Assessment on Potential Suitable Habitats of the Grasshopper Oedaleus decorus asiaticus in North China based on MaxEnt Modeling and Remote Sensing Data

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Oedaleus decorus asiaticus (Bey-Bienko) populations are highly concentrated in Xilingol League of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region where they regularly harm the ecosystems protecting northern China. In order to prevent the occurrence of O. d. asiaticus in the Xilingole grassland, the establishment of a high-precision method and extracting the area of occurrence for O. d. asiaticus is required. The primary objectives of this study were: (1) to project the potential distribution of O. d. asiaticus by MaxEnt model and remote sensing data, and (2) to explore the responses and relative contributions of habitat factors to the distribution of O. d. asiaticus. The study will help guide managers and decision-makers to prevent and control the occurrence of O. d. asiaticus early on and this work may facilitate meaningful reductions in pesticide application. ABSTRACT: Grasshopper populations can quickly grow to catastrophic levels, causing a huge amount of damage in a short time. Oedaleus decorus asiaticus (Bey-Bienko) (O. d. asiaticus) is the most serious species in Xilingol League of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The region is not only an important grassland but also a site of agricultural heritage systems in China. Therefore, projecting the potential geographic distribution of O. d. asiaticus to provide an early warning is vital. Here, we combined temperature, precipitation, soil, vegetation, and topography with remote sensing data to screen the predictors that best characterize the current geographical distribution of O. d. asiaticus. A MaxEnt model approach was applied to project the potential suitable distribution of O. d. asiaticus in Xilingol League (the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China) combined with a set of optimized parameters. The modeling results indicated that there were six main habitat factors that determined the suitable distribution of O. d. asiaticus such as the soil type (ST), grassland type (GT), elevation, precipitation during the growing period (GP), precipitation during the spawning period (SP), and normalized difference vegetation index during the overwintering period (ONDVI). The simulated result was good, with average AUC and TSS values of 0.875 and 0.812, respectively. The potential inhabitable areas of grasshoppers were 198,527 km(2), distributed mainly in West Urumqi, Xilinhot City, East Urumqi, Abaga Banner, and Xianghuang Banner of Xilingol League. This study is valuable to guide managers and decision-makers to prevent and control the occurrence of O. d. asiaticus early on and this study may facilitate meaningful reductions in pesticide application.