Preliminary Study on Hourly Dynamics of a Ground-Dwelling Invertebrate Community in a Farmland Vineyard

Abstract

We evaluated the hourly dynamics of ground-dwelling invertebrate communities in farmland using infrared camera traps between August and September 2022. No significant variations within 24 h nor between any two time points of each day were observed in the taxonomic richness and abundance of the entire community. However, the periods from 4:00 to 7:00 and 13:00 to 20:00 showed relatively high taxonomic richness, while those from 2:00 to 6:00 and 16:00 to 21:00 showed relatively high abundance. Millipede abundance varied significantly in a 24 h period, with higher abundance from 3:00 to 4:00 and 1:00 to 2:00. Additionally, slug, beetle, and grasshopper abundances were significantly higher from 22:00 to 23:00, 17:00 to 18:00, and 23:00 to 24:00, respectively. The abundance of other taxa did not show significant variations between any two time points of a day. Predominant generalist predators showed positive correlation in their activity times. These results suggest that significant variations within each 24 h period are uncommon at either community or taxa (except for millipedes) levels in farmland ground-dwelling invertebrates. Further, while most taxa had significantly preferred active hours, the total community did not. Therefore, hourly dynamics should be considered to understand biodiversity maintenance.

Shooting area of infrared camera traps affects recorded taxonomic richness and abundance of ground‐dwelling invertebrates

“…The feature enables the setting of intervals between photos, and certain models even permit the capture of both video and still images (Meek et al., 2012 , 2014 ). Ground‐dwelling invertebrates, which are abundant, display diverse diel rhythms (Gao et al., 2023 ). However, the classical and commonly used methods for collecting ground‐dwelling invertebrates, such as hand sorting (Hashimoto & Mohamed, 2001 ), pitfall traps (Stašiov et al., 2021 ), and suction samplers (Frampton et al., 2001 ), are limited in the distinction of their activities at finer temporal resolutions.…”