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Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve

Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve

Experiment 122 - Trophic Structure: Insect Species Diversity, Abundance and Body Size

The goal of this study was to examine the population of insects in prairies and savannahs. Most of the prairies had developed after being abandoned from agriculture, but none of the savannahs had been cultivated. The history of burning varied between sites. Insects were sampled via sweep-net sampling, pitfalls and ant plates throughout the growing season in each of 49 grassland fields and savannahs. In total, 89,596 individuals of 1,167 species were captured and enumerated. Body size was measured for a subset of grasshoppers collected. The study was conducted in 1992 by the lead investigators: John Haarstad, Evan Siemann, and David Tilman.

Methods

All Methods Available for e122


Data available for this experiment

denotes a Cedar Creek Signature dataset.

Abundance and Body size of Insects Collected

Arachnida species (spiders) abundance

Coleoptera species abundance

Diptera species abundance

Formicidae species (ants) abundance

Hemiptera species abundance

Homoptera species abundance

Hymenoptera species abundance

Insects caught in pitfall traps

Lepidoptera species abundance

Miscellaneous inscet species abundance

Orthoptera species abundance

 

Associated Publications

Siemann, E.; Tilman, D.; Haarstad, J.; "Insect species diversity, abundance and body size relationships. Nature 380:704-706. (Highlighted in News and Views by S. Nee and J. H. Lawton, highlighted in The Sciences, April 1997.)" 1996 [Abstract] [Full Text] e122