Associations between Forest Type and Invertebrates: Ground Beetle Community Patterns in a Natural Oakwood and Juxtaposed Conifer Plantations

Abstract

The character of carabid communities in juxtaposed conifer plantation and natural oak woodland was assessed and each found to be quite distinctive. Distinctions arose from the differential abundance of species and a lower species number in the natural oak woodland. Species at sample sites in the oak woodland, occurred with at least equal frequency at sites in the conifer plantations. The relatively species rich communities of ground beetles in areas afforested with conifers may have been derived partly from upland blanket peat and heath, and partly from older woodland. At the transition zone between the two main woodland types there was an abrupt change in community character but none of the changes in species abundance could be interpreted as being detrimental to the quality of carabid fauna in the oak woodland.