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Thermally moderated firefly activity is delayed by precipitation extremes

Elizabeth Davidson-Lowe, Bahodir Eshchanov, Sara Hermann, Andrew Myers, Logan Rowe, Saisi Xue, Christie A Bahlai
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/074633
Elizabeth Davidson-Lowe
1Department of Entomology, Michigan State University
2Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University
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Bahodir Eshchanov
1Department of Entomology, Michigan State University
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Sara Hermann
1Department of Entomology, Michigan State University
2Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University
3Program in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior, Michigan State University
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Andrew Myers
1Department of Entomology, Michigan State University
3Program in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior, Michigan State University
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Logan Rowe
1Department of Entomology, Michigan State University
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Saisi Xue
4Biomass Conversion Research Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan State University
5DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, East Lansing, MI
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Christie A Bahlai
6Department of Integrative Biology, Michigan State University
7Mozilla Science Lab
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  • For correspondence: cbahlai@msu.edu
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Abstract

The timing of events in the life history of temperate insects is most typically primarily cued by one of two drivers: photoperiod or temperature accumulation over the growing season. However, an insect’s phenology can also be moderated by other drivers like rainfall or the phenology of its host plants. When multiple drivers of phenology interact, there is greater potential for phenological asynchronies to arise between an organism and those it interacts with. We examined the phenological patterns of a highly seasonal group of insects, the Eastern Firefly (Photinus pyralis) over a 12-year period (2004–2015) across 10 plant communities to determine if interacting drivers could explain the variability observed in the adult flight activity density (i.e. mating season) of this species. We found that temperature accumulation was the primary driver of phenology with activity peaks usually occurring at a temperature accumulation of ~800 degree days (base 10°C), however, our model found this peak varied by nearly 180 degree day units between years. This variation could be explained by a quadratic relationship with the accumulation of precipitation in the growing season; in years with either high and low precipitation extremes at our study site, flight activity was delayed. More fireflies were captured in general in herbaceous plant communities with minimal soil disturbance (alfalfa and no-till field crop rotations), but only weak interactions occurred between within-season responses to climatic variables and plant community. The interaction we observed between temperature and precipitation accumulation suggests that, although climate warming has potential to disrupt phenology of many organisms, changes to regional precipitation patterns can magnify these disruptions.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
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Posted September 11, 2016.
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Thermally moderated firefly activity is delayed by precipitation extremes
Elizabeth Davidson-Lowe, Bahodir Eshchanov, Sara Hermann, Andrew Myers, Logan Rowe, Saisi Xue, Christie A Bahlai
bioRxiv 074633; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/074633
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Thermally moderated firefly activity is delayed by precipitation extremes
Elizabeth Davidson-Lowe, Bahodir Eshchanov, Sara Hermann, Andrew Myers, Logan Rowe, Saisi Xue, Christie A Bahlai
bioRxiv 074633; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/074633

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