• Login
    View Item 
    •   Shocker Open Access Repository Home
    • Graduate Student Research
    • GRASP: Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects
    • Proceedings 2011: 7th Annual Symposium on Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects
    • View Item
    •   Shocker Open Access Repository Home
    • Graduate Student Research
    • GRASP: Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects
    • Proceedings 2011: 7th Annual Symposium on Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Does productivity matter? An investigation of habitat use by insect and small mammal herbivores in a grassland system

    View/Open
    GRASP_2011_61.pdf (122.3Kb)
    Date
    2011-05-04
    Author
    Samant, Suvidha S.
    Advisor
    Houseman, Gregory R.
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Samant, Suvidha S. (2011). Does Productivity Matter? An Investigation of Habitat Use by Insect and Small Mammal Herbivores in a Grassland System. -- In Proceedings: 7th Annual Symposium: Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects. Wichita, KS: Wichita State University, p. 128-129
    Abstract
    Although some ecological theory predicts that herbivore density should increase with plant quality or biomass, few studies have directly measured the response of grassland herbivores to changes in plant production. In this study, we experimentally manipulated plant biomass by fertilizer addition and measured density and diversity of small mammals and insects (primarily Rodentia and Orthoptera). A total of 245 small mammals representing 9 species were captured during the study but three species (Peromyscus leucopus, Peromyscus maniculatus, and Sigmodon hispidus) comprised 82% of all captures. In general, the density of the rodent community was higher in fertilized than in unfertilized plots. Additionally, we detected an effect of increased plant biomass on total rodent mass. The body mass of S. hispidus was higher in the fertilized than in unfertilized plots but no effect was observed for the P. leucopus. For insect herbivores, grasshopper biomass as well as density was higher in fertilized than unfertilized plots. Because fertilization had weak effects on plant biomass, mammal and grasshopper populations may be more sensitive to changes in plant quality than quantity.
    Description
    First Place winner of poster presentations at the 7th Annual Symposium on Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects (GRASP) held at the Marcus Welcome Center, Wichita State University, May 4, 2011.

    Research completed at the Dept. of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Liberal Sciences
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10057/3624
    Collections
    • Proceedings 2011: 7th Annual Symposium on Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects

    Browse

    All of Shocker Open Access RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsBy TypeThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsBy Type

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2023  DuraSpace
    DSpace Express is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV