Aggregation of Cricket Activity in Response to Resource Addition Increases Local Diversity.

ABSTRACT: Crickets are often found feeding on fallen fruits among forest litter. Fruits and other sugar-rich resources are not homogeneously distributed, nor are they always available. We therefore expect that crickets dwelling in forest litter have a limited supply of sugar-rich resource, and will perceive this and displace towards resource-supplemented sites. Here we evaluate how sugar availability affects cricket species richness and abundance in old-growth Atlantic forest by spraying sugarcane syrup on leaf litter, simulating increasing availability, and collecting crickets via pitfall trapping. We found an asymptotic positive association between resource addition and species richness, and an interaction between resource addition and species identity on cricket abundance, which indicates differe

SUBMITTER: Szinwelski N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4593520 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature