Abstract
Industrial air pollution constitutes a major environmental disturbance, and its impacts on insect communities have considerable implications for ecosystem structure and functions. Existing information on insect responses to pollution generally addresses abundant taxa, whereas few studies examine the effects of pollution on rare species. To begin rectifying this bias, ladybirds (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were quantitatively collected annually from 2002-2014 in 13 sites located 0.7 to 39.7 km from the nickel-copper smelter in Monchegorsk, north-western Russia. Seven of eight recorded species were found only in severely and /or moderately polluted sites. Both Shannon's diversity index and coccinellid abundance decreased with increasing distance from the smelter. Thus, some groups of predatory insects, in particular the Coccinellidae, may benefit from environmental changes caused by severe industrial pollution, whereas the most abundant invertebrate predators generally suffer from such changes.
Highlights
Insects are extraordinarily diverse and abundant and have significant roles in the majority of terrestrial ecosystems; they are “the little things that run the world” (Wilson, 1987)
The aim of the present study was to check whether the rare predators (Coccinellidae) respond to pollution-induced habitat deterioration in the same way as the abundant predators, i.e. whether they decline with increase in industrial pollution, creating enemy-free space for their herbivorous prey
The diversity of Coccinellidae decreased from the most to the least polluted sites (Fig. 2), and only the most abundant species, C. quatuordecimguttata, was recorded at sites located over 30 km from the smelter
Summary
Insects are extraordinarily diverse and abundant and have significant roles in the majority of terrestrial ecosystems; they are “the little things that run the world” (Wilson, 1987). The recent meta-analysis demonstrated that while the abundance of herbivorous insects generally increases in polluted areas, abundance of predatory invertebrates decreases (Zvereva & Kozlov, 2010). This pattern is in agreement with the hypothesis that predatory organisms are more sensitive to pollution than herbivores, and that pollution, through selective elimination of predators, creates an enemy-free space for plant-feeding insects (Heliövaara et al, 1982; Selikhovkin, 1985; Zvereva & Kozlov, 2000)
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