Effects of landscape and habitat quality on Orthoptera assemblages of pre-alpine calcareous grasslands

At the landscape level, the number of Orthoptera species in well-connected pre-alpine calcareous grasslands increased with habitat heterogeneity, which was inter-related with patch size. Functional connectivity, however, had no effect on species richness. At the habitat level, species richness and abundance of Orthoptera were driven by land use together with vegetation structure and microclimate. In general, the explanatory power of our abundance models was at least twice as high as those of the species richness models. Based on the results of our study, conservation management of grassland Orthoptera should primarily focus on improving habitat heterogeneity and habitat quality within patches.