Carabid Beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Response to Soil Properties of Urban Wastelands in Warsaw, Poland

Axel Schwerk,Ewa Zaraś-Januszkiewicz,Marzena Wińska-Krysiak,Piotr Sikorski,Arkadiusz Przybysz

doi:10.3390/su122410673

Axel Schwerk, Ewa Zaraś-Januszkiewicz + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410673

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Abstract

Urban wasteland is of special interest to city planners. However, to integrate such areas into city space management with consideration of nature conservation aspects, a sound assessment of their ecological potential is necessary. The aim of this paper was to analyze whether carabid beetle assemblages of the wastelands are affected by soil parameters, particularly trace element contamination. Therefore, we studied the carabid fauna in relation to selected soil parameters on 56 sampling plots situated in 24 wastelands located in the city of Warsaw (Poland). The results have confirmed our assumptions that the number of species, as well as the number of individual carabid beetles, are negatively affected by an increasing amount of pollutants in the soil. Particularly, the trace elements Pb, Cu, and Cd showed a significantly negative impact. The results are of value when it comes to the use of urban wastelands in the context of sustainable city development. Future use of urban wastelands will be faced with trade-offs between the use for public interests (e.g., housing space) and ecological interests. Phytoremediation and entomoremediation may be included in decontamination measures. The results of studies, such as the one conducted by us, may help to select the respective wastelands for certain purposes.

Highlights

Cities are subjected to permanent economic, social, and political changes, which influence the transformation of spatial urban structures [1]
The aim of this paper was to analyze whether carabid beetle assemblages of the wastelands are affected by soil parameters, by trace element contamination
Canoco for Windows 4.56 [33,34] was used to carry out nonparametric multivariate regression analyses on species numbers and numbers of individuals, using the following soil parameters selected as independent variables: trace elements (TE mg·kg−1 dry matter: Pb, Cd, Ni, Cr, Cu, Zn), soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC I—Term I, EC II—Term II, EC III—Term III), organic matter (Org I—Term I, Org II—Term II, Org III—Term III), and soil water content (SWC I—Term I, SWC II—Term II, SWC III—Term III)

Summary

Introduction

Cities are subjected to permanent economic, social, and political changes, which influence the transformation of spatial urban structures [1]. With a rapid increase in urban population, environmental, social, and economic challenges are growing as well. Researchers [3] have emphasized that there is a need for a framework for creating new policies and encouraging more strategically organized efforts in sustainable environmental planning. A major dilemma regarding big cities is that, on the one hand, their population density is very high and inhabitants demand space for many different purposes, such as new housing areas, space for recreation, or economic purposes but, on the other hand, vacant natural areas are scarce [4]. The significance of urban wasteland, including urban post-industrial areas, for nature conservation, has been discussed for decades [6,7,8]. One of the concepts in line with this objective is to use them as wilderness areas, characterized by a high level of self-regulation in ecosystem processes [9]

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