The impact of hedge-forest connectivity and microhabitat conditions on spider and carabid beetle assemblages in agricultural landscapes

Species diversity in a given landscape depends to a high degree on its habitat diversity. However, the specificity of different environmental factors may play a different role and individual habitats may undergo changes in time (succession). Moreover, some large-scale environmental factors may affect the habitats in the same way but differ from year to year. A long-term study was carried out with the aim to study the impact of selected environmental factors on the carabid assemblages of individual study site over the years and the impact of selected environmental factors on the carabid assemblages of the set of all study sites in selected years. the impact of selected environmental factors on the carabid assemblages of individual study site over the years and the impact of selected environmental factors on the carabid assemblages of the set of all study sites in selected years. In order to deal with this task, the carabid beetles assemblages on different study sites in a forest-field landscape in Poland were collected using pitfall traps over a period of ten years (2009-2018). The sites were a planted pine forest (12 years old in 2009), a planted pine forest (31 years old in 2009), a naturally-regenerated pine stand (about 10 years old in 2009), a naturally-regenerated pine forest (about 67 years old in 2009), an naturally regenerated pine forest with a share of oak, beech and birch (about 82 years old in 2009), two irregularly-mown sites without biomass removal, and a regularly-mown site with biomass removal. With respect to individual study sites the impact of the factors age (year of the study), temperature and rainfall in the year of inventory, and temperature and rainfall in the preceding year was tested. The impact of the factors age (stand age in the respective year), carbon in the organic layer, carbon in the mineral soil and distance from the nearest forest was analyzed for the set of all study sites in the years 2011 and 2015. Altogether, 9208 individuals belonging to 77 species were collected. Redundancy Analyses (RDA) indicated that on the individual study sites the year of study was generally positively correlated with temperature and negatively with rainfall, indicating increasing temperatures and decreasing amount of rainfall over the years. For study sites in forest stands in most cases the rainfall was a significant factor, especially the rainfall in the year before the inventory. For study sites in open areas both rainfall and temperature showed significant results. Using Canonical Correspondence Analyses (CCA) for analyzing the impact of the factors on carabid assemblages of the full set of study sites in 2011 and 2015, it was shown that age was positively correlated with carbon in the organic layer, but not with carbon in the mineral soil. Significant factors were carbon in the organic layer and distance from the nearest forest. The results of the study enlarge our knowledge on the impact of different predictable and stochastic environmental factors on the formation of carabid beetle assemblages in rural landscapes.

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Impact of different habitat parameters on carabid beetle assemblages in selected areas of a forest-field landscape in Poland – 10 years of data

Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae ◽

10.17109/azh.66.suppl.169.2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 66 (Suppl.) ◽

pp. 169-184

Author(s):

Axel Schwerk ◽

Agata Jojczyk ◽

Izabela Dymitryszyn

Keyword(s):

Environmental Factors ◽

Carabid Beetle ◽

Carabid Beetles ◽

Organic Layer ◽

Forest Site ◽

Forest Stands ◽

Rural Landscapes ◽

Beetle Assemblages ◽

Study Sites ◽

The Impact

Long-term data on carabid beetles assemblages on differently managed study sites in forests and open areas were analysed to study the impact of selected environmental factors on the carabid assemblages of both the individual study sites over the years and the set of all study sites in selected years.Ordination separated forest stands from open areas along with the first, and samples of 2011 from those of 2015 along the second axis. For study sites in forest stands in most cases, precipitation was a significant factor, especially precipitation in the year before the inventory. However, for the youngest forest site, the year of the study was most important, indicating a succession process. For study sites in open areas, both precipitation and temperature showed most often significant results. Analysing the impact of environmental factors on carabid assemblages in the full set of study sites in 2011 and 2015 revealed carbon content in the organic layer and distance from the nearest forest as significant factors. The results of the study extend our knowledge on the impact of environmental factors on the formation of carabid beetle assemblages in rural landscapes, which is essential in the framework of developing biodiversity conservation strategies.

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Carabid Beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Response to Soil Properties of Urban Wastelands in Warsaw, Poland

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su122410673 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (24) ◽

pp. 10673

Author(s):

Axel Schwerk ◽

Marzena Wińska-Krysiak ◽

Arkadiusz Przybysz ◽

Ewa Zaraś-Januszkiewicz ◽

Piotr Sikorski

Keyword(s):

Negative Impact ◽

Carabid Beetle ◽

Carabid Beetles ◽

Soil Parameters ◽

City Development ◽

Space Management ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Beetle Assemblages ◽

Trace Element Contamination ◽

The One

Urban wasteland is of special interest to city planners. However, to integrate such areas into city space management with consideration of nature conservation aspects, a sound assessment of their ecological potential is necessary. The aim of this paper was to analyze whether carabid beetle assemblages of the wastelands are affected by soil parameters, particularly trace element contamination. Therefore, we studied the carabid fauna in relation to selected soil parameters on 56 sampling plots situated in 24 wastelands located in the city of Warsaw (Poland). The results have confirmed our assumptions that the number of species, as well as the number of individual carabid beetles, are negatively affected by an increasing amount of pollutants in the soil. Particularly, the trace elements Pb, Cu, and Cd showed a significantly negative impact. The results are of value when it comes to the use of urban wastelands in the context of sustainable city development. Future use of urban wastelands will be faced with trade-offs between the use for public interests (e.g., housing space) and ecological interests. Phytoremediation and entomoremediation may be included in decontamination measures. The results of studies, such as the one conducted by us, may help to select the respective wastelands for certain purposes.

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Investigating the impact of classification features and classifiers on crop mapping performance in heterogeneous agricultural landscapes

International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation ◽

10.1016/j.jag.2021.102388 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 102 ◽

pp. 102388

Author(s):

Huanxue Zhang ◽

Yuji Wang ◽

Jiali Shang ◽

Mingxu Liu ◽

Qiangzi Li

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Crop Mapping ◽

The Impact

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The effects of forest patch size and matrix type on changes in carabid beetle assemblages in an urbanized landscape

Biological Conservation ◽

10.1016/j.biocon.2008.07.022 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 141 (10) ◽

pp. 2585-2596 ◽

Cited By ~ 71

Author(s):

Eva Gaublomme ◽

Frederik Hendrickx ◽

Hilde Dhuyvetter ◽

Konjev Desender

Keyword(s):

Patch Size ◽

Carabid Beetle ◽

Forest Patch ◽

Matrix Type ◽

Beetle Assemblages

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Effects of land cover type on carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) of the Canterbury foothills, New Zealand

New Zealand Journal of Forestry Science ◽

10.33494/nzjfs492019x54x ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 49 ◽

Author(s):

Lisa A. Berndt ◽

Eckehard G. Brockerhoff

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Land Cover ◽

Natural Forest ◽

Carabid Beetle ◽

Carabid Beetles ◽

Native Forest ◽

Potential Contribution ◽

Pine Plantation ◽

Plantation Forest ◽

Beetle Assemblages

Background: Land cover changes during the recent history of New Zealand have had a major impact on its largely endemic and iconic biodiversity. As in many other countries, large areas of native forest have been replaced by other land cover and are now in exotic pasture grassland or plantation forest. Ground beetles (Carabidae) are often used as ecological indicators, they provide ecosystem services such as pest control, and some species are endangered. However, few studies in New Zealand have assessed the habitat value for carabid beetles of natural forest, managed regenerating natural forest, pine plantation forest and pasture. Methods: We compared the carabid beetle assemblages of natural forest of Nothofagus solandri var solandri (also known as Fuscospora solandri or black beech), regenerating N. solandri forest managed for timber production, exotic pine plantation forest and exotic pasture, using pitfall traps. The study was conducted at Woodside Forest in the foothills of the Southern Alps, North Canterbury, New Zealand, close to an area where the critically endangered carabid Holcaspis brevicula was found. Results: A total of 1192 carabid individuals from 23 species were caught during the study. All but two species were native to New Zealand, with the exotic species present only in low numbers and one of these only in the pasture habitat. Carabid relative abundance and the number of species was highest in the pine plantation, where a total of 15 species were caught; however, rarefied species richness did not differ significantly between habitats. The sampled carabid beetle assemblages were similar across the three forested habitat types but differed significantly from the pasture assemblages based on unconstrained and canonical analyses of principal coordinates. Holcaspis brevicula was not detected in this area. Conclusions: Our results show that managed or exotic habitats may provide habitat to species-rich carabid assemblages although some native species occur only in natural, undisturbed vegetation. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge the potential contribution of these land uses and land cover types to the conservation of native biodiversity and to consider how these can be managed to maximise conservation opportunities.

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Insectivorous bats are less active near freeways

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0247400 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. e0247400

Author(s):

Manisha Bhardwaj ◽

Kylie Soanes ◽

José J. Lahoz-Monfort ◽

Linda F. Lumsden ◽

Rodney van der Ree

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Individual Species ◽

Insectivorous Bats ◽

Predator Prey ◽

The Road ◽

Environmental Impact Assessments ◽

Wildlife Populations ◽

Roadside Verges ◽

The Impact ◽

Plant Pollinator

Traffic disturbances (i.e. pollution, light, noise, and vibrations) often extend into the area surrounding a road creating a ‘road-effect zone’. Habitat within the road-effect zone is degraded or, in severe cases, completely unsuitable for wildlife, resulting in indirect habitat loss. This can have a disproportionate impact on wildlife in highly modified landscapes, where remaining habitat is scarce or occurs predominantly along roadside reserves. In this study, we investigated the road-effect zone for insectivorous bats in highly cleared agricultural landscapes by quantifying the change in call activity with proximity to three major freeways. The activity of seven out of 10 species of bat significantly decreased with proximity to the freeway. We defined the road-effect zone to be the proximity at which call activity declined by at least 20% relative to the maximum detected activity. The overall road-effect zone for bats in this region was 307 m, varying between 123 and 890 m for individual species. Given that this road-effect zone exceeds the typical width of the roadside verges (<50 m), it is possible that much of the vegetation adjacent to freeways in this and similar landscapes provides low-quality habitat for bats. Without accounting for the road-effect zone, the amount of habitat lost or degraded due to roads is underestimated, potentially resulting in the loss of wildlife, ecosystem services and key ecosystem processes (e.g. predator-prey or plant-pollinator interactions) from the landscape. We suggest all future environmental impact assessments include quantifying the road-effect zone for sensitive wildlife, in order to best plan and mitigate the impact of roads on the environment. Mitigating the effects of new and existing roads on wildlife is essential to ensure enough high-quality habitat persists to maintain wildlife populations.

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Effectiveness of Community-Based Soil and Water Conservation in Improving Soil Property in Damota Area, Southern Ethiopia

Applied and Environmental Soil Science ◽

10.1155/2021/5510587 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Mamush Masha ◽

Teshome Yirgu ◽

Mulugeta Debele ◽

Mengie Belayneh

Keyword(s):

Soil Fertility ◽

Water Conservation ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Soil And Water Conservation ◽

Southern Ethiopia ◽

Conservation Practices ◽

Community Based ◽

The Impact ◽

Soil And Water

Soil and water conservation (SWC) is being advocated as an integral part of agricultural land management as it not only controls/minimizes soil erosion but also restores/rehabilitates the degraded lands. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of soil and water conservation practices in improving soil fertility in the agricultural landscapes of the Damota area, southern Ethiopia. Forty-eight soil samples (both disturbed and core samples) were collected from the conserved and adjacent nonconserved plots. The significance analysis test was performed using analysis of variance. The result of the study showed that higher mean values of soil physicochemical properties were observed in the conserved plot than its nonconserved counterpart. The mean differences of organic carbon, total nitrogen, cation exchange capacity, and exchangeable K+ and Ca2+ between conserved and nonconserved plots were statistically significant at the P < 0.01 level. Besides, available phosphorous and bulk density were significant at P < 0.05 , but the effect of SWC practices was not found significant on soil texture, soil pH, and exchangeable Na+ and Mg2+ content of the soil in the Damota area. Community-based soil and water conservation practices have improved the soil fertility in agricultural landscapes, although significant results have been observed in some fertility indicators. Therefore, strengthening the implementation of conservation measures by participating in all stakeholders is recommended. Supporting physical structures by agronomic and vegetative measures and continued maintenance can bring better results.

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