Grasshoppers
Back to the Monitoring Hub
Increase diversity and abundance in restored grasslands
Data collection in progress
Iron Curtain to Green Belt
Bulgaria
Problem: Across the landscape, natural and semi-natural grasslands are being ploughed and converted to arable land, often driven by agricultural subsidies and resulting in unsustainable agricultural practices. Important and rare plant and animal communities associated with these grasslands, such as souslik, are therefore under threat.
Action: Areas of arable land and/or degraded pasture will be purchased, protected and restored by the project. Unsustainable arable agricultural practices will be ended and sustainable levels of grazing will be implemented in these areas.
Indicator: The number and species of grasshoppers in patches of grassland under restoration treelines will indicate a recovery of the key plant species required by this taxon. Data from this indicator will be combined with the indicators on grassland birds and plants to provide a multispecies biodiversity index of changes in community.
A female Anatolian predatory bush-cricket (Saga natoliae) – a carnivorous giant bush-cricket, which is the largest insect in Europe. Photo: Dragan Chobanov
Greek toothed grasshopper (Stenobothrus graecus) – an endangered species typical for dry steppe grasslands in the southern Balkans and Western Anatolia. Photo: Dragan Chobanov
Methods
Grasshopper monitoring will be carried out before and after grassland restoration (a switch to sustainable grazing) takes place. Each monitoring period will involve two or three surveys between June and August. The first survey will be carried out in 2024, and the follow-up survey is planned for 2027. Data on grasshopper species and abundance will be collected in three habitat types: arable fields, open grasslands, and grasslands with shrubs and trees. Some areas in each of these habitats will be restored by the project (treatment sites) and others where no restoration will take place (control sites). Grasshopper data will be collected at the same sites as Grassland Plants and Grassland Birds indicators.
Grasshoppers will be surveyed along transects of 1 m width, of which the exact location and number will be established in 2024. Transects lengths are likely to vary depending on factors such as habitat structure and heterogeneity, and data will be standardised after collection to reflect the size of the transect (e.g., per hectare). At least 10 samples will be surveyed in each habitat type.
During the transect, all grasshopper species will be identified visually and acoustically. In cases where species cannot be determined in the field, specimens will be collected for subsequent identification. Only adults or late-stage nymph instars will be recorded. Number of specimens per species (abundance) will be recorded, as well as their associated GPS locations taken while conducting the transect.
Blackwinged saw bush-cricket (Ancistrura nigrovittata) – an endemic species in the eastern Balkans. Photo: Dragan Chobanov
The big-bellied glandular bush-cricket (Bradyporus macrogaster) – an endangered giant bush-cricket with eastern-Balkan and northwestern-Anatolian distribution. Photo: Dragan Chobanov
Results
This page will be updated once the project the baseline data has been collected and analysed.
Partners
