Do changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration affect aphid alarm signaling?

The effects of global atmospheric changes on vegetation and associated insect populations are increasingly studied, but how these gases affect the interactions between herbivore insects and their natural enemies is less clear. As the efficacy of natural enemies is governed largely by behavioral mechanisms, changes in the behavior of insect prey defenses can change the dynamics of insect populations. The impact of increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations on aphid population dynamic is well documented. However, few publications about their chemical ecology are reported. Aphids are using many chemical signals to communicate with each other or with their environment. For example aphids produce an alarm pheromone to signal the presence of a natural enemy in the colony.
For our experiments, aphids Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris) were reared on Vicia faba L. in home-made Plexiglas® chambers, allowing us to control the CO2 concentration, temperature and humidity. Aphids were reared under both ambient (aCO2 ≈ 400 ppm) and elevated (eCO2 ≈ 800 ppm) CO2 concentration for several generations.
Here we quantified the emission of (E)-β-Farnesene (EβF - main compound of alarm pheromone) released by predated aphids reared under ambient or elevated CO2 concentration, with two different methods: a real-time analysis, and the total amount analysis. The EβF content of whole aphid bodies was also analyzed, as well as the escape behavior of aphid colony according to the growing conditions of aphid populations. These results will be discussed in terms of biological control in future climate.