Grazing Intensity and the Diversity of Grasshoppers, Butterflies, and Trap‐Nesting Bees and Wasps

By A. Kruess, T. Tscharntke. 2002

432 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract: The maintenance of grasslands as distinct habitats depends on regular management, usually through grazing or mowing, but their species diversity is known to decline with increasing management intensity. The reduction of management intensity can be a useful tool for the long‐term conservation of the biological diversity of grasslands. We analyzed floral and faunal diversity on intensively and extensively (unintensively) grazed pastures and on 5‐ to 10‐year‐old ungrazed grasslands in northern Germany. Each of the three grassland habitats differing in grazing intensity was replicated six times. We related diverse taxa such as grasshoppers, butterfly adults and lepidopteran larvae, and trap‐nesting solitary bees and wasps to vegetation structure. There was an increase of species richness and abundance from pastures to ungrazed grasslands. The percentage of parasitism of the most abundant trap‐nesting species, the digger‐wasp ( Trypoxylon figulus), was also higher on ungrazed grasslands. Decreased grazing on pastures enhanced species richness for adult butterflies only, whereas the abundance of adult butterflies, solitary bees and wasps, and their natural enemies increased. Although the differences in insect diversity between pastures and ungrazed grassland could be attributed to a greater vegetation height and heterogeneity ( bottom‐up effects) on ungrazed areas, the differences between intensively and extensively grazed pastures could not be explained by changes in vegetation characteristics. Hence, intensive grazing appeared to affect the insect communities through the disruption of plant‐insect interactions. A mosaic of extensively grazed grassland and grassland left ungrazed for a few years may be a good means by which to maintain biodiversity and the strength of trophic interactions.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7ffb34c2bd6549e6e22abacbbf86e7c846cb02e6

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

In Plant Science

Citations in the corpus

Review of the Methods Frequently Used to Estimate the Abundance of Orthoptera in Grassland Ecosystems (2005, background): “…et al. 2000; Cigliano et al. 2002), sweep netting (Holmes et al. 1979; Landsberg et al. 1997; Fuhlendorf et al. 2002), timed counts (Belovsky and Slade 1993; Lepš et al. 2001; Bieringer 2002) and transects (Isern-Vallverdu et al. 1993; Wettstein and Schmid 1999; Kruess and Tscharntke 2002).”
Opportunities to enhance pollinator biodiversity in solar parks (2021, background): “Structurally diverse vegetation was associated with greater bumblebee and butterfly abundance, richness or diversity [81,152], whereas the benefits of tall vegetation were predominantly associated with butterflies, with most evidence reporting relationships between vegetation height and butterfly ab”
Effects of vineyard management on biodiversity at three trophic levels (2010, neutral): “Kruess and Tscharntke (2002) made similar observations in a study system of different grazing intensities.”
Impact of farm size and topography on plant and insect diversity of managed grasslands in the Alps (2009, background): “…large consensus about the detrimental effect of intensive grassland management such as high cutting frequency or intensive grazing on plant and invertebrate diversity (Kruess and Tscharntke, 2002; Schwab et al., 2002; Myklestad and Sætersdal, 2004; Maurer et al., 2006; Marini et al., 2008).”
Intensive game keeping, coppicing and butterflies: The story of Milovicky Wood, Czech Republic (2006, background): “Such enclosures are now in fact provided within the regeneration blocks, they should function similarly to rotational grazing in grassland conservation (Kruess and Tscharntke, 2002).”
Short-term responses of native bees to livestock and implications for managing ecosystem services in grasslands (2012, background): “Livestock grazing may impact native bees through its effect on plant growth, architecture, diversity, and quality, as well as soil characteristics and microhabitat temperature and relative humidity (Kruess and Tscharntke 2002, DeBano 2006 a,b, Black et al. 2011).”
Effects of livestock grazing on aboveground insect communities in semi-arid grasslands of southeastern Arizona (2006, background): “The most extensive research on the effects of livestock grazing on grassland invertebrate communities has taken place in Europe.”
Effects of livestock breed and grazing intensity on biodiversity and production in grazing systems. 4. Effects on animal diversity (2007, background): “…(King and Hutchinson, 1976; King et al., 1976), Dermpatera (Hutchinson and King, 1980), Diplopoda (Hutchinson and King, 1980), Hemiptera (Morris, 1967; 1968; 1969; 1973; Gibson et al., 1992b; Dennis et al., 1998; Di Giulio et al., 2001; Kruess and Tscharntke, 2002a) and Isopoda (Morris, 1968).”
Ecological limits to plant phenotypic plasticity. (2007, background): “…by ungulate damage to some woody plants severely affects those insects dependent on complex structures, such as sap-suckers and caterpillars (Tscharntke & Greiler, 1995; Abensperg-Traun et al., 1996; Bestelmeyer & Wiens, 1996; Dennis et al., 1997; Tscharntke, 1997; Kruess & Tscharntke, 2002a,b).”
The influence of grassland management on ground beetles (Carabidae, Coleoptera) in Swiss montane meadows (2005, background): “So far, the effects of different management types on species richness have been studied for various arthropods, such as grasshoppers (Wingerden et al., 1991; Dolek, 1994; Radlmair and Laussmann, 1997), butterflies ( Kruess and Tscharntke, 2002a, b), bugs (Di Giulio et al., 2001) and carabids (Rushto”
Local-scale factors structure wild bee communities in protected areas (2012, background): “To exclude casual occurrences and enhance the detection of relationships between community composition and environmental factors, species occurring in <5% of sites were excluded from pCCAs (McCune & Grace 2002).”
Intensification of agriculture, landscape composition and wild bee communities: a large scale study in four European countries. (2010, background): “, 2006) but also some more restricted groups among bees like bumblebees (Carvell, 2002) or trap nesting bees (Kruess and Tscharntke, 2002; Steffan-Dewenter and Leschke, 2003).”
Environmental factors affecting bee diversity in urban and remote grassland plots in Boulder, Colorado (2009, result): “These results are similar to those of Kruess and Tscharntke (2002) who found that decreased grazing resulted in increased abundance of bees in grasslands in Germany.”