Abstract
As a fine-scale, manipulative model experiment leaf litter was added in plots to increase habitat heterogeneity in a 50-year-old Norway spruce plantation, established after the clear-cutting of a native beech forest, during a 2-year period in the Hungarian Mountain Range. Pitfall trap catches of carabids from leaf-litter plots were compared with those from control plots to explore the effect of leaf-litter addition. Difference in the species composition was revealed by ordination; scores of the samples of the two plot types were significantly separated along the first MDS axis. The most numerous species (Pterostichus oblongopunctatus) was significantly more abundant in the leaf-litter plots. However, there were no significant differences for the other most frequently obtained species. Habitat generalist species were the most abundant, followed by forest generalists, then forest specialists, and there were some open habitat species. Enhanced habitat heterogeneity (leaf-litter addition) in homogeneous plantations influenced the spatial distribution and composition of carabids, through altered abiotic (lower ground temperature in the leaf-litter plots) and biotic (more prey items) factors. Differences in abundance, species richness and Shannon diversity were not significant between the control and the manipulated plots, although carabid catch was higher in the leaf-litter plots during both years. Forestry practices to increase habitat heterogeneity should be considered to enhance biodiversity in managed forests.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Baars M.A. 1979. Patterns of movement of radioactive carabid beetles. Oecologia 44: 125–140.
Baguette M. and Gérard S. 1993. Effects of spruce plantations on carabid beetles in southern Belgium. Pedobiologia 37: 129–140.
Bird S., Coulson R.N. and Crossley D.A. 2000. Impacts of silvicultural practices on soil and litter arthropod diversity in a Texas pine plantation. Forest Ecology and Management 131: 65–80.
Bryan K.M. and Wratten S.D. 1984. The responses of polyphagous predators to spatial heterogeneity: aggregation by carabid and staphylinid beetles to their cereal aphid prey. Ecological Entomology 9: 251–259.
Butterfield J. 1997. Carabid community succession during forestry cycle in conifer plantations. Ecography 20: 614–625.
Butterfield J., Luff M.L., Baines M. and Eyre M.D. 1995. Carabid beetle communities as indicators of conservation potential in upland forests. Forest Ecology and Management 79: 63–77.
Chen B.R. and Wise D.H. 1999. Bottom-up limitation of predaceous arthropods in a detritus-based terrestrial food web. Ecology 80: 761–772.
Den Boer P.J. 1990. The survival value of dispersal in terrestrial arthropods. Biological Conservation 54: 175–192.
Desender K., Ervynck A. and Tack G. 1999. Beetle diversity and historical ecology of woodlands in Flanders. Belgian Journal of Zoology 129: 139–156.
Digweed S.C., Currie C.R., Cárcamo H.A. and Spence J.R. 1995. Digging out the digging-in effect of pitfall traps: influences of depletion and disturbance on catches of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Pedobiologia 39: 561–576.
Elek Z., Magura T. and Tóthmérész B. 2001. Impacts of nonnative spruce plantation on carabids. Web Ecology 2: 32–37.
Eyre M.D. and Luff M.L. 1994. Carabid species assemblages of north-east England woodlands. In: Desender K. et al. (eds), Carabid Beetles: Ecology and Evolution. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp. 277–281.
Fahy O. and Gormally M. 1998. A comparison of plant and carabid beetle communities in an Irish oak woodland with a nearby conifer plantation and clearfelled site. Forest Ecology and Management 110: 263–273.
Guillemain M., Loreau M. and Daufresne T. 1997. Relationships between the regional distribution of carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) and the abundance of their potential prey. Acta Oecologica 18: 465–483.
Heessen H.J.L. 1980. Egg production of Pterostichus oblongopunctatus (Fabricius) (Col., Carabidae) and Philonthus decorus (Gravenhorst) (Col., Staphylinidae). Netherland Journal of Zoology 30: 35–53.
Ings T.C. and Hartley S.E. 1999. The effect of habitat structure on carabid communities during the regeneration of a native Scottish forest. Forest Ecology and Management 119: 123–136.
Koivula M. 2002. Alternative harvesting methods and boreal carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae). Forest Ecology and Management 167: 103–121.
Koivula M., Puntilla P., Haila Y. and Niemelä J. 1999. Leaf litter and the small-scale distribution of carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in the boreal forest. Ecography 22: 424–435.
Koivula M., Kukkonen J. and Niemelä J. 2002. Boreal carabid-beetle (Coleoptera, Carabidae) assemblages along the clear-cut originated succession gradient. Biodiversity and Conservation 11: 1269–1288.
Kotze D.J. and Samways M.J. 1999. Invertebrate conservation at the interface between the grassland matrix and natural Afromontane forest fragments. Biodiversity and Conservation 8: 1339–1363.
Legendre P. and Legendre L. 1998. Numerical Ecology. Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Lindroth C.H. 1985. The Carabidae (Coleoptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark, Part 1. Fauna Entomologica Skandinavica, Leiden, The Netherlands and Copenhagen, Denmark.
Lindroth C.H. 1986. The Carabidae (Coleoptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark, Part 2. Fauna Entomologica Skandinavica, Leiden, The Netherlands and Copenhagen, Denmark.
Loreau M. 1988. Determinants of the seasonal pattern in the niche structure of a forest carabid community. Pedobiologia 31: 75–87.
Loreau M. and Nolf C.L. 1993. Occupation of space by the carabid beetle Abax ater. Acta Oecologica 14: 247–258.
Lövei G. and Sunderland K.D. 1996. Ecology and behavior of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Annual Review of Entomology 41: 231–256.
Magura T. 2002. Carabids and forest edge: spatial pattern and edge effect. Forest Ecology and Management 157: 23–37.
Magura T., Tóthmérész B. and Bordán Zs. 1997. Comparison of the carabid communities of a zonal oak-hornbeam forest and pine plantations. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 43: 173–182.
Magura T., Tóthmérész B. and Bordán Zs. 2000a. Effects of nature management practice on carabid assemblages (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in a non-native plantation. Biological Conservation 93: 95–102.
Magura T., Tóthmérész B. and Molnár T. 2000b. Spatial distribution of carabids along grass-forest transects. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 46: 1–17.
Magura T., Ködöböcz V. and Bokor Zs. 2001a. Effects of forestry practices on carabids (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Implication for nature management. Acta Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica 36: 179–188.
Magura T., Tóthmérész B. and Molnár T. 2001b. Forest edge and diversity: carabids along forest-grassland transects. Biodiversity and Conservation 10: 287–300.
Magura T., Tóthmérész B. and Elek Z. 2002. Impacts of non-native spruce reforestation on ground beetles. European Journal of Soil Biology 38: 291–295.
Magura T., Tóthmérész B. and Elek Z. 2003. Diversity and composition of carabids during a forestry cycle. Biodiversity and Conservation 12: 73–85.
Magura T., Tóthmérész B. and Elek Z. 2005. Biotic interactions between carabids and other ground-dwelling invertebrates in a non-native Norway spruce plantation. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (submitted).
Mátyás Cs. 1996. Forestry Ecology. Mezőgazda Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary (in Hungarian).
Molnár T. Magura T. and Tóthmérész B. 2002. Ground beetles (Carabidae) and edge effect in oak-hornbeam forest and grassland transects. European Journal of Soil Biology 37: 297–300.
Niemelä J. 1997. Invertebrates and boreal forest management. Conservation Biology 11: 601–610.
Niemelä J. 1999. Management in relation to disturbance in the boreal forest. Forest Ecology and Management 115: 127–134.
Niemelä J. and Spence J.R. 1994. Distribution of forest dwelling carabids (Coleoptera): spatial scale and the concept of communities. Ecography 17: 166–175.
Niemelä J., Haila Y., Halme E., Pajunen T. and Punttila P. 1992. Small-scale heterogeneity in the spatial distribution of carabid beetles in the southern Finnish taiga. Journal of Biogeography 19: 173–181.
Niemelä J., Langor D. and Spence J.R. 1993. Effects of clear-cut harvesting on boreal ground-beetle assemblages (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in western Canada. Conservation Biology 7: 551–561.
Niemelä J., Haila Y. and Punttila P. 1996. The importance of small-scale heterogeneity in boreal forests: variation in diversity in forest-floor invertebrates across the succession gradient. Ecography 19: 352–368.
Penev L. 1996. Large-scale variation in carabid assemblages, with special reference to the local fauna concept. Annales Zoologici Fennici 33: 49–63.
Pickett S.T.A. and White P.S. (eds) 1985. The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.
Sergeeva T.K. 1994. Seasonal dynamics of interspecific trophic relations in a carabid beetle assemblage. In: Desender K. et al. (eds), Carabid Beetles: Ecology and Evolution. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp. 367–370.
Sokal R.R. and Rohlf F.J. 1981. Biometry. W.H. Freeman, New York.
Spence J.R. and Niemelä J. 1994. Sampling carabid assemblages with pitfall traps: the madness and the method. Canadian Entomologist 126: 881–894.
Spence J.R., Langor D.W., Niemelä J., Cárcamo H.A. and Currie C.R. 1996. Northern forestry and carabids: the case for concern about old-growth species. Annales Zoologici Fennici 33: 173–184.
Thiele H.U. 1977. Carabid Beetles in Their Environments. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 1977.
Tóthmérész B. 1993. NuCoSA 1.0: Number Cruncher for Community Studies and other Ecological Applications. Abstracta Botanica 17: 283–287.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Magura, T., Tóthmérész, B. & Elek, Z. Impacts of Leaf-litter Addition on Carabids in a Conifer Plantation. Biodivers Conserv 14, 475–491 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-004-7307-8
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-004-7307-8