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Circumpolar variation in periodicity and synchrony among gypsy moth populations

  1. DEREK M. JOHNSON1,*,
  2. ANDREW M. LIEBHOLD2,
  3. OTTAR N. BJØRNSTAD3,
  4. MICHAEL L. MCMANUS4

Article first published online: 1 SEP 2005

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2005.00980.x

Issue

Journal of Animal Ecology

Journal of Animal Ecology

Volume 74, Issue 5, pages 882–892, September 2005

Additional Information

How to Cite

JOHNSON, D. M., LIEBHOLD, A. M., BJØRNSTAD, O. N. and MCMANUS, M. L. (2005), Circumpolar variation in periodicity and synchrony among gypsy moth populations. Journal of Animal Ecology, 74: 882–892. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2005.00980.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Entomology, 501 ASI Building, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA;

  2. 2

    USDA Forest Service, North-eastern Forest Experiment Station, 180 Canfield Street, Morgantown, WV 26505 USA;

  3. 3

    Department of Entomology, 501 ASI Building, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA; and

  4. 4

    USDA Forest Service, North-eastern Forest Experiment Station, 51 Mill Pond Road., Hamden, CT 06514–1703 USA

* Derek M. Johnson, Department of Entomology, 501 ASI Building, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA. E-mail: dmj10@psu.edu

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 1 SEP 2005
  2. Article first published online: 1 SEP 2005
  3. Received 13 September 2004; revised version accepted 21 February 2005

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Keywords:

  • insect outbreaks;
  • Lymantria dispar;
  • periodicity;
  • spatial synchrony;
  • wavelet analysis

Summary

  • 1
    Previous studies of insect dynamics have detected spatial synchrony in intraspecific population dynamics up to, but not exceeding, 1000 km. Oddly, interspecific synchrony has recently been reported at distances well over 1000 km (at continental and circumpolar scales). While the authors implicated climatic effects as the cause for the apparent large-scale interspecific synchrony, there is no evidence that weather data are synchronized over such great distances.
  • 2
    In the present study, intraspecific circumpolar synchrony in the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.), was tested for among 11 regions across three continents (North America, Europe and Asia). Analyses indicate that most gypsy moth populations around the world tend to oscillate at periodicities between 8 and 12 years.
  • 3
    These oscillations were synchronized at distances up to c. 1200 km within continents. There was no evidence for intraspecific synchrony of gypsy moth populations between continents.
  • 4
    We suggest that previous reports of interspecific synchrony among insects at scales much greater than 1000 km may suffer from spurious correlations among oscillating populations.
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