Sumario: |
Seasonal changes in the abundance of exothermic organisms can be expected with
climate change if warmer temperatures can induce changes in their phenology. Given the increased
time for ectothermic organism development at lower temperatures, we asked whether population
dynamics of the house mosquito,Culex pipienss.l. (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae), in Jeju-do (South Korea),
an island with a gradient of warming temperatures from north to south, showed differences in
sensitivity to changes in temperature along the warming gradient. In addition, we asked whether
synchrony, that is, the degree of concerted ßuctuations in mosquito abundance across locations, was
affected by the temperature gradient. We found the association of mosquito abundance with tem perature to be delayed by 2 wk in the north when compared with the south. The abundance across
all our sampling locations had a ßat synchrony proÞle that could reßect impacts of rainfall and average
temperature on the average of all our samples. Finally, our results showed that population synchrony
across space can emerge even when abundance is differentially impacted by an exogenous factor
across an environmental gradient
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