Activity density of carabid beetles along an urbanisation gradient

  • Simone Fattorini Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila Via Vetoio, 67100, Coppito, L’Aquila, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4517-2135
  • Cristina Mantoni Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila Via Vetoio, 67100, Coppito, L’Aquila, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1981-0842
  • Davide Bergamaschi Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8903-5151
  • Lorenzo Fortini Department of Science, University of Roma Tre, Viale G. Marconi 446, 00146, Roma, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3324-9278
  • Francisco J. Sánchez Department of Science, University of Roma Tre, Viale G. Marconi 446, 00146, Roma, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2242-8641
  • Letizia Di Biase Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila Via Vetoio, 67100, Coppito, L’Aquila, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5675-2904
  • Andrea Di Giulio Department of Science, University of Roma Tre, Viale G. Marconi 446, 00146, Roma, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0508-0751
Keywords: Coleoptera, Carabidae, abundance, urban-rural gradient, urban ecology, Italy

Abstract

Several works have investigated the impact of urbanisation on carabid activity density using urban-rural gradients. Such works compared activity density recorded from green spaces located in different parts of a city and assigned to categories of increasing urban intensity, which poses two problems: (1) since the gradient is divided into categories, it is impossible to model continuous variations in biotic responses, and (2) sites representative of different urbanisation levels are not true segments of the same ecological continuum. To surpass these problems, we modelled variations in carabid activity density along an urban-rural transect within a single green space extending from the city centre of Rome to rural environments. Carabids were sampled by pitfall traps from sites distributed along the entire gradient. We used breakpoint regressions to model how (1) carabid activity density, (2) carabids/beetles ratio, (3) carabids/insects ratio and (3) carabids/arthropods ratio varied along the gradient. As already observed for various organisms in urban environments, we found that activity density of carabids and their contribution to the abundance of beetles, insects and arthropods, peaked in the middle of the gradient. This supports the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, according to which moderate urbanisation may favour diversity by increasing habitat heterogeneity.

Published
2020-12-28
How to Cite
FattoriniS., MantoniC., BergamaschiD., FortiniL., SánchezF. J., Di BiaseL., & Di GiulioA. (2020). Activity density of carabid beetles along an urbanisation gradient. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 66(Suppl.), 21-36. https://doi.org/10.17109/AZH.66.Suppl.21.2020