Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Conservation of predators often is promoted on their ability to provide important ecosystem services. One of these services is when predators decrease herbivore numbers, and thereby, increase plant production. In many grasslands, grasshoppers are the dominant herbivore, even when large herbivores are abundant, and birds are their main predator. We examined when this service emerges using a multi-site and -year grassland field experiment that excluded birds. When birds reduce grasshopper abundance, plant production only increases if grasshoppers also decrease the limiting nutrient (nitrogen) for plant production. Grasshoppers decrease nitrogen if they selectively feed on plant species that decompose more rapidly, which increases the litter from plant species that decompose more slowly. Therefore, when there are fewer grasshoppers, nitrogen availability for plants and their production increases. However, across sites, grasshoppers increase nitrogen availability more often than they decrease it; therefore, this ecosystem service of predation is not consistently observed.
Source: Scientific Reports
Authors: Gary E. Belovsky, Jennifer B. Slade
Institution: University of Notre Dame
Language: English
Subfield: Insect Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Life on land, Zero hunger
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,690
Awards: G2599896673, Regulation of Grasshopper Populations and Communities; Differing Dominant Mechanisms Over Space and Time, G4263108920, LTREB Renewal: Ecosystem Structure and Function in Palouse Grasslands, LTREB: Ecosystem Structure and Function in Palouse Grasslands - Nitrogen, Plants, Grasshoppers and Birds, G676393942, LTREB Renewal: Ecosystem Structure and Function in Palouse Grasslands, G7025019017, Collaborative Research: Regulation of Rangeland Grasshopper Populations and Communities: Differing Dominant Mechanisms Over Space and Time
OpenAlex ID: W7169654646