Abstract
We studied communities of carabid beetles in residual forest patchesalong urban-suburban-rural gradients in three cities (Helsinki, Finland; Sofia,Bulgaria and Edmonton, Canada) to examine their responses to urbanisation. OnlyFinnish carabids showed a marked division of community structure along thegradient. In Bulgaria and Canada, carabids did not separate into distincturban,suburban and rural communities. Our results provide some support for thepredictions that species richness will decrease, that opportunistic specieswillgain dominance, and that small-sized species will become more numerous underdisturbance such as that provided by urbanisation. The rather weak and variedresponse of carabids to this disturbance suggests that local factors and theirinteraction are of primary importance for community composition. Occurrence ofreasonably similar carabid communities across the gradient at each of the threelevels of urbanisation suggests that habitat changes commonly associated withurbanisation have not affected the ecological integrity of carabid assemblagesin residual urban forest patches.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahti T., Hämet-Ahti L. and Jalas J. 1968. Vegetation zones and their sections in northwestern Europe. Annales Botanici Fennici 5: 169-211.
Baev P.V. and Penev L.D. 1995. BIODIV: Program for calculating biological diversity parameters, similarity, niche overlap, and cluster analysis. Pensoft, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Berg A., Ehnstrom B., Gustaffsson L., Hallingback T., Jonsell M. and Weslien J. 1994. Threatened plant, animal, and fungus species in Swedish forests: distribution and habitat associations. Conservation Biology 8: 718-731.
Blake S., Foster G.N., Eyre M.D. and Luff M.L. 1994. Effects of habitat type and grassland management practices on the body size distribution of carabid beetles. Pedobiologia 38: 502-512.
Clarke K.R. and Warwick R.M. 1994. Change in Marine Communities: An Approach to Statistical Analysis and Interpretation. Bowne Press Limited, UK.
Colwell R.K. and Coddington J.A. 1994. Estimating terrestrial biodiversity through extrapolation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 345: 101-118.
Connell J.H. 1978. Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs. Science 199: 1302-1310.
Davis B.N.K. 1978a. The ground arthropods of London gardens. The London Naturalist 58: 15-24.
Davis B.N.K. 1978b. Urbanisation and the diversity of insects. In: Mound L.A. and Waloff N. (eds), Diversity of Insect Faunas. Blackwell, London, pp. 126-138.
Desender K. 1996. Diversity and dynamics of coastal dune carabids. Annales Zoologici Fennici 33: 65-76.
Desender K., Dufrêne M., Loreau M., Luff M.L. and Maelfait J.-P. 1994. Carabid Beetles: Ecology and Evolution. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Desender K., Maelfait J.-P. and Baert L. 1991. Carabid beetles as ecological indicators in dune management. Elytron: 239-247.
Douglas I. 1992. The case for urban ecology. Urban Nature Magazine 1: 15-17.
Dufrêne M. and Legendre P. 1997. Species assemblages and indicator species: the need for a flexible asymmetrical approach. Ecological Monographs 67: 345-366.
Eversham B.C., Roy D.B. and Telfer M.G. 1996. Urban, industrial and other manmade sites as analogues of natural habitats for Carabidae. Annales Zoologici Fennici 33: 149-156.
Frankie G.W. and Ehler L.E. 1978. Ecology of insects in urban environments. Annual Review of Entomology 23: 367-387.
Freude H., Harde K.W. and Lohse G.A. 1976. Die Kaefer Mitteleuropas (Bd. 2: Adephaga 1: Fam. Carabidae). Goecke & Evers, Krefeld, Germany.
Giller P.S. 1996. The diversity of soil communities, the ‘poor man’s tropical rainforest’. Biodiversity and Conservation 5: 135-168.
Gray J.S. 1987. Species-abundance patterns. In: Gee J.H.R. and Giller P.S. (eds), Organization of communities, past and present. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, UK, pp. 53-67.
Gray’s J.S. 1989. Effects of environmental stress on species rich assemblages. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 37: 19-32.
Halme E. and Niemelä J. 1993. Carabid beetles in fragments of coniferous forest. Annales Zoologici Fennici 30: 17-30.
Heliövaara K. and Väisänen R. 1984. Effects of modern forestry on northwestern European forest invertebrates: a synthesis. Acta Forestalia Fennica 189: 1-32.
Hurka K. 1996. Carabidae of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Kabourek, Zlin, Czech Republic.
Lindroth C.H. 1961. The ground beetles of Canada and Alaska. Opuscula Entomologica: 1-200.
Lindroth C.H. 1963. The ground beetles of Canada and Alaska. Opuscula Entomologica: 201-408.
Lindroth C.H. 1966. The ground beetles of Canada and Alaska. Opuscula Entomologica: 409-648.
Lindroth C.H. 1968. The ground beetles of Canada and Alaska. Opuscula Entomologica: 649-944.
Lindroth C.H. 1969. The ground beetles of Canada and Alaska 1-6. Opuscula Entomologica: 945-1192.
Lindroth C.H. 1985. The Carabidae (Coleoptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark. Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica 15, part 1. Scandinavian Science Press Ltd., Copenhagen, Denmark.
Lindroth C.H. 1986. The Carabidae (Coleoptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark. Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica 15, part 2. Scandinavian Science Press Ltd., Copenhagen, Denmark.
Lövei G.L. and Sunderland K.D. 1996. Ecology and behavior of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Annual Review of Entomology 41: 231-256.
Luff M. 1996. Use of carabids as environmental indicators in grasslands and cereals. Annales Zoologici Fennici 33: 185-195.
Magura T., Tothmeresz B. and Molnar T. 2000. Spatial distribution of carabids along grass-forest transects. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 46: 1-17.
McDonnell M.J. and Pickett S.T.A. 1990. Ecosystem structure and function along urban-rural gradients: an unexploited opportunity for ecology. Ecology 71: 1232-1237.
McDonnell M.J., Pickett S.T.A., Groffman P., Bohlen P., Pouyat R.V., Zipperer W.C. et al. 1997. Ecosystem processes along an urban-to-rural gradient. Urban Ecosystems 1: 21-36.
McDonnell M.J., Pickett S.T.A. and Pouyat R.V. 1993. The application of the ecological gradient paradigm to the study of urban effects. In: McDonnell M.J. and Pickett S.T.A. (eds), Humans as Components of Ecosystems. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 175-189.
Naeem S., Thompson L.J., Lawler S.P., Lawton J.H. and Woodfin R.M. 1994. Declining biodiversity can alter the performance of ecosystems. Nature 368: 734-736.
Niemelä J. 1996. From systematics to conservation-carabidologists do it all. Annales Zoologici Fennici 33: 1-4.
Niemelä J. 1999. Ecology and urban planning. Biodiversity and Conservation 8: 119-131.
Niemelä J. 2000. Is there a need for a theory of urban ecology? Urban Ecosystems 3: 57-65.
Niemelä J., Kotze J., Ashworth A., Brandmayr P., Desender K., New T. et al. 2000. The search for common anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity: a global network. Journal of Insect Conservation 4: 3-9.
Niemelä J. and Spence J.R. 1991. Distribution and abundance of an exotic ground-beetle (Carabidae): a test of community impact. Oikos 62: 351-359.
Niemelä J., Spence J.R., Langor D., Haila Y. and Tukia H. 1994. Logging and boreal ground-beetle assemblages on two continents: implications for conservation. In: Gaston K., Samways M. and New T. (eds), Perspectives in insect conservation. Intercept Publications, Andover, UK, pp. 29-50.
Pouyat R.V., McDonnell M.J. and Pickett S.T.A. 1997. Litter decomposition and nitrogen mineralization in oak stands along an urban-rural land use gradient. Urban Ecosystems 1: 117-131.
Probst J.R. and Crow T.R. 1991. Integrating biological diversity and resource management. Journal of Forestry 89: 12-17.
Putman R.J. 1996. Community Ecology. Chapman & Hall, London, UK.
Sokal R.R. and Rohlf F.J. 1995. Biometry. 3rd edn. Freeman, New York.
Spence J.R. and Spence D.H. 1988. Of ground beetles and men: introduced species and the synanthropic fauna of western Canada. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 144: 151-168.
Stork N. 1990. The Role of Ground Beetles in Ecological and Environmental Studies. Intercept, Andover, UK.
Tonteri T. and Haila Y. 1990. Plants in a boreal city: ecological characteristics of vegetation in Helsinki and its surroundings, southern Finland. Annales Botanici Fennici 27: 337-352.
Vandruff L.W., Leedy D.L. and Stearns F.W. 1995. Urban wildlife and human well-being. In: Sukopp H., Numata M. and Huber A. (eds), Urban Ecology as the Basis for Urban Planning. SPB Academic Publishing, The Hague, The Netherlands, pp. 203-211.
Wootton J.T. 1998. Effects of disturbance on species diversity: a multitrophic perspective. The American Naturalist 152: 803-825.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Niemelä, J., Kotze, D.J., Venn, S. et al. Carabid beetle assemblages (Coleoptera, Carabidae) across urban-rural gradients: an international comparison. Landscape Ecol 17, 387–401 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021270121630
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021270121630