A Role of Grasshoppers in a Shortgrass Prairie Ecosystem1

Abstract

The impact of grasshoppers on rangeland forage production, especially during years of high population levels, has been well documented by previous authors (Pfadt 1949, Nerney 1960, Putnam 1962). Most of this work, however, has concerned itself with measuring reductions in yield of various herbage species and/or grassland communities. With the recent surge of the concept of the ecosystem and its resultant impact upon ecological research (Watt 1966, Van Dyne 1969), it has become increasingly essential for research workers to adopt more holocoenotic approaches to the analyses of these relationships. Such is especially the case if the role of insects in ecosystem function is to be investigated. This study has taken unpublished data and examined them in the context of determining what is the most “important” ecological effect that grasshoppers have on the structure and function of a shortgrass prairie eco-system