Know more

Thesis defunded November 4th
Fund: 50% région Bretagne, 50% Projet ANR Landscaphid
Direction: Joan van Baaren, Yannick Outreman & Liliane Krespi

Abstract:

This thesis is an analysis of the spatial and temporal dimensions of the functioning and taxonomic and functional diversity of a guild. In a guild, species exploit the same type of resources; consequently, fundamental ecological niches of guild members are similar and an interspecific competitive relationship is established if shared resources are limiting. Four main questions on the functioning of a guild are addressed: (1) the spatiotemporal scales to which guilds the guild and its exploited resources are structures, (2) the respective weight of environmental filtering and interspecific interactions on the configuration of realized niches of guild members, (3) the strategy of resource exploitation in a guild member facing low resource availability and (4) the impact of climatic context on the structure of a guild and its food web, and the degree of specialisation on resources. The biological model chosen in this study was a cereal aphid parasitoid guild (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae). Those parasitoids attack aphids (Homoptera: Aphididae) in agroecosystems, which are anthropised environments marked by high disturbance rates and in which host resources are variable in density and in quality. Relative abundance variations in parasitoids and in their hosts were considerable at interregional and interannual scales, but weak at the intra-regional scale. Functional trait divergence in parasitoids was maintained across three regions and two years, and regional and annual environmental contexts influenced guild traits as a whole. In winter, a period marked by low aphid density, the parasitoid Aphidius rhopalosiphi presented contrasted strategies to maximise fitness whilst exploiting Sitobion avenae and Rhopalosiphum padi hosts, but a high degree of ecological specialisation in the field was observed in the presence of a competitive species, Aphidius avenae. This presence was correlated to an increase in winter temperatures.