Monitoring of the ground‐dwelling beetle community and forest floor environment in 22 temperate forests across Japan

Abstract

This data paper reports census data of ground‐dwelling beetle and other fauna of the forest floor environment; collections were made from a network of 22 forest sites in Japan. To our knowledge, this represents the largest dataset for long‐term monitoring of a ground‐dwelling beetle community and other taxa in a ground environment in forests, which covers a broad climatic range in the temperate zone and is freely available. The network forms part of the Monitoring Sites 1000 Project launched by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. It covers subalpine, cool‐ and warm‐temperate and subtropical climatic zones and the four major forest types of Japan. Thirty‐three permanent plots usually 1 ha in size were established in old‐growth, secondary natural and a few plantation forests. Censuses of the ground‐dwelling beetle community were conducted using pitfall trapping and forest floor environment monitoring every year from 2004 to the present. During the initial 9 years of the census (2004–2012), 59,762 beetle individuals (including 3182 larvae) of more than 314 species were recorded. This dataset includes taxonomy and biomass of each beetle individual and each taxonomic group of other invertebrates coincidently captured in pitfall trapping. The dataset also includes data related to ground coverage by forest floor vegetation, dry mass of the accumulated organic litter layer, and carbon and nitrogen contents and cellulose decomposition rate in organic layer and surface mineral soil. The data could be used to investigate geographical patterns and intra‐ and inter‐annual dynamics of individual body mass, populations and community structures of ground‐dwelling beetles, and their relationships with the forest floor environment. Furthermore, the data could be analyzed with other open datasets related to tree community dynamics and litter fall continuously measured in the same study plots. This dataset also provides information related to the distribution and average body mass of each beetle species.

Evaluating the soil microbe community‐level physiological profile using EcoPlate and soil properties at 33 forest sites across Japan

“…Variable names are headers included as the first row in the data files. All variables of PlotList.csv are compliant with the published data papers (Ishihara et al, 2011; Niwa et al, 2016; Suzuki et al, 2012), although variables of Temp30yr and Rain30yr (1971–2000) are updated to 1981–2010 due to updating the database Mesh Climate Data by the Japan Meteorological Agency.…”

“…EcoPlate data offer an opportunity for comparative studies among forest types and for testing community ecology and ecosystem function hypotheses at broad spatial scales (e.g., testing for a latitudinal gradient in multifunctionality in soil microbial communities and elucidating the relative importance of microbial communities in forest ecosystem function). The data can also be analyzed together with the results of associated projects in the same plots (e.g., tree census, Ishihara et al, 2011; litter fall, Suzuki et al, 2012; ground‐dwelling beetles, Niwa et al, 2016; tea bag decomposition, Suzuki et al, 2019; herbivory, Takafumi et al, 2021). Furthermore, if the EcoPlate is remeasured at the same plots in a few years or decades, we can assess the impact of recent climate change on soil microbial communities.…”

Assessing insect herbivory on broadleaf canopy trees at 19 natural forest sites across Japan

“…Additional ecological data collected at the 19 study sites were available from publications, including seasonal patterns and interannual dynamics of litterfall (Suzuki et al, 2012), forest stand structure, composition and dynamics (Ishihara et al, 2010), as well as grounddwelling beetle community and understory variables (Niwa et al, 2016). At the Shiiba site (SI), only tree The blank cells indicate our study sites are not located on these climatic zones and biogeographic regions, although these distribute in Japan.…”

“…Variable names are headers included as the first row in the data files. All variables of SiteList.csv are compliant with the data papers (Ishihara et al, 2010; Niwa et al, 2016; Suzuki et al, 2012), although variables of Temp30yr, Rain30yr and Snow30yr (1971–2000) are updated to 1981–2010 due to updating the database Mesh Climate Data by the Japan Meteorological Agency.…”

Toward more data publication of long‐term ecological observations

“…Valuable observational data from a wide variety of natural ecosystems (e.g., forests, lakes, oceans, rivers) and agro‐ecosystems have been archived. For example, observational data from a tree census and studies of litter fall and ground‐dwelling beetle communities in forests from one of the largest monitoring network projects in Japan were published as data papers (Ishihara et al, 2011; Niwa et al, 2016; Suzuki et al, 2012); the project is Monitoring Sites 1,000 launched by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, which covers subarctic to subtropical climate zones. Other papers report data relevant to the evacuation zone of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, which received high levels of radioactive contamination.…”