AI Article Synopsis
- The fall webworm (Dury), an invasive species from North America, has a significant effect on European agriculture, but its ability to adapt to the European climate is not fully understood.
- Research shows that fall webworms in Europe can survive in less diverse climatic conditions than those in North America, suggesting that they have the potential to expand their range significantly if they adapt to European climates.
- Potentially unfilled habitats across much of Europe indicate a risk of invasion, particularly without strict control measures, making small niche shifts critical indicators of invasion risk compared to larger range shifts.
Article Abstract
The fall webworm ( Dury) has a strong impact on agricultural systems in Europe. However, its invasive potential, which was inherited from its native niche in North America, remains unknown. Here, we investigated the climatic niche and range shifts of the fall webworm in Europe and compared them with those in native North America, then assessed the worms' invasive potential in Europe. Compared with the fall webworm in Europe, those in North America survived in more diverse climatic conditions, which was closely associated with their broader niche and larger potential ranges in Europe. If the fall webworm in Europe could exploit the native niche inherited from those in North America to adapt to climatic conditions in Europe, their potential ranges in Europe could be 5.5-fold those based on the niche as introduced in Europe. The potentially unfilled ranges of the fall webworm in Europe were mainly detected in vast regions of Europe, excluding Norway, Sweden, Finland, North Russia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, and Ukraine, suggesting that, without strict control, these vast regions might be preferably invaded by the fall webworm in Europe in the future. Therefore, strict control against its invasion is needed. Given that small niche shifts in this invasive insect could result in large range shifts, the niche shifts represent a more sensitive indicator of invasion risk than range shifts.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10141053 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects14040316 | DOI Listing |
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