Journal
JOURNAL OF INSECT CONSERVATION
Volume 16, Issue 2, Pages 249-261Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10841-011-9412-9
Keywords
Ground beetles; Species sorting; Landscape ecology; AIC; Marsh
Categories
Funding
- University of Siena (PAR)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Studies on disturbance regimes involving carabid beetles have mainly focused on forest habitats. We therefore decided to analyze the effects of disturbance on carabid communities in a wetland remnant (Lake Chiusi, central Italy). Results highlighted the presence of a disturbance gradient affecting the species richness and trait-displacement of carabid communities. Carabids were sampled with pitfall traps from March to October 2008 at nine randomly selected sample stations; a set of landscape attributes were also collected. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) were used to link the distribution of carabid life-history traits and species richness with the most informative combination of landscape attributes. The first PCA axis (PC1) showed significant correlation with distance to the lake shoreline and perimeter-area ratio, highlighting the presence of a disturbance-axis. The second and third axes accounted only for a trivial portion of the total variance. GLMMs revealed a progressive decrease in the number of hygrophilous species from the core of the wetland to its outer areas. Similar trends were observed for species richness and for predator species with good dispersal ability and larval period in summer. Our results highlight the importance of taking into account community-wide functional implications in landscape ecology studies.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available