Does the stress of grasshoppers transform ecosystems?

2010/11/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Zoologia
• Ekologia

A researcher proposes that the behavior of grasshoppers may have an ecosystem influence

An ecologist at Yale University proposes that the behavior of grasshoppers when stressed can affect ecosystems. It says that changing food and eating poorer protein foods can cause the soils in which rebels finally live to be poorer in nitrogen.

When stressed, grasshoppers eat food that is poorer in protein and rich in sugars. They consume more foods that are digested more easily, to have available energy before and, for example, to get out of the danger of predators.

Stressed grasshoppers not only absorb less nitrogen from the foods they eat, but also metabolize their proteins to generate more energy. In this way, nitrogen retention is reduced in the body and nitrogenous compounds are reduced in the soil when dying and rotting. It has also found bacteria from the earth in areas where stressed and stress-free grasshoppers have rotted.

This change of diet and its consequences can be generalized. Therefore, he believes that animal stress could alter the proportions of species of a particular ecosystem.

This relationship between stress and change in ecosystems, however, is not so clear to other scientists. A similar hypothesis was proposed in the Yellowston National Park: the reintroduction of the wolf altered the behavior of the increases and an investigation was carried out to determine if they avoided "dangerous" environments. If this were so, the herons that eat the furniture could repopulate these areas.

In the U.S. Geology Service, studies were conducted to test this hypothesis and it was found that yes, the furniture modified their behavior and that in general they did not move through dangerous areas. However, when making trips in these areas, the herons were not allowed to change their location.