Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

The Theory of Island Biogeography

Summary 1. Carabid beetles are important functional components of many terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we describe the first long-term, wide-scale and quantitative assessment of temporal changes in UK carabid communities, to inform nationwide management aimed at their conservation. 2. Multivariate and mixed models were used to assess temporal trends over a 15-year period, across eleven sites in the UK Environmental Change Network. Sites covered pasture, field margins, chalk downland, woodland and hedgerows in the lowlands, moorland and pasture in the uplands, and grassland, heaths and bogs in montane locations. 3. We found substantial overall declines in carabid biodiversity. Three-quarters of the species studied declined, half of which were estimated to be undergoing population reductions of > 30%, when averaged over 10-year periods. Declines of this magnitude are recognized to be of conservation concern. They are comparable to those reported for butterflies and moths and increase the evidence base showing that insects are undergoing serious and widespread biodiversity losses. 4. Overall trends masked differences between regions and habitats. Carabid population declines (10-year trend, averaged across species) were estimated to be 52% in montane sites, 31% in northern moorland sites and 28% in western pasture sites (with at least 80% of species declining in each case). Conversely, populations in our southern downland site had 10year increases of 48% on average. Overall, biodiversity was maintained in upland pasture, and populations were mostly stable in woodland and hedgerow sites. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our results highlight the need to assess trends for carabids, and probably other widespread and ubiquitous taxa, across regions and habitats to fully understand losses in biodiversity. Land management should be underpinned by a consideration of how wide-scale environmental drivers interact with habitat structure. The stability of population trends in woodlands and hedgerows of species that are declining elsewhere puts these habitats at the fore-front of integrated landscape management aimed at preserving their ecosystem services.

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Large carabid beetle declines in a United Kingdom monitoring network increases evidence for a widespread loss in insect biodiversity

highlights is very real and is a major stumbling block to those who have to teach the biology of these groups which probably demands of a biology student a greater vocablary of latinised words than your average classics student. None the less, knowledge advances and the structure that Margulis and Schwartz support here panders to that prejudice. I can see no rational reason to lump the Archaea and the Bacteria into one unit and it impedes comprehension to say that they are one unit on a par, in diversity terms, with the plants. Phylogenetically, the 5-Kingdom system is under active debate as a result of the rapidly accumulating molecular data which have allowed for the first time rational intra-phylum comparison. It is not a stable field yet and we are still trying to identify the largest scale of grouping which is both sensible and convenient. Some of this debate comes over in the introduction, but being pitched at student level is inevitably somewhat oversimplified. The new edition lays down definitions of the Kingdoms themselves and the introduction sections are also greatly expanded. This is a very useful addition which should, I would like to think, stimulate debate about where the demarkation lines should be drawn.

Biodiversity: An Introduction

Carabids are a species-rich group (more than 10 000 species in the Palaearctic region) and are intensively studied, inter alia due to their roles as bioindicators and mediators of nutrient flows in ecosystems. Numerous aspects of species' systematics, distribution, evolutionary biology (and phylogeny) and their ecology are well documented for the western Palaearctic and large data sets have already been compiled for macroecological studies. 2. The online database carabids.org is an enhancement of these data sets and holds species classification and country level data on species distribution range for over 10 000 Palaearctic carabid species. Size and dispersal traits (body and eye size and hind wing development) are available for almost all (over 3400) western Palaearctic carabid species and ecological and life-history traits (regard- ing food and habitat preferences as well as time of reproduction and activity) can be offered for most Central European (about 1000) species. 3. Carabids.org is meant to be a collaborative and interactive project offering a variety of research opportunities. Our project contributes to the rapid expan- sion and analysis of freely available traits data on species-rich invertebrates, which will help to advance our understanding of community assembly and func- tional diversity effects of such taxa across large spatial scales. We would very much appreciate data contributions from carabidologists, other scientists and interested parties.

Carabids.org – a dynamic online database of ground beetle species traits (Coleoptera, Carabidae)

Weed management is a challenge in all agroecosystems. Given the negative consequences associated with herbicide-based weed management, it is important to consider integrated weed management options with emphasis on strategies such as biological control. Postdispersal weed seed predation by granivorous and omnivorous carabid beetles results in substantial natural suppression of weed populations. Although the role of ground beetles as “generalist predators” in various agroecosystems is known, their contribution to weed management is not well recognized. In this context, this review presents an account of carabids and their granivorous nature, the importance of a seed diet in the life histories of different carabid groups, factors affecting granivory, and their potential role in weed seed management. Below, we discuss the interrelationships among various factors influencing weed seed consumption by carabids, its consequences for weed management, and the need for future research.

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The Role of Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in Weed Seed Consumption: A Review

'Carabidologists do it all' (Niemela 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.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00657968/document

Forty years of carabid beetle research in Europe – from taxonomy, biology, ecology and population studies to bioindication, habitat assessment and conservation

Roberto Pizzoloto

Papers

Forty years of carabid beetle research in Europe – from taxonomy, biology, ecology and population studies to bioindication, habitat assessment and conservation