Grasshopper populations are highly cyclical and respond to a combination of biotic and abiotic factors, including food availability. Water availability is frequently limiting in rangeland systems. Changing patterns of precipitation will likely modify interactions between grasshopper species and could affect grasshopper population dynamics. No manipulative research has examined how drought affects grasshopper competition in the northern plains. A manipulative experiment was conducted in mixed grass prairie in eastern Montana utilizing passive drought frames. The experiment was designed to examine the effect of intra and interspecific competition on a late developing grasshopper species that appears to respond to late summer moisture. Treatments included 50% drought and non-drought treatments in combination with intra and interspecific grasshopper competition treatments. Drought reduced plant biomass in control cages and in grasshopper herbivory treatments. Grasshopper survival was affected by drought and initial herbivore density, but differential impacts of interspecific competition were less evident. As climatic fluctuations and drought are common in the northern Great Plains, additional research is needed to examine how climate affects grasshopper population dynamics.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.