Water shortages and water pollution are current issues in ecosystems around the world, and the stress induced by drought can further increase negative impacts on agriculture in these areas. In the present experiment, we examined the effect of mild drought on wheat plants grown in association with the wheat aphid Sitobion avenae Fabricius (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in 2019 and 2020. Using plot experiments, we tested the hypothesis that mild drought tends to enhance the performance of this wheat aphid by changing the nutritional quality of the wheat plants. We found that mild drought treatment significantly increased aphid abundance and population growth rates. Also, mild drought significantly increased total amino acid concentration of the wheat ear as well as concentrations of key amino acids, including Arg, Ile, Leu, Lys, Phe, Try, Gly, Ala, Tyr, and Cys in 2019, and Arg, Ile, Leu, Lys, Gly, and Cys in 2020. Mild drought led to a shift in the composition of amino acids in the plants, causing cascading effects at higher trophic levels. Such changes suggest that the carrying capacity of the environment with respect to aphids will increase if mild drought events continues to increase in frequency with climate change.

中文翻译：

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轻度干旱通过改变宿主代谢促进小麦蚜虫丰度的增加

缺水和水污染是世界各地生态系统中的当前问题，干旱引起的压力会进一步加剧这些地区对农业的负面影响。在本实验中，我们研究了轻度干旱对与小麦蚜虫Sitobion avenae相关的小麦植株的影响Fabricius（Hemiptera：Aphididae）在2019年和2020年。使用田间试验，我们检验了以下假设：轻度干旱倾向于通过改变小麦植物的营养品质来增强该小麦蚜虫的性能。我们发现，温和的干旱处理显着提高了蚜虫的丰度和种群增长率。此外，轻度干旱显着增加了小麦穗的总氨基酸浓度以及关键氨基酸的浓度，包括Arg，Ile，Leu，Lys，Phe，Try，Gly，Ala，Tyr和Cys在2019年以及Arg， Ile，Leu，Lys，Gly和Cys在2020年。温和的干旱导致植物中氨基酸的组成发生变化，在较高的营养水平下导致连锁反应。