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Low conservatism of leafhopper communities in remnant and reconstructed prairie sites in a working agroecological landscape

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Abstract

Leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) form a large, diverse insect family that contributes significantly to trophic interactions and pathogen transmission in grasslands. We compared leafhopper communities of five remnant prairies and five prairie reconstructions in northeastern Kansas, USA. We hypothesized that leafhopper communities would be more conservative (i.e., greater dependence on prairies) and diverse on remnant as compared to reconstructed prairies, and that remnants would support more grass-feeders. We also predicted that sites surrounded by natural/semi-natural landscapes would have greater leafhopper diversity. We found grass feeders represented a higher proportion of leafhoppers on remnants. We found, however, no difference in mean conservatism between remnants and reconstructions, and overall levels of conservatism were lower than other grassland data sets. Mean conservatism was greater in the mid-summer than in early summer, where migratory pests such as Macrosteles were abundant. Although remnants and reconstructed prairies didn’t differ in leafhopper diversity, diversity increased with forb percent cover. The amount of natural and semi-natural land cover around sites had complex relationships with leafhopper diversity and composition. For future studies, we encourage coordinated studies on leafhopper communities across the tallgrass prairie region, with a particular focus on conservatism. Deciphering the effect of survey times, and grassland size and management, on prairie-dependent leafhoppers is important. We predict that large numbers of migratory species may lead to greater homogeneity in leafhopper communities across sites early in the season. Over time, site types and landscape features may progressively filter species and amplify local specialists, resulting in more late-season variation among sites.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the generosity of many landowners who allowed research on their properties. Daphne Mayes assisted with finding field locations. Zachary Falin and Jennifer Thomas (both at the Entomology Division, Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas), and Dmitry Dmietriev (Illinois Natural History Survey) assisted with insect identification. Christopher H. Dietrich (Illinois Natural History Survey) kindly supplied information about leafhopper collections in Wallner et al. (2013). KK was supported by NSF DBI-1262795; CM by USDA NIFA Award 2011-67009-30137, MSU AgBioResearch, and Project GREEEN, and KD by the Nature Conservancy, Prairie Biotic Research Inc., the Kansas Native Plant Society, the Grassland Heritage Foundation, the KU Field Station, and by NSF DEB-1021158 and NSF DEB-0950100.

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  1. Kent Keene

    Present address: Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, 110 North Carolina Ave. SE, Washington, DC, 20003, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO, 63701, USA

    Kent Keene

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA

    Kent Keene, Helen M. Alexander & Kathy R. Denning

  3. Department of Plant Biology, and Program in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Carolyn M. Malmstrom

  4. Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA

    Astri Wayadande

  5. Kansas Biological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA

    Kathy R. Denning

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Correspondence to Kathy R. Denning.

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We had permission to collect insects on all the grassland sites from private landowners and the University of Kansas Field Station (Rockefeller prairie).

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There were no human participants in this study. No vertebrate animals were studied; there were limited collections of leafhoppers.

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Keene, K., Malmstrom, C.M., Alexander, H.M. et al. Low conservatism of leafhopper communities in remnant and reconstructed prairie sites in a working agroecological landscape. J Insect Conserv 24, 35–48 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-019-00198-y

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