DOI: 10.5061/dryad.0s4q8m8
title: Data from: Linking land use and the nutritional ecology of herbivores: a case study with the Senegalese locust

description: 1) Access to high-quality food is a main driver of population dynamics.
 For herbivores protein and carbohydrates are key nutrients that are
 notoriously variable in plants and are affected by land use. However, few
 studies have linked foraging decisions and performance in the laboratory
 to the nutritional landscape available in the field. 2) Oedaleus
 senegalensis is a nonmodel locust, a grass-feeder, and the main pest of
 millet, a subsistence crop in the Sahel. In this study, we examined
 dietary preference and locust performance across a range of
 protein:carbohydrate ratios using the Geometric Framework methodology. We
 then applied a fitness landscape approach to visualize these results with
 the plant nutrient contents available across four land-use types: millet,
 groundnut, fallow, and grazed fields. Finally, we contrasted our results
 with locust distribution in the field. Several locust species (O.
 senegalensis included) exhibit density dependent color polymorphism thus
 we also reported individual coloration (brown or green). 3) We found that
 O. senegalensis preferred moderately carbohydrate-biased food 1:1.6
 protein: carbohydrate ratio. All traits recorded (mass gain, development
 time, growth rate, molt success, and performance index) were best near
 that ratio and declined on either side presenting a “hump-shape”. Fallow
 fields contained more plants, particularly grasses, that were both
 abundant and closer to the optimal protein:carbohydrate ratio recorded
 from the lab experiments. 4) When we surveyed O. senegalensis abundance
 and proportion, we found that they were more numerous in the fallow
 fields. Brown morph individuals, the ones associated with high density,
 were proportionally more abundant in fallow fields than green individuals.
 5) Our study provides evidence that variation in nutritional
 landscapes—relative to an herbivore’s optimal nutrient balance—is a key
 driver of herbivore population distribution and abundance, and can be used
 to predict bottom-up effects on herbivore species. protein:carbohydrate
 ratio recorded from the lab experiments.
description: Nutrient landscape
 dataData related to the
 nutritional landscape available in the field (field type, nutrient
 content, plant coverage, performance associated with nutrient ratio, plant
 family, plant functional group, Euclidian distance, side of the
 IT).DRYAD
 nutrient data.csvChoice experiment
 (intake target)Data for the choice
 experiment (treatment, start mass, amount of food eaten for each dish,
 amount of protein eaten, amount of carbohydrates eaten, total amount of
 food eaten).DRYAD choice experiment (intake
 target).csvO. senegalensis
 surveysData on O. senegalensis
 surveys (village, farmer, field type, number of grasshoppers, number of O.
 senegalensis, number of solitarious, number of
 gregarious)DRYAD O. senegalensis
 surveys.csvO. senegalensis
 performance dataData from the no-choice
 experiment (date, treatment, sex, instar, date molted, development time,
 start mass, end mass, mass gain, specific growth rate, percent molt,
 performance, molting success, consumption).DRYAD O. senegalensis
 performance data.csv