Search

Old-growth forests are terrestrial ecosystems with the highest level of biodiversity and the main environments for the study of conservation and dynamics of the forest system. In Mediterranean Europe, two millennia of human exploitation deeply altered the structural complexity of the native forests. Some animal groups, including insects, may be used as a proxy of such changes. In this paper we explored the possible effects of forest management on the functional diversity (species traits) of carabid beetle communities. Three old-growth forests of the Sila National Park were sampled by pitfall traps set up in pure beech, beech-silver fir and Calabrian black pine forests. In each forest, five managed vs. five unmanaged stands were considered. Managed sites were exploited until the sixties of the past century and then left unmanaged. More than 6000 carabid specimens belonging to 23 species were collected. The functional diversity in carabid groups is influenced by forest management especially in beech and beech-silver fir stands. Body size, specialized predators, endemic species and forest species were negatively affected by stand management. On the contrary, omnivorous ground beetles populations (or species) with a high dispersal power (macropterous) and large geographic distribution were positively influenced by stand management. In pine forests the old-growth community seems less sensitive to past management and more affected by soil evolution. Soil erosion and disturbance may reduce species diversity of ground beetles. Anyway, the composition of the carabid community shows that 50-60 years of forest restoration are enough for the reconstruction of a fairly diverse assemblage reflecting a “subclimax” situation.

Background: Carabid beetles are one of the several taxa useful as model organisms to study and monitor current ecosystems features, as well as environmental changes caused by global changes. Open data about these organisms are scarcely available. To fill this gap, a data table (Darwin Core formatted) was uploaded in GBIF database (https://doi.org/10.15468/rzmp6n). The dataset is the result of a pitfall trapping survey of carabid beetles living along an altitudinal bioclimatic gradient, in the Dolomites mountains within the protected area of the Regional Park "Paneveggio e Pale di S. Martino" (Trento, Italy). Investigated environments ranged from spruce forests to the extreme environments of high altitude, so to collect a dataset as complete as possible on carabid beetles harboured in this area., New Information: The dataset included here is part of an initiative aimed at promoting the adoption of a formal structure for datasets on carabid beetles acquired by field surveys and to give open access to these data. This dataset gives the opportunity to test the effects of global change affecting the same area, within long-term surveys on carabid beetles. Furthermore, the availability of open data is intended to promote an ethical approach to ecological research under a social and scientific point of view, the first because it will avoid wasting public funds on repeating the same researches and the second because it will avoid recapturing new organisms in the same (or similar) environments by other researchers., (Roberto Pizzolotto.)

Heavy metal contamination is recognized worldwide as a serious threat to human health and wildlife, and reducing their emissions is a priority of international and EU actions. Due to its persistence, high bioaccumulation tendency, and toxicity properties, lead (Pb) is one of the heavy metals of greatest concern. Even at low concentrations, lead induces various clinical and subclinical conditions in both humans and animals, and it has been included in the priority list of hazardous substances. In the present study, we used zebrafish's early stages as a model, given their well-acknowledged predictive value in the risk assessment of chemicals. This study was designed to investigate the morphological and morphometric alterations induced by Pb during zebrafish's early development and disclose the putative effects stage- and/or dose-dependent. We examined injuries induced by two environmentally relevant and extremely low concentrations of Pb (2.5 μg/L and 5 μg/L) during two exposure windows: early (between 1 and 7 dpf) and late (between 2 and 8 dpf). We clearly demonstrated that the incidence and severity of morphological abnormalities increased with increasing Pb dose and exposure time in both early and late-exposed groups. Furthermore, we revealed that malformation severity was significantly higher in the early exposed group than in the late exposure group at all exposure times and for both tested doses, thus highlighting the high sensitivity of zebrafish during the initial stages of development. The information presented in this paper emphasizes the effectiveness of morphological biomarkers in unveiling threatening situations and supports the role of zebrafish embryos and larvae in risk assessment and environmental monitoring., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Carabid beetles are gaining more and more attention in applied studies on environmental monitoring or evaluation of natural resources, probably because they can be used as model organisms. Data on the biology and species richness and abundance of carabids could give valuable information in such applied studies, but online resources are not so informative, at least for Italy. To start filling this gap, a data table (Darwin Core formatted) was uploaded in GBIF database. The table is the result of a pitfall trapping survey of carabids living in a small part of the beech forest ecosystem of the Calabria Region (Italy). Amongst the collected species, few were very abundant, which are likely to be the characterising species of the studied ecosystem., New Information: Online datasets of Italian carabids are absent and information about the species biology, richness and abundance often lies in hard-copy papers. The dataset provided here is the first tentative approach, at least for the Italian fauna, to propose a formal structure for data on carabids acquired by field surveys and to give open access to these data. Furthermore, the need for new Darwin Core terms was commented upon briefly., (Roberto Pizzolotto.)

The impact of agricultural practices and soil management on the communities of arthropods living in the agricultural landscape is acknowledged as a critical issue by the literature, and it needs to be better investigated to improve the ecological sustainability of agriculture. In the present study, we aimed to study how soil management affect carabid species distribution in one of the most typical agroecosystem of the Mediterranean region, i.e. the olive grove. In South Italy olive plantations feature different types of soil management, from tillage to half- or full-cover cropping. Species distribution has been examined for a total of 10,189 individuals and 62 species collected from 17 sites. Notably from our analysis we have observed that three factors (climax vegetation, soil features and soil management) explained half of the data variability. The composition of species groupings mirrors both bioclimatic conditions (climax vegetation) and soil features, especially watering, while soil management affects the species distribution, with different intensity from site to site. Eleven species have been recognized as the most abundant in the different facets of the studied olive groves and consequently designated as characteristics of the olive agroecosystem. The species traits of the sampled species have been weighted for a compelling evaluation of the effects of agricultural management on biodiversity, showing uniform traits distribution when coping with the ecological factors that characterize the different plantation facets. We have found that carabid beetles can be used as model organisms for studying the effects of agricultural practices. Our study suggests that the interaction of man-induced trasformation with the natural background of the olive agroecosystem may be difficult to disentangle, so that such complexity must be taken into account when carabid beetles are expected to provide an ecosystem service for good agricultural practices.

Very little is known about the changes of ground beetle assemblages in the last few decades in the Alps, and different responses to climate change of animal populations living above and below the treeline have not been estimated yet. This study focuses on an altitudinal habitat sequence from subalpine spruce forest to alpine grassland in a low disturbance area of the southeastern Dolomites in Italy, the Paneveggio Regional Park. We compared the ground beetle (Carabidae) populations sampled in 1980 in six stands below and above the treeline (1650-2250 m a.s.l.) with those sampled in the same sites almost 30 years later (2008/9). Quantitative data (species richness and abundance) have been compared by means of several diversity indexes and with a new index, the Index of Rank-abundance Change (IRC). Our work shows that species richness and abundance have changed after almost 30 years as a consequence of local extinctions, uphill increment of abundance and uphill shift of distribution range. The overall species number dropped from 36 to 27, while in the sites above the treeline, species richness and abundance changed more than in the forest sites. Two microtherm characteristic species of the pioneer cushion grass mats, Nebria germari and Trechus dolomitanus, became extinct or showed strong abundance reduction. In Nardetum pastures, several hygrophilic species disappeared, and xerophilic zoophytophagous elements raised their population density. In forest ecosystems, the precipitation reduction caused deep soil texture and watering changes, driving a transformation from Sphagnum-rich (peaty) to humus-rich soil, and as a consequence, soil invertebrate biomass strongly increased and thermophilic carabids enriched the species structure. In three decades, Carabid assemblages changed consistently with the hypothesis that climate change is one of the main factors triggering natural environment modifications. Furthermore, the level of human disturbance could enhance the sensitivity of mountain ecosystems to climate change.

We investigated the extent of poleward shifts in the distribution range of Agonum viridicupreum due to climate change in the western Palaearctic. Species' records were obtained from extensive literature sources as well as from collections, and consistent amateur entomologists' recordings. Within the general geographic range of the species, we analyzed in detail two parts of both, the northern and southern distribution range boundaries: (1 and 2) north-western Germany (leading or high-latitude edge), (3) Israel and (4) southern Italy (rear or low-latitude edge). Temporal changes in the occurrence data of the species indicated a northward shift of the leading edge of a minimum of 100 km within the last 50 to 100 years. In contrast, according to the data gathered, the rear edge has not changed during the last decades. Further studies are needed in order to fully understand the underlying mechanisms of the different behaviour of leading and rear range edges of Agonum viridicupreum in the current context of global change. Despite our incomplete understanding, chronosequences of the occurrence of the given species have the potential to optimize climate niche modelling to predict trends in the distribution range in the future.

'Carabidologists do it all' (Niemelä 1996a) is a phrase with which most European carabidologists are familiar. Indeed, during the last half a century, professional and amateur entomologists have contributed enormously to our understanding of the basic biology of carabid beetles. The success of the field is in no small part due to regular European Carabidologists' Meetings, which started in 1969 in Wijster, the Netherlands, with the 14th meeting again held in the Netherlands in 2009, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first meeting and 50 years of long-term research in the Dwingelderveld. This paper offers a subjective summary of some of the major developments in carabidology since the 1960s. Taxonomy of the family Carabidae is now reasonably established, and the application of modern taxonomic tools has brought up several surprises like elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Progress has been made on the ultimate and proximate factors of seasonality and timing of reproduction, which only exceptionally show non-seasonality. Triggers can be linked to evolutionary events and plausibly explained by the "taxon cycle" theory. Fairly little is still known about certain feeding preferences, including granivory and ants, as well as unique life history strategies, such as ectoparasitism and predation on higher taxa. The study of carabids has been instrumental in developing metapopulation theory (even if it was termed differently). Dispersal is one of the areas intensively studied, and results show an intricate interaction between walking and flying as the major mechanisms. The ecological study of carabids is still hampered by some unresolved questions about sampling and data evaluation. It is recognised that knowledge is uneven, especially concerning larvae and species in tropical areas. By their abundance and wide distribution, carabid beetles can be useful in population studies, bioindication, conservation biology and landscape ecology. Indeed, 40 years of carabidological research have provided so much data and insights, that among insects - and arguably most other terrestrial organisms - carabid beetles are one of the most worthwhile model groups for biological studies.