Carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) and habitat fragmentation: a review

By J. Niemelä. 2001

216 citations recorded by the source corpus.

I review the effects of habitat fragmentation on carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) and examine whether the taxon could be used as an indicator of fragmentation. Related to this, I study the conservation needs of carabids. The reviewed studies showed that habitat fragmentation affects carabid assemblages. Many species that require habitat types found in interiors of fragments are threatened by fragmentation. On the other hand, the species composition of small fragments of habitat (up to a few hectares) is often altered by species invading from the surroundings. Recommendations for mitigating these adverse effects include maintenance of large habitat patches and connections between them. Furthermore, landscape homogenisation should be avoided by maintaining heterogeneity of habitat types. It appears that at least in the Northern Hemisphere there is enough data about carabids for them to be fruitfully used to signal changes in land use practices. Many carabid species have been classified as threatened. Maintenance of the red-listed carabids in the landscape requires species-specific or assemblage-specific measures.

Subfields: Ecology, Insect Science, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ee83dcd5c710c2af71e121dc93bae203d4dde33b

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In Ecology

In Insect Science

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

Citations in the corpus

Arthropods as bioindicators of sustainable forest management, with a focus on plantation forests (2009, background): “Landscape patterns supporting plural vegetation types greatly affect carabid assemblages (Niemelä, 2001).”
The effects of forest patch size and matrix type on changes in carabid beetle assemblages in an urbanized landscape (2008, background): “In addition to being indicators, carabid beetles themselves may be targets for conservation efforts (Niemelä, 2001) because many species are threatened (Desender and Turin, 1989).”
Responses of grassland specialist and generalist beetles to management and landscape complexity (2007, background): “Habitat specificity also seems to be an important factor, because habitat specialists react differently from habitat generalists (Magura et al., 2000; Niemelä, 2001; Steiner et al., 2002; Kotze et al., 2003).”
The effects of forestry on carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in boreal forests (2007, background): “Within a fragmented landscape, the dispersal abilities of species and the distance between favoured habitat patches are critical for their survival (den Boer 1990a, b; Fahrig and Merriam 1994; With et al. 1997; Hanski 1999; Niemelä 2001).”
Rapid avifaunal collapse along the Amazonian deforestation frontier (2006, background): “Usage of patch size as a measure of habitat fragmentation per se assumes that patch size is independent of habitat availability at the landscape scale (e.g. Niemelä, 2001).”
Plant functional group composition and large-scale species richness in European agricultural landscapes (2008, background): “…focusing on fragmentation deal with animal or insect species, and tend to pool the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation sensu stricto: isolation and habitat configuration (McCoy & Mushinsky 1994; Bender et al. 1998; Fernandez-Juricic 2000: Niemelä 2001; Fahrig 2003; Schooley & Wiens 2005).”
Ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) as bioindicators (2003, background): “At least area effects, edge effects, shape of the fragment, and habitat connectivity in the landscape have ̈ impacted ground beetle assemblages (Niemela 2001).”
Boreal carabid-beetle (Coleoptera, Carabidae) assemblages along the clear-cut originated succession gradient (2002, background): “However, more research is needed about the utility of movement corridors ¨in forested landscapes (Niemela 2001), but creating patches of deciduous trees is a useful practice in helping the maintenance and re-establishment of carabids (Magura et al. 2000).”
Organic versus conventional systems in viticulture: Comparative effects on spiders and carabids in vineyards and adjacent forests (2015, background): “…presence of bushes and patch richness, showing the importance of the hedges for the maintenance of good disperses in the agricultural landscape (Fischer et al., 2013), which may enhance the biological pest control for adjacent agricultural crops via carabids’ colonisation potential (Niemelä, 2001).”
Effects of forest fragmentation on species richness and composition of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae and Brachinidae) in urban landscapes (2008, background): “…in their study of fragments of a coniferous forest in Finland, forest fragmentation usually changes the species composition of ground beetles because some species invade from surrounding open habitats, often resulting in an increase in total species richness (Niemelä 2001; Warnaffe & Lebrun 2004).”
Local vs. landscape controls on diversity: a test using surface-dwelling soil macroinvertebrates of differing mobility (2005, background): “for soil macroarthropods other than carabids (e.g. Kinnunen et al ., 1996; Niemelä, 2001; Wolters, 2001), this has been proven for various other taxa such as pollinators (Weibull et al .”