Predation risk for insects living in different strata: A globally distributed experiement with standardized live prey

Abstract

• With insect populaiton declining, it is important to understand predation on different types of insects.
• Project is a global macro-ecological study with 128 locations world-wide in different habitats.
• Contributes to understanding the factors that influence insect decline and situate studies of insect populations in natural food webs.
• The 3 hypotheses tested: (1) root-feeding insects experience more predation than leaf feeding insects, (2) predation on root and leaf feeding insects will decline with latitude especially for leaf feeding species, (3) predation by vertebrate & invertebrate predators will decline with increasing latitude.
• We will conduct an experiement at Fairfield Osborn Preserve using methods developed by Finnish researchers and provided to us to implements the experimental protocol in the same way at every location across the globe.
• Our task is to test the hypotheses in a temperate forested area.