Impact of established shrub shelterbelts around oases on the diversity of ground beetles in arid ecosystems of Northwestern China

Abstract

Oases in arid regions of northwestern China are main sites for agriculture and human settlement. Conservation of these important oasis habitats involves establishing shrub shelterbelts around the oases. We investigated how different types of shrub shelterbelts affect the diversity of ground beetles. We sampled carabid and tenebrionid assemblages with pitfall traps in spring and summer and measured key environmental variables in four habitats of the arid region: planted stands of pure and mixed plantations of two long‐lived shrubs (Haloxylon ammodendron and Tamarix ramosissima) and natural grassland (NG) from which planted systems were converted. Beetle abundance and species richness reduced significantly in the pure plantations but the mixed plantation had similar abundance and higher richness in spring and lower richness in summer relative to NG. We found differences in response between functional groups of beetles. The pure plantations resulted in reduced abundance and richness of herbivores and detritivores and increased predator abundance in spring and reduced predator abundance in summer. The mixed plantation resulted in increased detritivore richness in spring and reduced detritivore richness in summer as well as increased herbivore abundance in spring and reduced herbivore and predator abundance and richness in summer. The beetle community was largely determined by shrub cover and herbaceous plant diversity. We conclude that the pure shrub plantations reduce beetle diversity, whereas the mixed shrub plantation has less adverse effect on beetle diversity. Shrub mixtures can therefore be a practical measure to minimise the negative impacts of shrub shelterbelts on beetles.

Impact of Land Reclamation on the Diversity of Darkling Beetles, (Tenebrionidae) in Arid Ecosystem of El-Kharga, New Valley Governorate, Egypt

“…Aldryhim et al (1992) found that cultivated area has lower tenebrionids abundance than uncultivated one. Li et al (2016) noted that the beetle community is largely determined by plant cover and diversity. Similar results were observed during the current study whereas the beetle abundance and density were impacted by plant diversity.…”

“…Plant groves may be the reason for the relatively low diversity of tenebrionid beetles in the investigated sites. Li et al (2016) concluded that shrub plantations reduce beetle diversity. Many research illustrated that the main cause of reducing the biodiversity of many terrestrial ecosystem is the changes in the land use/ cover (Garnier et al, 2006;Krauss et al, 2010;Garcia-Tejero et al, 2013;Vergnes et al, 2014;Sweaney et al, 2015).…”

“…Vegetation type, cover and plant community changes can affect, directly or indirectly, the abundance, species richness and composition of beetle communities (Stapp, 1997;Schweiger et al, 2005;Woodcock et al, 2010;Pakeman and Stockan, 2014). Impacts of land use/cover variations on biodiversity well documented in many parts of the world (Perner and Malt, 2003;Koellner and Geyer, 2013;Souza et al, 2015;Li et al, 2016). New Valley Governorate, Egypt, is facing a serious challenge of landscape change due to land reclamation.…”

Fine-Scale Vegetation Characteristics Drive Insect Ensemble Structures in a Desert Ecosystem: The Tenebrionid Beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) Inhabiting the Ulan Buh Desert (Inner Mongolia, China)

“…Thus, several aspects make desert tenebrionids excellent model organisms for the study of ensemble ecology. First, tenebrionids are abundant and fairly easy to sample by pitfall traps, which makes it possible to obtain sufficiently large samples of individuals in a short time and even from very small sampling areas [21][22][23][24], thus ensuring that the sampled species belong to the same spatial and temporal assemblage. Second, desert tenebrionids are detritivorous and opportunistic animals [18,25], which therefore use the same basic resources.…”

Effects of sand-fixing and windbreak forests on wind flow: a synthesis of results from field experiments and numerical simulations

“…A full understanding of the wind flow characteristics is essential to arranging the patterns of sand-fixing and windbreak forests. The effects and aerodynamics of sand-fixing and windbreak forests or artificial fences have been persistently investigated through field observations (see Schwartz et al, 1995;Mohammed et al, 1996;Wilson, 2004;Tuzet and Wilson, 2007;Amichev et al, 2015;Li et al, 2016), wind tunnel experiments (see Schwartz et al, 1995;Judd et al, 1996;Lee et al, 2002) and theoretical analyses (see Zhu and Zhou, 1993;Cleugh, 1998;Takahashi et al, 1998;Ucar and Hall, 2001;Amichev et al, 2015). It should be stressed that field observation has been the most frequently used method because of its readiness.…”