The conservation of game birds and other wildlife species in Texas depends on landowners, who manage the bulk of the important habitats. When habitat is improved for game birds, other species that have similar habitat requirements benefit the overall health and functionality of Texas ecosystems. Our goal is to compare insect diversity and abundance in plots with different grassland mixtures. The project goal is to identify methods that most efficiently replace bermudagrass monocultures with diverse, native forb and grass species. The diverse grasslands should be a more favorable environment for wildlife, specifically grassland and savannah song and game birds. Our hypothesis in this component of the study is that a diverse mixture of native forbs and bunchgrasses will contain greater insect diversity and biomass. If this proves correct, it will encourage landowners and TPWD to replace bermudagrass monocultures with diverse grassland.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.