The Plant-Insect Interactions

and Climate Change Ecology Lab.

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Research at PICCEL:

 

Our experiments into the effects of climate change on plant-insect interactions fall into three categories:

Lab Experiments:
We conduct experiments under controlled conditions in growth chambers to determine:

1. How temperature and carbon dioxide influence host plant quality, and how this affects the growth, development, and survivorship of herbivorous insects.

2. The effects of a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide on the growth of nitrogen-fixers vs non nitrogen-fixers.

3. The impact of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide on plant communities.

 

 

Computer Modelling:
We run computer simulations using bioclimatic models such as BIOCLIM and CLIMEX to determine the climatic range that species are currently exposed to, and to predict how species distributions may change as climate changes. Field Work:
Field work is conducted from Victoria to Queensland, to determine how climate change is affecting natural ecosystems.  For example:

    1. Climate and host plant are the two most important factors limiting the distribution of herbivorous insects.  Therefore, the limitations that these factors impose on the community composition of herbivorous insects is being assessed by surveying communities and conducting transplant experiments.

2. Literature from the Northern Hemisphere suggests that some insects have already shifted their distributions in response to climate change.  As there are good records of the distributions of Australian butterflies, field work is being conducted to assess whether shifts in distribution in response to warming have occurred.  These include latitudinal and altitudinal range shifts.

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                    Copyright. Climate Change Ecology Group, Macquarie University, 2001.