Dissertation Research: The Distribution of a Grasshopper Species Among New England Old Fields: Population Ecology Along an Environmental Gradient

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9801665 Schmitz This proposal integrates components of population ecology and community ecology to investigate the biological and environmental factors that limit the distribution and abundance of a grasshopper species in New England old fields. This research will identify how variation in abiotic and biotic ecological factors shape the population ecology and subsequent distribution of Melanoplus femurrubrum. Field surveys demonstrated that this grasshopper is a generalist feeder that prefers grass resources that is restricted to old fields with less than 60% grass cover. Preliminary and ongoing research have indicated that competition and predation do not appear to be significant limiting factors for this species in these old fields. Based on this, two experiments will be performed. The first proposed set of experiments tests the hypothesis that bird and small mammal predators are the major limiting factors of M. femurrubrum. The second set of experiments tests the hypothesis that the distribution of this grasshopper is limited by the success of oviposition site selection and egg development. Overall, this research targets major hypotheses about the distribution of an insect of wide range and economic importance in a landscape heavily influenced by human activities, making this study relevant to basic ecology in the context of a human altered landscape.