Even in human-dominated regions such as urban and agricultural areas, there are organisms involved in the decomposition of animal carcasses. Therefore, it is possible that these complementary decomposition functions occur in different habitats. Here, we clarified the disappearance patterns of small mammal carcasses in forest and human-dominated (urban and agricultural) habitats in northeastern Japan, based on field experiments. All small mammal carcasses in both summer and autumn were removed by different scavengers within 6 days; therefore, there was little difference in the disappearance rate of carcasses between habitats. The scavenger groups that contributed to carcass removal of remains in the summer survey differed between sites, suggesting that the disappearance process varies with landscape and canopy openness conditions. Although many carcasses were removed by vertebrates during the autumn survey, the vertebrate species involved differed among the survey sites. This study suggests that ecological functions related to the decomposition of small mammal carcasses in anthropogenically modified habitats may be maintained by the complementary activities of vertebrates and invertebrates.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of landscape and local environmental factors on the community structure of carrion beetles (silphid and dung beetles) and the abundance of major species in artificial (agricultural and urban landscapes) and forest landscapes in northeastern Japan. Eight study sites were set up in forest landscapes, six in agricultural landscapes, and six in urban landscapes. From June to October 2019, we collected carrion beetles using 385 pitfall traps. A total of 2,119 carrion beetles belonging to 15 species were captured. This included six species of silphid beetles and nine species of dung beetles. The non‐metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) for carrion beetle community showed that carrion beetles have different community structures in forest landscapes compared to other landscapes. Generalized dissimilarity modeling (GDM) showed that canopy openness and a landscape factor had the large influence on the community structure. The generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) showed that the abundance of the major species was low in open environments. This study indicates that the community structure of carrion beetles differs depending on the landscape in northeastern Japan. The local environment, especially the canopy openness, had a great influence on the community structure and abundance of carrion beetles. Anthropogenic changes at the landscape scale may alter carrion beetle community by significantly changing the local and surrounding environment.

In this study, our aim was to quantitatively evaluate the habitat of the terrestrial firefly Luciola parvula in the Shonai region of Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Sixteen survey sites with differing topography and types of forest vegetation were set around Mt. Takadate. We counted the number of individual adult fireflies at each survey site between June and July 2018. The relationship between the number of adult individuals and topographic position index (TPI), an indicator of topography, and the forest vegetation types (broad-leaved forest, pine forest, or cedar forest), was analyzed by the generalized linear mixed model (GLMM). In addition, the amount of food resources (land snails and soil animals) considered important during the larval stage was surveyed in October 2018, and the survey of soil water content was conducted in June and October 2018. The relationships between food resources and soil water content and environmental conditions (i.e. TPI and forest vegetation types) were analyzed by the generalized linear model or GLMM, respectively. The result of the model revealed that TPI is related to the number of adult individuals, and that the population tends to be larger near the valley. Moreover, it was shown that the valley tends to have a large number of land snails and a high soil water content. It is therefore suggested that the environment with a large number of individual adult fireflies was a suitable habitat for the larvae of fireflies. This may be related to the poor ability of adult females and larvae to migrate.