Initial Colonization of New Terrain in an Alpine Glacier Foreland by Carabid Beetles (Carabidae, Coleoptera)

Gereben-Krenn, Barbara-Amina; Krenn, Harald W.; Strodl, Markus A.

doi:10.1657/1938-4246-43.3.397

Cited by 23 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Spiders and beetles, however, were previously hardly investigated in the Alps along elevation gradients extending into the nival zone, so our study provides confirmation of their actual absence from the zone above 3,100 m in unvegetated habitats. The only exceptions among the spiders were two Linyphiidae species and the Lycosidae Pardosa nigra, the latter known from scree fields in the Central Eastern Alps up to 3,500 m (Thaler and Buchar 1996), and among the beetles the carabid Nebria germari, a pioneer species of open habitats feeding on springtails (Brandmayr et al 2003;Gereben-Krenn, Krenn, and Strodl 2011;cf. Supplemental Table S1c).…”

Section: Surface-dwelling Beetles and Spidersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Side by side? Vascular plant, invertebrate, and microorganism distribution patterns along an alpine to nival elevation gradient

Winkler

Illmer

Querner

et al. 2018

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

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High mountain areas above the alpine zone are, despite the low-temperature conditions, inhabited by evolutionary and functionally differing organism groups. We compared the abundance and species richness of vascular plants, oribatid mites, springtails, spiders, and beetles, as well as bacterial and methanogenic archaeal prokaryotes (only abundance), at 100 m vertical intervals from 2,700-3,400 m in the Central Alps. We hypothesized that the less mobile microarthropods and microorganisms are more determined by and respond in similar ways to soil properties as do vascular plants. In contrast, we expected the more mobile surface-dwelling groups to forage also in places devoid of vegetation and thus to show patterns that deviate from that of vascular plants.Surprisingly, the observed patterns were diametrically opposed to our expectations: soil-living oribatid mites and springtails showed high individual numbers at high elevations, even where vascular plants barely occurred. Springtails also showed a rather constant species richness throughout the entire gradient. In contrast, patterns of surface-dwelling organisms and of archaeal prokaryotes did not differ significantly from vascular plants, because of either comparable climate sensitivity or their dependency on vegetated habitats.This study may serve as a baseline to estimate the risks of biodiversity losses in response to climate change across different biotic ecosystem components and to explore the potential and limitations of vascular plants as proxy for other organism groups that are far more challenging to monitor. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Surface-dwelling Beetles and Spidersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Side by side? Vascular plant, invertebrate, and microorganism distribution patterns along an alpine to nival elevation gradient

Winkler

Illmer

Querner

et al. 2018

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

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“…The uphill shift of N. diaphana, which shows a remarkable increment in F2 and decrement in F1 in the 1980-2008 period, is probably the consequence of soil drying and of the temperature gradient change in these last 30 years, which forced this species to retreat to more favorable environments, because the limiting factors of its biologic cycle are humidity and low soil temperature (Brandmayr and Zetto Brandmayr 1988). Nebria diaphana differs from N. germari in its ability to colonize deep soil crevices and the subterranean environment (Brandmayr and Zetto Brandmayr 1988), whereas the second species is strictly bound to cool soil surfaces with scree, boulders and gravel and snow beds or near glacier snouts (Kaufmann and Juen 2002;Gereben-Krenn et al 2011).…”

Section: Changes Above the Treelinementioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in ground beetle assemblages above and below the treeline of the Dolomites after almost 30 years (1980/2009)

Pizzolotto

Gobbi

Brandmayr

2014

Ecology and Evolution

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Very little is known about the changes of ground beetle assemblages in the last few decades in the Alps, and different responses to climate change of animal populations living above and below the treeline have not been estimated yet. This study focuses on an altitudinal habitat sequence from subalpine spruce forest to alpine grassland in a low disturbance area of the southeastern Dolomites in Italy, the Paneveggio Regional Park. We compared the ground beetle (Carabidae) populations sampled in 1980 in six stands below and above the treeline (1650–2250 m a.s.l.) with those sampled in the same sites almost 30 years later (2008/9). Quantitative data (species richness and abundance) have been compared by means of several diversity indexes and with a new index, the Index of Rank-abundance Change (IRC). Our work shows that species richness and abundance have changed after almost 30 years as a consequence of local extinctions, uphill increment of abundance and uphill shift of distribution range. The overall species number dropped from 36 to 27, while in the sites above the treeline, species richness and abundance changed more than in the forest sites. Two microtherm characteristic species of the pioneer cushion grass mats, Nebria germari and Trechus dolomitanus, became extinct or showed strong abundance reduction. In Nardetum pastures, several hygrophilic species disappeared, and xerophilic zoophytophagous elements raised their population density. In forest ecosystems, the precipitation reduction caused deep soil texture and watering changes, driving a transformation from Sphagnum-rich (peaty) to humus-rich soil, and as a consequence, soil invertebrate biomass strongly increased and thermophilic carabids enriched the species structure. In three decades, Carabid assemblages changed consistently with the hypothesis that climate change is one of the main factors triggering natural environment modifications. Furthermore, the level of human disturbance could enhance the sensitivity of mountain ecosystems to climate change.

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“…Arthropod successions were also investigated, even though the studies are fewer and more recent (e.g. Gereben, Krenn, and Strodl 2011;Gobbi et al 2006aGobbi et al , 2010Kaufmann 2001Kaufmann , 45 2002Schlegel and Riesen 2012). However, almost all the previous works were performed on glacier forelands located in the inner massifs of the Alpine chain, while knowledge about peripheral mountain ranges is still poor due to the scarcity of glaciers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant and arthropod colonisation of a glacier foreland in a peripheral mountain range

et al. 2015

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Initial Colonization of New Terrain in an Alpine Glacier Foreland by Carabid Beetles (Carabidae, Coleoptera)

Cited by 23 publications

References 16 publications

Side by side? Vascular plant, invertebrate, and microorganism distribution patterns along an alpine to nival elevation gradient

Side by side? Vascular plant, invertebrate, and microorganism distribution patterns along an alpine to nival elevation gradient

Changes in ground beetle assemblages above and below the treeline of the Dolomites after almost 30 years (1980/2009)

Plant and arthropod colonisation of a glacier foreland in a peripheral mountain range

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