Where have all the beetles gone? Long-term study reveals carabid species decline in a nature reserve in Northern Germany

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Standard

Where have all the beetles gone? Long-term study reveals carabid species decline in a nature reserve in Northern Germany. / Homburg, Katharina; Drees, Claudia; Boutaud, Estève et al.
In: Insect Conservation and Diversity, Vol. 12, No. 4, 07.2019, p. 268-277.

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Harvard

APA

Vancouver

Bibtex

@article{9962eed52d0d492daff8cc4b7429b873,
title = "Where have all the beetles gone? Long-term study reveals carabid species decline in a nature reserve in Northern Germany",
abstract = "The drastic insect decline has received increasing attention in scientific as well as in public media. Long-term studies of insect diversity trends are still rare, even though such studies are highly important to assess extent, drivers and potential consequences of insect loss in ecosystems. To gain insights into carabid diversity trends of ancient and sustainably managed woodlands, we analysed data of carabid beetles from a trapping study that has been run for 24 years in an old nature reserve of Northern Germany, the L{\"u}neburg Heath. We examined temporal changes in several diversity measures (e.g. biomass, species richness, functional diversity and phylogenetic diversity) and tested diverse species traits as predictor variables for species occurrence. In contrast to recently published long-term studies of insect diversity, we did not observe a decline in biomass, but in species richness and phylogenetic diversity in carabids at our study site. Additionally, hibernation stage predicted the occurrence probability of carabids: Species hibernating as imagines or both imagines and larvae and breeding in spring showed strongest declines. We assume the detected trends to be the result of external effects such as climate change and the application of pesticides in the surrounding. Our results suggest that the drivers for the insect decline and the responses are multifaceted. This highlights the importance of long-term studies with identification of the catches to, at best, species level to support the understanding of mechanisms driving changes in insect diversity and abundance.",
keywords = "Biomass, functional diversity, ground beetle, insect decline, insect monitoring, phylogenetic diversity, species richness, traits, Ecosystems Research",
author = "Katharina Homburg and Claudia Drees and Est{\`e}ve Boutaud and Dorothea Nolte and Wiebke Schuett and Pascale Zumstein and {von Ruschkowski}, Eick and Thorsten Assmann",
year = "2019",
month = jul,
doi = "10.1111/icad.12348",
language = "English",
volume = "12",
pages = "268--277",
journal = "Insect Conservation and Diversity",
issn = "1752-458X",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.",
number = "4",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Where have all the beetles gone? Long-term study reveals carabid species decline in a nature reserve in Northern Germany

AU - Homburg, Katharina

AU - Drees, Claudia

AU - Boutaud, Estève

AU - Nolte, Dorothea

AU - Schuett, Wiebke

AU - Zumstein, Pascale

AU - von Ruschkowski, Eick

AU - Assmann, Thorsten

PY - 2019/7

Y1 - 2019/7

N2 - The drastic insect decline has received increasing attention in scientific as well as in public media. Long-term studies of insect diversity trends are still rare, even though such studies are highly important to assess extent, drivers and potential consequences of insect loss in ecosystems. To gain insights into carabid diversity trends of ancient and sustainably managed woodlands, we analysed data of carabid beetles from a trapping study that has been run for 24 years in an old nature reserve of Northern Germany, the Lüneburg Heath. We examined temporal changes in several diversity measures (e.g. biomass, species richness, functional diversity and phylogenetic diversity) and tested diverse species traits as predictor variables for species occurrence. In contrast to recently published long-term studies of insect diversity, we did not observe a decline in biomass, but in species richness and phylogenetic diversity in carabids at our study site. Additionally, hibernation stage predicted the occurrence probability of carabids: Species hibernating as imagines or both imagines and larvae and breeding in spring showed strongest declines. We assume the detected trends to be the result of external effects such as climate change and the application of pesticides in the surrounding. Our results suggest that the drivers for the insect decline and the responses are multifaceted. This highlights the importance of long-term studies with identification of the catches to, at best, species level to support the understanding of mechanisms driving changes in insect diversity and abundance.

AB - The drastic insect decline has received increasing attention in scientific as well as in public media. Long-term studies of insect diversity trends are still rare, even though such studies are highly important to assess extent, drivers and potential consequences of insect loss in ecosystems. To gain insights into carabid diversity trends of ancient and sustainably managed woodlands, we analysed data of carabid beetles from a trapping study that has been run for 24 years in an old nature reserve of Northern Germany, the Lüneburg Heath. We examined temporal changes in several diversity measures (e.g. biomass, species richness, functional diversity and phylogenetic diversity) and tested diverse species traits as predictor variables for species occurrence. In contrast to recently published long-term studies of insect diversity, we did not observe a decline in biomass, but in species richness and phylogenetic diversity in carabids at our study site. Additionally, hibernation stage predicted the occurrence probability of carabids: Species hibernating as imagines or both imagines and larvae and breeding in spring showed strongest declines. We assume the detected trends to be the result of external effects such as climate change and the application of pesticides in the surrounding. Our results suggest that the drivers for the insect decline and the responses are multifaceted. This highlights the importance of long-term studies with identification of the catches to, at best, species level to support the understanding of mechanisms driving changes in insect diversity and abundance.

KW - Biomass

KW - functional diversity

KW - ground beetle

KW - insect decline

KW - insect monitoring

KW - phylogenetic diversity

KW - species richness

KW - traits

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85063660419&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/icad.12348

DO - 10.1111/icad.12348

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85063660419

VL - 12

SP - 268

EP - 277

JO - Insect Conservation and Diversity

JF - Insect Conservation and Diversity

SN - 1752-458X

IS - 4

ER -

Documents

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Random measurement and prediction errors limit the practical relevance of two velocity sensors to estimate the 1RM back squat
  2. Determination of rutin in green tea infusions using square-wave voltammetry with a rigid carbon-polyurethane composite electrode
  3. Effects of pesticide application and plant sexual identity on leaf physiological traits and phyllosphere bacterial communities
  4. Dynamische Modellierung der Sorption von Substanzen in einem hydrologischen Einzugsgebietsmodell anhand des Beispiels Phosphor
  5. Variability in leaf traits reveals contrasting strategies between forest and grassland woody communities across southern Brazil
  6. Functional trait similarity of native and invasive herb species in subtropical China-Environment-specific differences are the key
  7. CaO dissolution during melting and solidification of a Mg-10 wt.% CaO alloy detected with in situ synchrotron radiation diffraction
  8. The identification of up-And downstream industries using input-output tables and a firm-level application to minority shareholdings
  9. Fluorometer controlled apparatus designed for long-duration algal-feeding experiments and environmental effect studies with mussels
  10. Verification of measuring the bearing clearance using kurtosis, recurrences and neural networks and comparison of these approaches
  11. Reliability and validity of the self-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in primary school children
  12. Do We Really Know The Benefit Of Machine Learning In Production Planning And Control? A Systematic Review Of Industry Case Studies
  13. Are Retirees More Satisfied? Anticipation and Adaptation Effects of Retirement on Subjective Well-Being: A Panel Analysis for Germany
  14. Performanznahe und videobasierte Messung von DaZ-Kompetenz bei Lehrkräften: Skalierung und dimensionale Struktur des Testinstruments