Impact of elevated carbon dioxide on the bionomics of maize fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda: an age-stage, two-sex life table approach

Abstract

Rising atmospheric CO₂ concentrations are more likely to alter the survival and fecundity of insect pests. Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) is an important insect pest that severely affects Indian agriculture, yet the influence of elevated CO₂ on population dynamics of this species is still unknown. The elevated CO₂ shortened the overall development time and total lifespan of S. frugiperda in a linear fashion with increase in CO₂ from 410 ppm to 550 ppm. Further, the fecundity of S. frugiperda was reduced with increasing CO₂ above 490 ppm, and the mean number of eggs laid per female moth increased as the atmospheric CO₂ increased from 410 ppm to 490 ppm. Therefore, elevated CO₂ had a positive correlation with fecundity at 430, 460, and 490 ppm, but not at 520 and 550 ppm, indicating a threshold level between 490 and 520 ppm. These results signify that future scenario of global climate change will influence the population fitness of S. frugiperda with increasing CO₂ concentrations.

Keywords:

• Spodoptera frugiperda
• bionomics
• elevated CO₂
• age-stage
• two-sex life table
• survival
• fecundity

Acknowledgements

The financial support received from Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (Project no: DST/CCP/MRDP/145/2018) is gratefully acknowledged. Authors would like to thank Dr. Muthukumar Bagavathiannan, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, United states for his great job in the English language editing of this manuscript. In addition, the authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the quality of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Compliance with ethical standards

The authors declare that they have complied witth ethical standards.

Author contribution

V.B., V.G and N.S. designed the study and arranged funding. K.A. and V.B. collected and processed the samples, and generated the data. K.A. and J.SK. conducted the statistical analysis and interpretation. K.A. and V.B. led the wirting of the manuscript. All authors edited and provided critical contributions to drafts and gave final approval for publication.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India through Project no: DST/CCP/MRDP/145/2018.