Relationships between Plant Diversity and Grasshopper Diversity and Abundance in the Little Missouri National Grassland

A continuing challenge in orthopteran ecology is to understand what determines grasshopper species diversity at a given site. In this study, the objective was to determine if variation in grasshopper abundance and diversity between 23 sites in western North Dakota (USA) could be explained by variati...

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Main Author: David H. Branson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2011-01-01
Series:Psyche: A Journal of Entomology
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/748635
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author David H. Branson
author_facet David H. Branson
author_sort David H. Branson
collection DOAJ
description A continuing challenge in orthopteran ecology is to understand what determines grasshopper species diversity at a given site. In this study, the objective was to determine if variation in grasshopper abundance and diversity between 23 sites in western North Dakota (USA) could be explained by variation in plant species richness and diversity. In this system with relatively low plant diversity, grasshopper species richness and abundance were not significantly associated with plant species richness in either year. Although a number of significant associations between plant diversity and grasshopper diversity were found through regression analyses, results differed greatly between years indicating that plant species richness and diversity did not lead to strong effects on grasshopper diversity metrics. Plant species richness appears to be too coarse grained to lead to accurate predictions of grasshopper species richness in this system dominated by generalist grasshopper species.
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series Psyche: A Journal of Entomology
spelling doaj-art-5b164d63e2b5497a8ca9f97277fd3f0f2025-02-03T01:26:01ZengWileyPsyche: A Journal of Entomology0033-26151687-74382011-01-01201110.1155/2011/748635748635Relationships between Plant Diversity and Grasshopper Diversity and Abundance in the Little Missouri National GrasslandDavid H. Branson0USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney, MT 59270, USAA continuing challenge in orthopteran ecology is to understand what determines grasshopper species diversity at a given site. In this study, the objective was to determine if variation in grasshopper abundance and diversity between 23 sites in western North Dakota (USA) could be explained by variation in plant species richness and diversity. In this system with relatively low plant diversity, grasshopper species richness and abundance were not significantly associated with plant species richness in either year. Although a number of significant associations between plant diversity and grasshopper diversity were found through regression analyses, results differed greatly between years indicating that plant species richness and diversity did not lead to strong effects on grasshopper diversity metrics. Plant species richness appears to be too coarse grained to lead to accurate predictions of grasshopper species richness in this system dominated by generalist grasshopper species.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/748635
spellingShingle David H. Branson
Relationships between Plant Diversity and Grasshopper Diversity and Abundance in the Little Missouri National Grassland
Psyche: A Journal of Entomology
title Relationships between Plant Diversity and Grasshopper Diversity and Abundance in the Little Missouri National Grassland
title_full Relationships between Plant Diversity and Grasshopper Diversity and Abundance in the Little Missouri National Grassland
title_fullStr Relationships between Plant Diversity and Grasshopper Diversity and Abundance in the Little Missouri National Grassland
title_full_unstemmed Relationships between Plant Diversity and Grasshopper Diversity and Abundance in the Little Missouri National Grassland
title_short Relationships between Plant Diversity and Grasshopper Diversity and Abundance in the Little Missouri National Grassland
title_sort relationships between plant diversity and grasshopper diversity and abundance in the little missouri national grassland
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/748635
work_keys_str_mv AT davidhbranson relationshipsbetweenplantdiversityandgrasshopperdiversityandabundanceinthelittlemissourinationalgrassland