The associations between ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) communities and environmental condition in floodplain forests in the Pannonian Basin

Abstract

We studied assemblages of carabids in eight similar habitats, five in Slovakia and three in Serbia. The ground beetles were caught by pitfall traps from February 2015 until November 2016. We compared the incidence of Carabidae in floodplain forests and ecotones alongside the River Danube in Slovakia and the Rivers Tisza and Begej in Serbia. We determined their association with anthropogenic effects,diversity of plants in the different vegetation layers, cover of vegetation layers (herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees), area of forest stands, circumference of forest stands, distance to forest edge, age of forest stands, depth of leaf litter and physico-chemical properties of soil and leaf litter (conductivity, pH, relative content of H, C, P and N). In total, 2,495 adult individuals of 110 species of carabids were collected. The total epigeic activity of the carabids was significantly and positively associated with the number of species of plants in E3 vegetation layer and the relative content of N, and negatively with the cover of the E1 layer. Species richness was significantly positively associated with the number of species of plants in the E3 layer and the pH of leaf litter, but an opposite trend in evenness.

Keywords

• coleoptera
• carabidae
• floodplain forests
• slovakia
• serbia
• environmental associations
• bioindicators