Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T04:59:09.155Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Boreal ground-beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) assemblages of the mainland and islands in Lac la Ronge, Saskatchewan, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2017

Aaron J. Bell*
Affiliation:
Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 751 General Services Building, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H1, Canada Troutreach Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, #9 Lancaster Road, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, S7J 1M8, Canada
Iain D. Phillips
Affiliation:
Troutreach Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, #9 Lancaster Road, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, S7J 1M8, Canada Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, #112 Science Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5E2, Canada Water Quality Services, Integrated Water Services, Water Security Agency of Saskatchewan, #101-108 Research Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 3R3, Canada
Scott E. Nielsen
Affiliation:
Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 751 General Services Building, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H1, Canada
John R. Spence
Affiliation:
Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 751 General Services Building, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H1, Canada
*
1Corresponding author (e-mail: ajbell@ualberta.ca)

Abstract

We tested the applicability of the “passive sampling” hypothesis and theory of island biogeography (TIB) for explaining the diversity of forest-dwelling carabid assemblages (Carabidae: Coleoptera) on 30 forested islands (0.2–980.7 ha) in Lac la Ronge and the adjacent mainland in Saskatchewan, Canada. Species richness per unit area increased with distance to mainland with diversity being highest on the most isolated islands. We detected neither a positive species-area relationship, nor significant differences in species richness among island size classes, or between islands and the mainland. Nonetheless, carabid assemblages distinctly differed on islands <1 ha in area and gradually approached the structure of mainland assemblages as island area increased. Small islands were characterised by abundant populations of small-bodied, winged species and few if any large-bodied, flightless species like Carabus taedatus Fabricius. Our findings suggest that neither the “passive sampling” hypothesis nor the theory of island biogeography adequately explain carabid beetle diversity patterns observed among islands in Lac la Ronge. Instead, we hypothesise that population processes such as higher extinction rates of large-bodied, flightless species and the associated release of smaller-bodied, flying species from intra-guild predation on small islands contribute to observed differences in the structure of carabid assemblages between islands.

Type
Biodiversity & Evolution
Copyright
© Entomological Society of Canada 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Subject editor: Derek Sikes

References

Ås, S., Bengtsson, J., and Ebenhard, T. 1997. Archipelagoes and theories of insularity. Ecological Bulletin, 46: 88116.Google Scholar
Bell, R.T. 1982. What is Trachypachus? (Coleoptera: Trachypachidae). The Coleopterists Bulletin, 36: 590596.Google Scholar
Bergeron, J.A.C., Spence, J.R., and Volney, W.J.A. 2011. Landscape patterns of species-level association between ground-beetles and overstory trees in boreal forests of western Canada (Coleoptera, Carabidae). Zookeys, 147: 577600.Google Scholar
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: 502512.Google Scholar
Bousquet, Y. 2010. Illustrated identification guide to adults and larvae of northeastern North American ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Pensoft Series Faunistica. Volume 90. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria.Google Scholar
Bousquet, Y., Bouchard, P., Davies, A.E., and Sikes, D.S. 2013. Checklist of beetles (Coleoptera) of Canada and Alaska. Second edition. ZooKeys, 360: 144.Google Scholar
Clarke, K.R. and Warwick, R.M. 2001. Change in marine communities: an approach to statistical analysis and interpretation, 2nd edition, PRIMER-E, Plymouth, United Kingdom.Google Scholar
Connor, E.F. and McCoy, E.D. 1979. The statistics and biology of the species-area relationship. The American Naturalist, 113: 791833.Google Scholar
Currie, C.R., Spence, J.R., and Niemelä, J. 1996. Competition, cannibalism, and intraguild predation among ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae): a laboratory study. The Coleopterists Bulletin, 50: 135148.Google Scholar
Digweed, S.C., Currie, C.R., Cárcamo, H.A., and Spence, J.R. 1995. Digging out the “digging-in effect” of pitfall traps: influences of depletion and disturbance on catches of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Pedobiologia, 39: 561576.Google Scholar
Environmental Systems Research Institute. 2011. ArcGIS Desktop: Release 10. Environmental Systems Research Institute, Redlands, California, United States of America.Google Scholar
Gotelli, N.J. and Graves, G.R. 1996. Null models in ecology. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America.Google Scholar
Hanski, I. and Gyllenberg, M. 1997. Uniting the general patterns in the distribution of species. Science, 275: 397400.Google Scholar
Hooper, R.R. and Larson, D.J. 2012. Checklist of beetles (Coleoptera: Insecta) of Saskatchewan [online]. Available from http://www.entsocsask.ca/documents/insect_lists/Coleoptera%20Species%20List%20of%20SK_copy.pdf [accessed 29 July 2016].Google Scholar
Järvinen, O. and Ranta, E. 1987. Patterns and processes in species assemblages on northern Baltic islands. Annales Zoologici Fennici, 24: 249266.Google Scholar
Karjalainen, S. 2000. A beetle monitoring in the eastern Gulf of Finland National Park in 1996–2000. Finnish Forest and Park Service, Natural Heritage Service, Finland.Google Scholar
Kelly, B.J., Wilson, J.B., and Mark, A.F. 1989. Causes of the species-area relation – a study of islands in Lake Manapouri, New Zealand. Journal of Ecology, 77: 10211028.Google Scholar
Kindt, R. and Coe, R. 2005. Tree diversity analysis. A manual and software for common statistical methods for ecological and biodiversity studies. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya. Available from www.worldagroforestry.org/treesandmarkets/tree_diversity_analysis.asp [accessed 15 March 2017].Google Scholar
Kotze, D.J. 2008. The occurrence and distribution of carabid beetles (Carabidae) on islands in the Baltic Sea: a review. Journal of Insect Conservation, 12: 265276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kotze, D.J. and Niemelä, J. 2002. Year-to-year variation in carabid beetle (Coleoptera, Carabidae) assemblages on the Åland Islands, southwest Finland. Journal of Biogeography, 29: 375386.Google Scholar
Kotze, D.J., Niemelä, J., and Nieminen, M. 2000. Colonization success of carabid beetles on Baltic Islands. Journal of Biogeography, 27: 807819.Google Scholar
Lindroth, C.H. 1969. The ground-beetles of Canada and Alaska. Opuscula Entomologica Supplement, 20, 24, 26, 29, 33, 34, 35: 11192.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R.H. and Wilson, E.O. 1963. An equilibrium theory of insular zoogeography. Evolution, 17: 373387.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R.H. and Wilson, E.O. 1967. The theory of island biogeography. Princeton Press, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America.Google Scholar
Nielsen, S.E., DeLancey, E.R., Reinhardt, K., and Parisien, M-A. 2016. Effects of lakes on wildfire activity in the boreal forest of Saskatchewan, Canada. Forests, 7: 118.Google Scholar
Niemelä, J. 1993. Interspecific competition in ground-beetle assemblages (Carabidae): what have we learned? Oikos, 66: 325335.Google Scholar
Niemelä, J., Haila, Y., and Halme, E. 1988. Carabid beetles on isolated Baltic Islands and on the adjacent Åland mainland: variation in colonization success. Annales Zoologici Fennici, 25: 133143.Google Scholar
Niemelä, J., Haila, Y., Ranta, E., Tiaine, J., Vepsäläinen, K., and Ås, S. 1987. Distribution of carabid beetles in four boreal archipelagos. Annales Zoologici Fennici, 24: 89100.Google Scholar
Niemelä, J., Ranta, E., and Haila, Y. 1985. Carabid beetles in lush forest patches on the Åland Islands, south-west Finland: an island-mainland comparison. Journal of Biogeography, 12: 109120.Google Scholar
Niemelä, J. and Spence, J.R. 1991. Distribution and abundance of an exotic ground-beetle (Carabidae): a test of community impact. Oikos, 62: 351359.Google Scholar
Oksanen, J., Blanchet, G.F., Kindt, R., Legendre, P., Minchin, P.R., O’Hara, R.B., et al. 2015. Vegan: community ecology package. R package version 2.2-1. Available from CRAN.R-project.org/package=vegan [accessed 15 March 2017].Google Scholar
R Development Core Team. 2013. R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. Available from www.R-project.org [accessed 15 March 2017].Google Scholar
Rawson, D.S. and Atton, F.M. 1953. Biological investigation and fisheries management at Lac la Ronge, Saskatchewan. Fisheries Branch, Report 1, Saskatchewan Department of Natural Resources, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Pp. 139.Google Scholar
Renault, D. 2011. Sea water transport and submersion tolerance as dispersal strategies for the invasive ground beetle Merizodus soledadinus (Carabidae). Polar Biology, 34: 15911595.Google Scholar
Schoener, T.W. and Janzen, D.H. 1968. Notes on environmental determinants of tropical versus temperate insect size patterns. The American Naturalist, 102: 207224.Google Scholar
Šerić Jelaska, L. and Durbešić, P. 2009. Comparison of the body size and wing form of carabid species (Coleoptera: Carabidae) between isolated and continuous forest habitats. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France: International Journal of Entomology, 45: 327338.Google Scholar
Shibuya, S., Kubota, K., Masahiko, O., and Kikvidze, Z. 2011. Assembly rules for ground beetle communities: what determines community structure, environmental factors or competition? European Journal of Entomology, 108: 453459.Google Scholar
Spence, J.R. and Niemelä, J.K. 1994. Sampling carabid assemblages with pitfall traps: the madness and the method. The Canadian Entomologist, 126: 881894.Google Scholar
Szyszko, J., Vermuelen, H.J.W., Klimaszewski, M., and Schwerk, A. 2000. Mean individual biomass (MIB) of ground beetles (Carabidae) as an indicator of the state of the environment. In Natural history and applied ecology of carabid beetles. Edited by P. Brandmayr, G. Lövei, T.Z. Brandmayr, A. Casale, and A.V. Taglianti. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria. Pp. 289294.Google Scholar
Teller, J.T. and Leverington, D.W. 2004. Glacial Lake Agassiz: a 5000 yr history of change and its relationship to the δ18O record of Greenland. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 116: 729742.Google Scholar
Williams, C.B. 1964. Patterns in the balance of nature. Academic Press, London, United Kingdom.Google Scholar
Work, T.T., Buddle, C.M., Korinus, L.M., and Spence, J.R. 2002. Pitfall trap size and capture of three taxa of litter-dwelling arthropods: implications for biodiversity studies. Environmental Entomology, 31: 438448.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Bell supplementary material

Bell supplementary material 1

Download Bell supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 588 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Bell supplementary material

Bell supplementary material 2

Download Bell supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 132.2 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Bell supplementary material

Bell supplementary material 3

Download Bell supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 238.8 KB