Browsing by Subject "Ortoptheren"

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Managementauswirkungen auf Reproduktion und Abundanz von Orthopteren in Streuobstwiesen
(2000) Schwabe, Christiane; Böcker, Reinhard
The management of orchards is changing from farmers cutting the grass for their cattle to more timesaving ways of using the grass up to doing nothing at all. The traditional management form as well as alternatives were examined by means of animal ecology in regard to their impact on grasshoppers (Saltatoria, Acrididae). In the years 1994 - 1997 abundance and reproduction of the three species Chorthippus parallelus, Chorthippus dorsatus and Gomphocerus rufus were examined comparing to the management of grass patches. Investigation site was the Limburg (48°36´N / 9°38´E) north of the Swabian Alb (Germany). The management of the patches varied from meadows (two cuts), meadows cut two to four times with grass remaining on the ground, sheep pastures and fallow land. The usable vegetation structures for the three species were investigated in detail. The returning of the grasshoppers on a pasture after intensive sheep grazing was observed. These investigations explain species-dependent habitat preferences. Based on the population data a model was developed to describe the egg density in the soil from given samples of the population density. A method was developed, to determine the management-depending egg mortality. By caging female grasshoppers the number of eggs on defined areas in the soil is increased to simplify finding enough eggs in spring. From the management-depending density of eggs, the rate of fertile eggs in spring and the population densities of the following year a rate of larvae mortality can be calculated, which tells if the population is stable, is a source, or is a sink.