Hemiptera community and species responses to grassland sward islets

Article English OPEN
Helden, Alvin J. ; Dittrich, Alex D. K. (2016)
  • Subject:
    mesheuropmc: endocrine system
Sward islet is a term that has been used to describe a patch of longer vegetation in a pasture produced by a reduction in cattle grazing around their dung. They are known to affect the abundance and distribution of grassland arthropods. Hemiptera, like other groups, are found in higher densities within islets than the surrounding sward. Does this modify the community composition or is there just a density effect? Evidence from a paired (islets, non-islets) study at an Irish cattle-grazed site, would suggest that although a change in the density of species explains much of the patterns observed, some species respond to islets in different ways. Grassland Auchenorrhyncha were dominated by two genera, Javesella (mostly J. obscurella and to a lesser extent J. pellucida) and Macrosteles (mostly M. viridigriseus with some M. laevis and M. sexnotatus). The nymphs and to a lesser extent the adults, showed contrasting distribution patterns in relation to islets. Javesella were more common in the islets, whereas Macrosteles showed little difference between the two sub-habitats. Possible reasons for the difference in sub-habitat choice between these two Auchenorrhyncha taxa are discussed.
  • References (30)
    30 references, page 1 of 3

    Arnold A.J. 1994: Insect suction sampling without nets, bags or filters. - Crop Protection 13: 73-76.

    Bates D., Maechler M., Bolker B. & Walker S. 2015: lme4: Linear mixed-efects models using Eigen and S4. R package version 1.1-8, URL: http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=lme4

    Benton T.G., Vickery J.A. & Wilson J.D. 2003: Farmland biodiversity: is habitat heterogeneity the key? - Trends Ecology Evolution 18: 182-188.

    Blackman R.L. 2010: Handbooks for the identification of British insects. Vol. 2, Pt. 7: Aphids - Aphidinae (Macrosiphini). - Field Studies Council, Shrewsbury, 414 pp.

    Bosker T., Hoekstra N.J. & Lantinga E.A. 2002: The influence of feeding strategy on growth and rejection of herbage around dung pats and their decomposition. - Journal of Agricultural Science 139: 213-221.

    Crawley M.J. 2007: The R Book.

    - John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, 942 pp.

    Curry J.P. 1987a: The Invertebrate Fauna of Grassland and Its Influence on Productivity. I. The Composition of the Fauna. - Grass and Forage Science 42: 103-20.

    Curry J.P. 1987b: The Invertebrate Fauna of Grassland and Its Influence on Productivity. II. Factors Afecting the Abundance and Composiiton of the Fauna. - Grass and Forage Science 42: 197-212.

    Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Ireland 2013: Compendium of Irish Agricultural Statistics 2013. http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/publications/2013/ compendiumofirishagriculturalstatistics2013/tableofcontents/ (accessed 21 September 2015).

  • Similar Research Results (1)
  • Metrics
    0
    views in OpenAIRE
    0
    views in local repository
    10
    downloads in local repository

    The information is available from the following content providers:

    From Number Of Views Number Of Downloads
    Anglia Ruskin Research Online - IRUS-UK 0 10
Share - Bookmark