Am Nat. 2019 Nov;194(5):E109-E121. doi: 10.1086/705241. Epub 2019 Aug 28.
A classic system for studying trophic mismatch focuses on the timing of the spring caterpillar peak in relation to the breeding time and productivity of woodland passerine birds. Most work has been conducted in single-site oak woodlands, and little is known about how insights generalize to other woodland types or across space. Here we present the results of a 3-year study on the species composition and temporal distribution of the spring caterpillar peak on different tree taxa across 40 woodland sites spanning 2° of latitude in Scotland. We used molecular barcoding to identify 62 caterpillar species, with winter moth () being the most abundant, comprising one-third of the sample. Oak ( sp.) and willow ( sp.) hosted significantly higher caterpillar abundances than other tree taxa, with winter moth exhibiting similar trends and invariantly proportionate across tree taxa. Caterpillar peak phenology was broadly similar between tree taxa. While latitude had little effect, increasing elevation increased the height of the caterpillar peak and retarded timing by 3.7 days per 100 m. These findings extend our understanding of how mismatch may play out spatially, with caterpillar peak date varying with elevation and tree taxa varying in the caterpillar resource that they host.
经典的营养不匹配研究系统侧重于春季毛虫高峰与林地雀形目鸟类繁殖时间和生产力之间的时间关系。大多数工作都是在单一地点的橡树林地进行的，而对于其他林地类型或跨越空间的情况，了解甚少。在这里，我们介绍了一项为期 3 年的研究结果，该研究涉及苏格兰 40 个林地地点跨越 2 度纬度的不同树种上春季毛虫高峰的物种组成和时间分布。我们使用分子条形码鉴定了 62 种毛虫，其中冬季蛾 ()最为丰富，占样本的三分之一。橡树 ()和柳树 ()上的毛虫数量明显多于其他树种，冬季蛾在树种间表现出相似的趋势和不变的比例。毛虫高峰物候在树种间大致相似。虽然纬度影响不大，但海拔升高会使毛虫高峰升高，并使时间推迟 3.7 天/100 米。这些发现扩展了我们对不匹配如何在空间上发挥作用的理解，毛虫高峰日期随海拔和树种而变化，而树种则因它们所承载的毛虫资源而变化。
