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Taxonomic and Functional Resilience of Grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Caelifera) to Fire in South Brazilian Grasslands

  • Ecology, Behavior and Bionomics
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Abstract

Fire is a frequent disturbance in grassland ecosystems enabling variability in habitat characteristics and creating important environmental filters for community assembly. Changes in vegetation have a large influence on herbivore insect assemblages. Here, we explored the responses of grasshoppers to disturbance by fire in grasslands of southern Brazil through a small-scale experiment based in paired control and burned plots. The resilience of grasshoppers was assessed by monitoring changes to their abundance, taxonomic, and functional parameters along time. Burned patches have been already recolonized by grasshoppers 1 month after fire and did not differ in terms of abundance and richness from control areas in any evaluated time within 1 year. Simpson diversity decreased 1 month after fire due to the increased dominance of Dichroplus misionensis (Carbonell) and Orphulella punctata (De Geer). In this period, grasshoppers presented in average a smaller body and a larger relative head size; these are typically nymph characteristics, which are possibly indicating a preference of juveniles for the young high-quality vegetation, or a diminished vulnerability to predation in open areas. Further, at 6 months after fire grasshoppers with smaller relative hind femur and thus lower dispersal ability seemed to be benefitted in burned patches. Finally, 1 year after fire grasshoppers became more similar to each other in relation to their set of traits. This study demonstrates how taxonomic and functional aspects of grasshopper assemblages can be complementary tools to understand their responses to environmental change.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciated the help received from Camila da Silva Goldas and Fernando Joner in the fieldwork and the support from the team in Laboratório de Ecologia de Interações, especially Fernando Albuquerque Luz for the support in figure editing (UFRGS). We are also grateful to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico (CNPq) for the financial support (Research Productivity Scholarship to MSMJ, process 309348/2012-9) and to Valério D. Pillar for the coordination of the wider project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Depto de Ecologia, Lab de Ecologia de Interações, Univ Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Prédio 43422, sala 120, CEP 91540-000, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil

    C P R Ferrando, L R Podgaiski & M D S Mendonça Jr

  2. Depto de Biodiversidade e Ecologia, Lab de Entomologia, Pontifícia Univ Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil

    M K M Costa

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  1. C P R Ferrando
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  2. L R Podgaiski
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  4. M D S Mendonça Jr
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Correspondence to C P R Ferrando.

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Edited by Kleber del Claro – UFU

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Ferrando, C.P.R., Podgaiski, L.R., Costa, M.K.M. et al. Taxonomic and Functional Resilience of Grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Caelifera) to Fire in South Brazilian Grasslands. Neotrop Entomol 45, 374–381 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-016-0380-3

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