The impact of human land use on the composition and richness of ground and dung beetle assemblages

Abstract

Plexida et al. : The impact of human land use on the composition and richness of ground and dung beetle assemblages - Abstract. This paper presents the results of a survey on the habitat and seasonal variation in activity density and richness of ground and dung beetle assemblages in a heterogeneous landscape of central Greece. Beetles were collected using 2,646 pitfall traps across an area of 138 ha representative of the Mediterranean mountainous landscape. Sampling was performed in cereal fields, corn fields, fallow land, grassland, Robinia pseudoacacia plantations, oak forest -farmland ecotone and oak forest using pitfall traps. A total of 18,275 individuals belonging to 38 species were collected, whereas only seven species constituted the 82.64% of the overall captures. Onthophagus ovatus was the most common species in all habitats. Beetle assemblages varied markedly regarding the number of species, while higher densities were reported during June. Significant differences in beetle richness were found considering habitat preferences with the lowest species richness in corn fields. Carabidae assemblages were both most abundant and diverse in plantations, whereas Scarabaeidae assemblages were most abundant and diverse in fallow land. Among estimated diversity indices, Margalef's index generated similar results with the observed diversity, likewise non parametric estimators. Overall, the results obtained in the present study suggest that agricultural areas in mountainous heterogeneous landscape might be the important factor for conserving rich beetle diversity, whereas supplementary biotic factors should be explored.

What level of native beetle diversity can be supported by forestry plantations? A global synthesis

“…Forestry plantations frequently have a negative effect on vertebrate diversity (Barlow et al ., 2007a), including amphibians (Kudavidanage et al ., 2012), birds (Castaño‐Villa et al ., 2019), and mammals (Begotti et al ., 2018), or invertebrates, such as coleopterans (Horák et al ., 2019; Méndez‐Rojas et al ., 2021) or butterflies (Kudavidanage et al ., 2012). However, other studies found biodiversity levels within plantations to match those found in natural forests, particularly in non‐tropical biomes (Plexida et al ., 2014; Magura et al ., 2015). A global understanding of the relative merits of forestry plantations as biodiversity supporters thus remains a core question.…”

Introductory Chapter: Evaluation Methods of Ecosystem Services and Their Scientific and Societal Importance in Service of Solving the Global Problems of the Humankind

“…Land cover change research has an important role in understanding the intensity and dynamics of real global processes [3][4][5][6][7]. The Land-Cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) Program launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is studying natural and human-induced changes of the vegetation of the Earth and consequences of environment transformation processes and attempts to forecast natural disasters considering the Earth as a single complete system, with the help of satellite images, using the tools of NASA and combining them with laboratory and modeling work [8].…”

Introductory Chapter: The Main Directions and Tasks of Pure and Applied Biogeography in Solving the Global Problems of Our Time

“…Also impor- However, many new theoretical trends have emerged recently [14,15], a number of new methods are used [16], and biogeography has gained outstanding social significance through the effects of human land use on natural communities [17]. …”