophic levels at the terminal end of food chains (e.g. in the Netherlands third and fourth trophic levels). Correspondence 2. Here, we examined the effects of temperature variability by simulating heatwaves Jeffrey A. Harvey Email:
[email protected] on functional responses of two species at the fourth trophic level (hyperparasi‐ toids) that parasitize host species at the third trophic level (parasitoid cocoons). Funding information China Scholarship Council, Grant/Award 3. We found that host cocoons developed faster under simulated heatwave condi‐ Number: 201406660008 tions, decreasing the temporal window of susceptibility of the host cocoons to Handling Editor: Seth Barribeau parasitism by the two hyperparasitoids, and consequently parasitism declined with temperature. However, the effects of a simulated heatwave markedly dif‐ fered among the two hyperparasitoid species; temperature and host quality had a much stronger effect on early reproduction in the less fecund hyperparasitoid Gelis agilis, than in the more fecund species Acrolyta nens.