Abundance and species richness of overwintering ground beetles (<em>Coleoptera: Carabidae</em>) are higher in the edge than in the centre of a woodlot
2011
Roume, Anthony | Ouin, Annie | Raison, Laurent | Deconchat, Marc | Dynamiques Forestières dans l'Espace Rural (DYNAFOR) ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-École nationale supérieure agronomique de Toulouse (ENSAT) ; Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT) | ANRBiodiversity “BiodivAgriM” program ; Conseil régional Midi-Pyrénées ; Conseil régional Aquitaine
International audience
显示更多 [+] 显示较少 [-]英语. Semi-natural habitats are key components of rural landscapes because they shelter a significant number of overwintering arthropods that are beneficial to agriculture. However, woodlots are semi-natural habitats with high patch-level heterogeneity and this aspect has been poorly studied. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of woodlot heterogeneity on overwintering ground beetles. Woodlot heterogeneity was characterized in terms of distance from the woodlot boundary and date of the most recent logging operation. We used emergence traps to quantify the population density of ground beetles that overwintered in the different parts of the woodlot. In woodlot edges the densities and species richness of ground beetles were significantly higher than in the rest of the woodlot. Ground beetles that are active in crop fields overwintered in the edges but not in the inner zone of the woodlot. Species assemblages of ground beetles overwintering in the edges were highly diverse. The date of the most recent logging operation did not explain the distribution of ground beetles that overwintered in the woodlot. Our results show that woodlots, and in particular their edges, are used as a winter shelter by ground beetles that spend part of their life in crops, which potentially favours biological control in adjacent crop fields.
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