بررسی رابطه میان میزان رطوبت خاک و پتانسیل جمعیتی ملخ‌ مراکشی (مطالعه موردی: شهرستان گنبدکاووس)

The order Orthoptera is divided into two suborders: Caelifera, or short-horned grasshoppers, and Ensifera, or long-horned grasshoppers, with important pests belonging to the suborder Caelifera, such as the Moroccan locust, Italian locust, and Asian locust. The abundance of these pests fluctuates in response to different climatic patterns. The habitats of the Moroccan locust are diverse and separated, located in regions with varied topographical, geographical, and soil characteristics. Moroccan locust is one of the migratory pests of fields and pastures in Golestan province. For this purpose, 62 soil samples from the study area were taken from a depth (10 cm) in three replicates in an intact method using cylindrical metal cylinders. The cylinders containing the soil were transferred to the laboratory under controlled conditions and maintaining the moisture content of the samples, and their moisture content was measured by gravimetric method. The relationship between the Moroccan locust population and the soil moisture level for the calibration set (70% of the data) was obtained in the form of a linear regression relationship with an explanation coefficient of 0.88%. Moreover, the coefficient of determination between the measured and estimated values of the Moroccan locust numbers in the validation and verification sets was found to be 0.88% and 0.93%, respectively, indicating the accuracy of the proposed method in estimating the number of Moroccan locusts in the studied area.