Long‐term monitoring reveals decreasing water beetle diversity, loss of specialists and community shifts over the past 28 years

Roth, Nicolas; Zoder, Sebastian; Zaman, Assad Ali; Thorn, Simon; Schmidl, Jürgen (2020). Long‐term monitoring reveals decreasing water beetle diversity, loss of specialists and community shifts over the past 28 years Insect Conservation and Diversity, 13(2), pp. 140-150. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1111/icad.12411

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1. Lentic freshwater organisms are influenced by a multitude of factors, including geomorphology, hydrology, anthropogenic impacts and climate change. Organisms that depend on patchy resources such as water beetles may also be sensitive to anthropogenic habitat degradation, like pollution, eutrophication, water level or man- agement alteration. 2. To assess composition and ecological trends in the water beetle communities of Central Europe, we sampled water beetles (Dytiscidae, Haliplidae, Noteridae) in 33 water bodies in Southern Germany from 1991 to 2018. We used manual, time-standardised capture during three periods: between 1991 and 1995, 2007 and 2008, and 2017 and 2018. 3. During the 28-year survey period, we captured a total of 81 species. We found annual declines in both species number (ca −1%) and abundance (ca −2%). Also, com- munity composition showed significant changes over time. The significant impact of pH on the community composition suggests that the recorded changes through time partly reflect natural succession processes. However, a pronounced decline of beetle species belonging to the moor-related beetle associations indicated that Central European water beetles are also threatened by non-successional factors, including desiccation, increased nitrogen input and/or mineralisation, and the loss of specific habitats. This trend to phys- iographical homogenisation resulted in corresponding community composition shifts. 4. To effectively protect endangered species, conservation strategies need to be aimed at regularly creating new water bodies with mineralic bottom substratum, and mainte- nance of moor water bodies that represent late successional stages.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL
School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL > Multifunctional Forest Management
School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL > Multifunctional Forest Management > Forest Ecosystem and Management

Name:

Roth, Nicolas;
Zoder, Sebastian;
Zaman, Assad Ali;
Thorn, Simon and
Schmidl, Jürgen

Subjects:

G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
Q Science > QL Zoology

ISSN:

1752-458X

Publisher:

Wiley-Blackwell

Language:

English

Submitter:

Simon Lutz

Date Deposited:

21 Dec 2020 11:41

Last Modified:

26 Sep 2021 02:18

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/icad.12411

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Biodiversity, lentic inland water bodies, long-term monitoring, time series, water beetles

ARBOR DOI:

10.24451/arbor.13954

URI:

https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/13954

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