Are only the strong surviving? Little influence of restoration on beetles (Coleoptera) in an agricultural landscape (original) (raw)
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Landscape Ecology - LANDSCAPE ECOL, 2001
We compared three kinds of habitats: small remnants of native forests, recent hedges and barley crops, in order to investigate their respective roles in the maintenance of carabid-beetle diversity in a 950-ha area of an intensive agricultural landscape. Carabid faunas in remnants differed weakly from these found in hedges and crops. In particular, small remnants had few typical forest carabid species and a large number of open-area or ubiquitous species. Different approaches in the measurement of a and ß-diversity (classical indices, and additive partitioning of Simpson's index) showed similar results: hedges supported a high a-diversity but habitat types were quite similar overall, with weak differences between open and closed or disturbed and undisturbed habitats.
Species and functional trait re-assembly of ground beetle communities in restored grasslands
Biodiversity and Conservation, 2017
Ecosystem restoration provides unique opportunities to study community dynamics under succession and can reveal how consumer communities reassemble and respond to successional changes. Studying community dynamics from both taxonomic and functional trait perspectives also may provide more robust assessments of restoration progress or success and allow cross-system comparisons. We studied ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) communities for three years in a restored grassland chronosequence with sites from 0 to 28 years old. We measured traditional community metrics (abundance, richness, Shannon diversity) and functional trait metrics based on species' body length, wing morphology, activity time, phenology, and diet. Communities had high species richness and abundance in early successional stages, but these declined in later stages to low levels comparable to an adjacent grassland remnant. Species composition also shifted with time, converging with the remnant. Although functional richness, like species richness, declined as succession progressed, functional divergence quickly increased and was maintained over time, suggesting niche differentiation in established communities. Young sites were typified by small, macropterous, phytophagous species, Communicated by Jens Wolfgang Dauber.
The main objective of reclamation activities is to accelerate the restoration of post-industrial areas. However current ecological studies that compare reclaimed and non-reclaimed habitats evaluate these areas mainly by species richness and conservation potential. We thus tested which environmental characteristics of the spoil heap determine the structure of the beetle communities and their successional rate. During the years 1993–2007, we sampled epigeic beetles on reclaimed and non-reclaimed parts of a spoil heap in the city of Ostrava, Czech Republic. For comparison, we used multivariate methods and functional diversity indices. Our ordination models revealed that the beetle communities on the non-reclaimed part of the spoil heap were determined by forest cover and time; in contrast, the communities on the reclaimed habitat were determined by herb cover and bare ground cover. Compositional heterogeneity was significantly higher on the non-reclaimed part of the spoil heap. A comparison of the functional diversity indices showed significantly higher functional richness and evenness on the spontaneously restored part of the spoil heap. Our results provide evidence that technical reclamation is a significant disturbance that slows down the successional rate of beetle communities and negatively influences their structure. We thus recommend that at least some parts of the areas needing to be reclaimed be allowed to undergo spontaneous succession during reclamation. The areas undergoing spontaneous succession would become refuges for particular species while also supporting the heterogeneity of the habitat.
The role of management and landscape context in the restoration of grassland phytophagous beetles
Journal of Applied …, 2010
1. Declines in area and quality of species-rich mesotrophic and calcareous grasslands have occurred all across Europe. While the European Union has promoted schemes to restore these grasslands, the emphasis for management has remained largely focused on plants. Here we focus on restoration of the phytophagous beetles of these grasslands. Although local management, particularly that which promotes the establishment of host plants, is key to restoration success, dispersal limitation is also likely to be an important limiting factor during the restoration of phytophagous beetle assemblages. 2. Using a 3-year multi-site experiment, we investigated how restoration success of phytophagous beetles was affected by hay-spreading management (intended to introduce target plant species), success in restoration of the plant communities and the landscape context within which restoration was attempted.
Abundance and diversity of beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) in land use and management systems
Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo
Soil beetles' communities are responsible for many ecosystem services, and are very sensitive to environmental changes. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the abundance and diversity of the soil coleoptera fauna under uses and management and also to identify relationships of the beetle community with soil's physical and chemical properties. The experiment had six experimental plots set up an Oxisol (Latossolo): corn (CO), soybean (SO), 7-year-old eucalyptus (EI), 4-year-old eucalyptus (EII), preserved Cerrado (PC), and disturbed Cerrado (DC). Soil beetles were sampled at 128 points for each experimental plot, where the soil physical and chemical properties were analyzed. The Coleoptera fauna organisms were identified at the family, subfamily, and gender level, and then, the number of individuals per day, richness, Shannon diversity indexes, and Pielou evenness were determined. The data were analyzed using multivariate techniques (hierarchical grouping and factor analysis). On total, 750 specimens of beetles were collected, distributed into 9 families, 14 subfamilies, and 27 genera. The most abundant family was Scarabaeidae (11 genera) with the highest occurrence in the PC (143 specimens) and DC (81 specimens). Cultivation with SO presented the greatest number of trap day individuals (ind trap-1 day-1 = 0.548); however, the highest diversity was found in the PC. (20 taxonomic groups) and CO (16 taxonomic groups). Shannon diversity was higher for the CO (H' = 3.107), followed by the PC (H' = 2.699), and the lowest value was found for the SO (H' = 1.530). The similarity dendrogram grouped the plots into two extracts, demonstrating how the intensity of land use influences the abundance and diversity of beetle fauna. The factor analysis grouped the Coleoptera and the physical and chemical soil properties in two factors: elements related to the state of aggregation and porous system's elements. The Coleoptera community was influenced by the intensity of land use and the portion with anthropized natural vegetation showed the highest richness, demonstrating that the Coleoptera fauna responds to environmental changes. Edaphic beetles in the different use and management systems were primarily related to soil physical properties, which explain the state of aggregation (pH, altitude, Ca 2+ , BD, clay, macroporosity, silt, K + , and microporosity) and the porous soil system (sand and total porosity).
Ecological Applications, 2002
Habitat destruction and fragmentation of remaining habitat are major threats to global biodiversity. In this paper, we drew upon data from grassland butterflies, legumefeeding herbivores and their parasitoids, and the interactions between rape pollen beetles and their parasitoids in the agricultural landscapes of Germany to explore the following issues: (1) the relative importance of small habitat fragments for the conservation of biodiversity (in contrast to the prevailing arguments in favor of large fragments); (2) the disruption of interspecific interactions in fragmented habitats; and (3) the relative importance of the spatial arrangement of habitat fragments in landscapes of different complexity. The percentage of polyphagous butterfly species and their abundance were higher in small than in large calcareous grassland fragments, showing the relative importance of the landscape surrounding habitat fragments for less specialized species. A landscape perspective is also needed to explain why several small fragments supported more butterfly species (even when only endangered species were considered) than the same area composed of only one or two fragments. Analyses of insects on legumes showed trophic-level differences, in that species numbers of parasitoids, but not of herbivores, benefited from habitat subdivision in landscapes. As percentage of parasitism (i.e., the strength of ecological interactions) increased with fragment area, both the ''several small'' and ''single large'' strategies appeared to have merit. An intermediate-fragmentation strategy of habitat conservation in human-dominated landscapes may combine the advantages. Small habitat fragments should be scattered enough to cover a range of geographical area wide enough to maximize beta diversity and the spreading of risk, but with large habitat fragments close enough to enable dispersal among fragments, to reduce the extinction probability of areasensitive species, and to stabilize predator-prey interactions. Parasitism of rape pollen beetles exhibited a distinct edge effect: it was higher near the crop field edge, i.e., near the parasitoids' overwintering sites (such as grassy strips). However, this was only true in landscapes dominated by annual crops; in landscapes with a high percentage of permanent noncrop area (Ͼ20%), such edge effects disappeared, presumably because of the high overall density of these parasitoids. These data indicate that spatial configuration is important to mitigate extinction risks when habitat availability in a landscape is low, whereas no effect will be observed when overall area of habitat is high.
Restoration of semi-natural grasslands, a success for phytophagous beetles (Curculionidae)
Biodiversity and Conservation, 2016
Semi-natural grasslands have rich plant and animal communities of high conservation value. The continuity and maintenance of these habitats depend on traditional agricultural methods, which nowadays give low economic output. Therefore biodiversity restoration measures in abandoned semi-natural grasslands have been implemented, which pay farmers for reestablishing and maintaining a semi-natural grassland biodiversity. Between 2000 and 2006 around 3500 ha of semi-natural grasslands were restored in Sweden. The main aim is to conserve the biodiversity, which is well known for its dependence on old agricultural lands. This study aimed to evaluate if these measures may also work successfully for the conservation of diversity of weevils, a phytophagous beetle family. This is a neglected taxon, when it comes to biodiversity assessments of restored grasslands in Europe, although many of them are grassland associated and red listed. Numerous weevils are dietary specialized or closely associated with certain plant genera or even single species, which are often habitat specialized as well. Our study was done by comparing the weevil species diversity and composition of abandoned, old restored, recently restored and continuously managed sites. In total 24 sites were included in the survey. The beetles were collected by sweep-netting. We found no differences in species richness between studied management categories. However the species composition of abandoned sites was significantly different compared to the restored and continuously managed sites. Moreover, the abandoned sites were dominated by polyphagous species whereas the restored and continuously managed sites contained more monophagous species. Our conclusion is that there is a restoration success targeting the phytophagous weevil community of seminatural grasslands and this justifies the expenses connected with restoration measures.
Sustainability
Functional diversity is crucial to ecosystem functioning in agricultural landscapes. Intensive agriculture has led to habitat homogeneity and thus a decrease in biodiversity and the disappearance of useful epigeic fauna. This study investigated how local habitat types in an agricultural landscape affect the assemblage parameters (abundance, species richness and Shannon–Wiener diversity index) and life history traits of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). The study was conducted in four habitat types: Orchard, meadow, shrubs, and forest. In each type, 12 sampling transects were selected, in which individuals were caught in pitfall traps. Non-metric multidimensional scaling revealed significant differences in ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) assemblage composition between habitats. The generalized linear model showed that the habitat type influenced the beetles’ assemblage parameters and life history traits. Abundance, number of species, and species diversity were highest in ...
Oecologia, 2008
Over the last 60 years changes to the management of species-rich mesotrophic grasslands have resulted in the large-scale loss and degradation of this habitat across Europe. Restoration of such grasslands on agriculturally improved pastures provides a potentially valuable approach to the conservation of these threatened areas. Over a fouryear period a replicated block design was used to test the effects of seed addition (green hay spreading and brush harvest collection) and soil disturbance on the restoration of phytophagous beetle and plant communities. Patterns of increasing restoration success, particularly where hay spreading and soil disturbance were used in combination, were identified for the phytophagous beetles. In the case of the plants, however, initial differences in restoration success in response to these same treatments were not followed by subsequent temporal changes in plant community similarity to target mesotrophic grassland. It is possible that the long-term consequences of the management treatments would not be the establishment of beetle and plant communities characteristic of the targets for restoration. Restoration management to enhance plant establishment using hay spreading and soil disturbance techniques would, however, still increase community similarity in both taxa to that of species-rich mesotrophic grasslands, and so raise their conservation value.