Ground Beetles as Indicators of Land Type Diversity in the Green Mountains of Vermont

Abstract

Ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) captured in pitfall traps were compared within and among three Ecological Land Types in the Green Mountain National Forest, Vermont, to determine if beetle distributions can be linked to an ecological classification system designed to reflect biological diversity. Beetles were sampled in a nested‐scale design comprising three ecological land types, three polygons representing each ecological land type, five sites within each polygon, and six individual traps at each site. A nested analysis of variance showed only 2 of 35 species to vary significantly in relative abundance across ecological land types; most of the significant effects were at the site scale. To determine whether sites might sort into groups based on their beetle assemblages, sites were ordinated by detrended correspondence analysis and classified by two‐way indicator species analysis. Ordinations suggested that the distribution of ground beetles was somewhat influenced by site moisture; classification separated groups of hygrophilous species and wet sites from other ecologically uninterpretable species assemblages and site‐groups. Several of the site‐groups contained sites affiliated primarily with one ecological land type. However, a nested analysis of variance using the relative abundance of each of the species assemblages again showed most significant effects to be at the site scale. Results indicated that ground beetle distributions were not significantly linked with ecological land types and that the ground beetle fauna of the mid‐elevation forests of the western Green Mountains is comprised mainly of forest generalists, with some specialist species responding to a moisture gradient at the site scale. Because the ecological land type units did not explain distributions of carabids, these organisms should next be related to higher and lower scales within the classification system. Distributions of other invertebrate and vertebrate species should also be studied to test the utility of this ecological classification system for monitoring forest biodiversity.

Efficiency of a Rapid Assessment of the Diversity of Ground Beetles and Ants, in Natural and Disturbed Habitats of the Nahuel Huapi Region (NW Patagonia, Argentina)

“…This results in a total of 38 (19 · 2) collection stations for subsequent analyses. The minimum distance separating the two closest sites (Sc2 and Sc3 in Figure 1) was 300 m whereas collection stations within each site were 40 m apart from each other; these separation distances are within the range of those reported in previous studies (e.g., Porter and Savignano 1990;Rykken et al 1997;Koivula et al 1999;Eubanks 2001;Cook 2003), and can be assumed to provide independent information for ecological analyses (e.g., Moretti et al 2004). Nonetheless, shuffling individuals among samples in two of the analyses performed below (i.e.…”

Insect assemblages change along a gradient of invasion by a nonnative grass

“…Several studies have focused on particular invertebrate taxa as indicators of environmental change (Kerr et al 2000), such as ground beetles (Carabidae) (Rushton et al 1990;Niemala et al 1993), tiger beetles (Cicindelidae) (Pearson and Cassola 1992), or butterflies (Lepidoptera) (Burghardt et al 2008), because they are relatively easy to collect and identify, are thought to respond rapidly to environmental changes, and might reflect changes in other taxa (Pearson and Cassola 1992;Kerr et al 2000; but see Rykken et al 1997). Although some insect groups may respond similarly to environmental changes (Tables 2, 3, 4, 5; Pearson and Cassola 1992;Kerr et al 2000), we quantified both decreases and increases in presence and abundance of orders and families along the invasion gradient.…”

Fire Frequency and Mosaic Burning Effects on a Tallgrass Prairie Ground Beetle Assemblage

“…While these studies do not come to a common conclusion about the effects of fire on carabids, together they provide evidence that fire intensity or its temporal pattern can alter ground beetle diversity and species composition. Ground beetles are often used as indicator organisms to assess environmental quality or condition (Refseth 1980;Rykken et al 1997), most importantly because they are widely distributed, reasonably abundant and speciose in many terrestrial habitats (thus facilitating comparisons), and because their taxonomy is fairly well determined. These taxa are also convenient to study, and are usually generalist predators, tending to range widely at ground level (Thiele 1977;Allen 1979).…”