Climate change effects on behavioral and physiological ecology of predator–prey interactions: Implications for conservation biological control

•Habitat domain is a concept to understand predator and prey movement and interactions.•Habitat domain can vary with other species present, thermal environment and plant structure.•Global warming may alter species’ thermal environment and species composition of communities.•Habitat domain helps to forecast how climate change will alter predator and prey interactions.

Habitat management under the auspices of conservation biological control is a widely used approach to foster conditions that ensure a diversity of predator species can persist spatially and temporally within agricultural landscapes in order to control their prey (pest) species. However, an emerging new factor, global climate change, has the potential to disrupt existing conservation biological control programs. Climate change may alter abiotic conditions such as temperature, precipitation, humidity and wind that in turn could alter the life-cycle timing of predator and prey species and the behavioral nature and strength of their interactions. Anticipating how climate change will affect predator and prey communities represents an important research challenge. We present a conceptual framework—the habitat domain concept—that is useful for understanding contingencies in the nature of predator diversity effects on prey based on predator and prey spatial movement in their habitat. We illustrate how this framework can be used to forecast whether biological control by predators will become more effective or become disrupted due to changing climate. We discuss how changes in predator–prey interactions are contingent on the tolerances of predators and prey species to changing abiotic conditions as determined by the degree of local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity exhibited by species populations. We conclude by discussing research approaches that are needed to help adjust conservation biological control management to deal with a climate future.

Graphical abstractThe habitat domain concept is a way of quantitatively representing predator or prey microhabitat choice and extent of spatial movement to predict contingent effects of environmental changes on predator–prey interactions.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide