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Large scale burning for a threatened ungulate in a biodiversity hotspot is detrimental for grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Caelifera)

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Abstract

Habitat management strategies across the globe are often focusing on flagship species, such as large threatened mammals. This is also true for most protected areas of India, where large mammals such as the Tiger or Asian Elephant represent focal species of conservation management, although a shift towards other species groups can be observed in recent times. Prescribed burning is a controversially debated method to manage open habitat types. This method is practised as a tool to manage the habitat of the endangered Nilgiri tahr, Nilgiritragus hylocrius (an endemic goat) at a large scale (50 ha grids) in Eravikulam National Park of the Western Ghats (Kerala, India). However, the impact of prescribed burning on other biota of this unique environment in a global biodiversity hotspot has not been studied. We compared the impact of large-scale prescribed burning on grasshopper abundances in Eravikulam National Park with small-scale burning in Parambikulam Tiger Reserve from 2015 to 2018, to assess the impact of the different fire management practices of these reserves on this species-rich insect group. We observed a negative response of grasshoppers to burning of larger contiguous areas in terms of their recovery after fire events, whereas burning small patches in a mosaic pattern facilitated rapid recovery of grasshopper communities. Our results suggest that burning management can be optimized to benefit both, the flagship vertebrate species as well as species-rich invertebrate communities.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to the Director, Sajeev TV, lab mates (ecology and entomology) and all other scientific community members of the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) for their support. The financial support of the Orthoptera Species File Grant made the visit to European museums possible. We are grateful to Maria Marta Cigliano, Holger Braun of OSF and Judith Marshall, George Beccaloni of NHM London and Mercedes Paris of MNCN Madrid for their whole hearted support during the study. We acknowledge the Kerala Forest and Wildlife Department (PKMTR and ENP); Wildlife wardens (Anjan Kumar IFS and Prasad G) Range Forest Officers (Manoj K, Johnson CK, Rajan V, Jayaprakash K, Sanjayan MP and Sandeep S) our field assistants (Bagyaraj, Sreenivasan, Karupswami and Kapilan) as well as Mr. Shiju (driver KFRI) for safely driving us through the forests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, Thrissur, Kerala, 680653, India

    Dhaneesh Bhaskar, P. S. Easa & K. A. Sreejith

  2. University of Calicut, Thenhipalam, Kerala, 673635, India

    Dhaneesh Bhaskar, P. S. Easa & K. A. Sreejith

  3. IUCN SSC Grasshopper Specialist Group, Gland, Switzerland

    Dhaneesh Bhaskar, Josip Skejo & Axel Hochkirch

  4. Division of Zoology, Department of Biology, Evolution Lab, University of Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 6, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Josip Skejo

  5. Department of Biogeography, Trier University, 5486, Trier, Germany

    Axel Hochkirch

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  1. Dhaneesh Bhaskar
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Correspondence to Dhaneesh Bhaskar.

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Bhaskar, D., Easa, P.S., Sreejith, K.A. et al. Large scale burning for a threatened ungulate in a biodiversity hotspot is detrimental for grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Caelifera). Biodivers Conserv 28, 3221–3237 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-019-01816-6

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