Towards predicting responses to an extreme event: traits that incluence ground-dwelling beetles’ susceptibility to volcanic ash

ELIZALDE LUCIANA; BAUDINO FLORENCIA; WERENKRAUT, VICTORIA

ENTOMOLOGIA EXPERIMENTALIS ET APPLICATA

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2023

0013-8703

Extreme events are important determinants of environmental changes at multiple geographical and temporal scales, influencing the ecology and evolution of species. Volcanism in particular can modify entire landscapes through ash deposition, affecting the survival and abundance of susceptible species and favouring tolerant ones. However, there is still a lack of information for predicting which species will be more or less affected by volcanic disturbances. We test the hypothesis that the effect of volcanic ash will differentially affect taxa according to their morphological traits. We used a ground-dwelling beetle community that was sampled before and immediately after the last eruption of the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle (PCC) volcano. We measure traits that might help predicting insect response to the ash deposition in species susceptible to the PCC volcanic eruption (i.e. decreased their abundance considerably) and compared them to others that were tolerant. We examined cuticle thickness, its structures (i.e. hairs) and microsculptures, and body size. We found that traits associated with smoothness of the cuticle (less hairs and microsculptures) and a small body size allows species to better tolerate the negative effects of volcanic ash. These results are the first to explicitly test for traits that could help to predict which species will be more tolerant to volcanic ashes, a widespread disturbance associated with volcanism.