A Multi-Species Study of Grasshopper Phenology, Distribution, and Body Size Responses to Climate Changes in the Front Range of Colorado

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

There is a compelling societal need to understand how climate change is affecting the world's biota. The proposed project will use the Gordon Alexander grasshopper collection and a new resurvey program to measure the effects of climate change on the grasshoppers found along the Front Range of Colorado. The Alexander collection is composed of over 24,000 pinned and labeled grasshoppers collected during the 1930's to the 1960's from the Rocky Mountain and plains regions of Colorado. During the survey years of 1958-1960, Alexander recorded the presence of over 65,000 grasshoppers from repeatedly sampled sites along an elevational gradient from Boulder to Niwot Ridge, Colorado. By resurveying Alexander's elevational transect, the proposed project will study the effects of a changing climate on the timing of life history events, elevational ranges and body sizes of a well studied and economically important group of organisms. The Alexander resurvey project will make information about climate change and the importance of museums and biodiversity readily available to a wide audience via a project related website. This project will also train undergraduate and graduate students in the techniques of curating, maintaining and databasing collections, as well as the use of collections and their associated data to test ecological questions.