Global warning: challenges, threats and opportunities for ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in high altitude habitats

Abstract

Aim of this paper is to provide the first comprehensive synthesis about ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) distribution in high altitude habitats. Specifically, the attention is focused on the species assemblages living on the most common ice-related mountain landforms (glaciers, debris-covered glaciers, glacier forelands and rock glaciers) and the challenges, threats and opportunities carabids living in these habitats have to face concerning the ongoing climate warming. The suggested role of the ice-related alpine landforms, as present climatic refugia for cold-adapted ground beetles, is discussed. Finally, the needs to develop a large-scale High-alpine Biodiversity Monitoring Program to describe how the current climate change is shaping the distribution of high altitude specialists is highlighted.

Biodiversity and ecology of plants and arthropods on the last preserved glacier of the Apennines mountain chain (Italy)

“…• • Pitfall trap was set out to sample ground-dwelling arthropods. A Pitfall trap consist of a plastic glass (diameter 7 cm) filled up with a non-toxic and frost-resistant solution of water and vine winegar (2:1) with salt and soap to catch and preserve the animals during the sampling period (Gobbi, 2020a). In order not to reduce the impact on such a small and delicate habitat (Lencioni and Gobbi, 2021) we performed only two sampling session in the period of maximum activity for arthropods (Gobbi, 2020a): 7-8 July/9-10 July 2020 (2 days of trap activity) and 9-10/29 July 2020 (20 days of trap activity).…”

“…A Pitfall trap consist of a plastic glass (diameter 7 cm) filled up with a non-toxic and frost-resistant solution of water and vine winegar (2:1) with salt and soap to catch and preserve the animals during the sampling period (Gobbi, 2020a). In order not to reduce the impact on such a small and delicate habitat (Lencioni and Gobbi, 2021) we performed only two sampling session in the period of maximum activity for arthropods (Gobbi, 2020a): 7-8 July/9-10 July 2020 (2 days of trap activity) and 9-10/29 July 2020 (20 days of trap activity). • • Soil microarthropods were sampled using the flotation method (Marshall et al, 1994) on debris samples collected with a scoop at different depths (at 1, 10, 20 and 50 cm), in order to obtain a representative sample of the whole ground/soil profile, placed in a plastic glass (diameter 7 cm, height 8 cm), and screened for arthropods in a small basin filled with mineral water.…”

“…In the current global warming phase, alpine glaciers at global scale are experiencing a severe reduction but also an increase of supraglacial stony debris, due to freeze-thaw processes delivering large volumes of debris from the surrounding slopes to the glacier surface (Azzoni et al, 2018; Janke et al, 2015; Kirkbride, 1993; Kraaijenbrink et al, 2017; Tielidze et al, 2020). The role of glacier forelands and supraglacial debris as potential habitat and refugium for high altitude organisms, such as plants (Caccianiga et al, 2011; Fickert et al, 2022; Losapio et al, 2021; Tampucci et al, 2015) and arthropods (Gobbi, 2020a; Hågvar et al, 2020; Valle et al, 2020) is increasingly recognized. However, it is still not clear how many cryophilic species – being both cold-adapted and hygrophilous (Deharveng et al, 2008; Fjellberg, 2010; Jurekova et al, 2021) – can live in glacial habitats and how much they are directly related to the presence of ice (Stibal et al, 2020).…”

Social Parasite Ants in the Alps: a New Site of the Vulnerable Myrmica myrmicoxena and New Uppermost Altitudinal Limit for M. microrubra

“…From 2018 to 2020, terrestrial arthropods were sampled by 150 pitfall traps in 30 sites across an altitudinal and habitat gradient in the Lombardy Sector of the Stelvio National Park. The traps were built with plastic glasses of c. 6 cm of diameter and c. 7 cm of height, buried in the ground, filled with c. 150 ml cc of an attractive and a preserving mixture of white vinegar, sodium chloride, and a drop of detergent as a surfactant, as described by Gobbi (2020). A total of 1800 samples were taken during six sampling sessions per year (150 x 6 x 2 = 1800).…”

Monitoring and conservation of cryophilous biodiversity: concerns when working with insect populations in vanishing glacial habitats

“…Alpine insects inhabiting glaciers, their neighbouring landforms, or ice‐fed water bodies are cold tolerant and thus adapted to water, ground and air temperatures at which most other organisms would not survive (ground and water temperature of 0°C and air temperature up to −50 to −70°C) (Downes, 1965; Lencioni, 2004; Hågvar, 2010; Amundrud & Srivastava, 2020). Understanding how insects may respond and adapt to global warming is a major challenge when predicting future biodiversity trends in glacial regions at high altitudes and latitudes of our planet (Hotaling et al ., 2017; Gobbi, 2020; Hågvar et al ., 2020; Ficetola et al ., in press). Most of the world's glaciers are likely to disappear within a few years (Beniston et al ., 2018), and organisms living on or around glaciers are also at a risk of extinction (Milner et al ., 2017; Adler et al ., 2019; Cauvy & Dangles, 2019; Gobbi & Lencioni, 2020; Gobbi et al ., 2021).…”