Data from: Genotype matching in a parasitoid-host genotypic food web: an approach for measuring effects of environmental change

Food webs typically quantify interactions between species, whereas evolution operates through the success of alleles within populations of a single species. To bridge this gap, we quantify genotypic interaction networks among individuals of a single specialized parasitoid species and its obligately to cyclically parthenogenetic aphid host along a climatic gradient. As a case study for the kinds of questions genotype food webs could be used to answer, we show that genetically-similar parasitoids became more likely to attack genetically-similar hosts in warmer sites (i.e. there was network-wide congruence between the within-species shared allelic distance of the parasitoid and that of its host). Narrowing of host-genotype-niche breadth by parasitoids could reduce resilience of the network to changes in host genetic structure or invasion by novel host genotypes, and inhibit biological control. Thus, our approach can be easily used to detect changes to sub-species-level food webs, which may have important ecological and evolutionary implications, such as promoting host-race specialisation or the accelerated loss of functional diversity following extinctions of closely-related genotypes.

食物网（food web）通常量化不同物种种间的相互作用，而进化过程则通过单个物种种群内具有适配性优势的等位基因（allele）的存续与扩散得以实现。为填补这一研究空白，本研究沿气候梯度，量化了单个特化寄生蜂（parasitoid）物种与其专性或周期性孤雌生殖蚜虫宿主的个体间基因型相互作用网络。作为基因型食物网可解答的研究问题的案例范例，我们的研究结果表明：在温度更高的样地中，遗传相似度更高的寄生蜂更倾向于攻击遗传相似度更高的宿主——即寄生蜂与宿主各自的种内共享等位基因距离在全网络层面呈现一致性。寄生蜂对宿主基因型生态位宽度的压缩，可能会降低食物网应对宿主遗传结构改变或新型宿主基因型入侵的恢复力，并削弱生物防治（biological control）的效果。因此，本研究方法可便捷地用于检测亚种级食物网的变化，这类变化可能产生重要的生态与进化意义，例如促进宿主宗（host race）特化，或是在近缘基因型灭绝后加速功能多样性（functional diversity）的丧失。