Comparison of Ground Beetle Communities (Coleoptera: Carabidae) between Coniferous and Deciduous Forests in Agricultural Landscapes

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the community structure of ground beetles between coniferous- and deciduous-dominant forest in agricultural landscapes, in Miryang-si, Yeongdong-gun, Icheon-si, and Cheolwon-gun during April to October in 2009. A total of 19 species belonging to 15 genera of 9 subfamilies were identified from 6,253 collected ground beetles. Dominant species from 4 regions were Synuchus nitidus (3,715 individuals, 59.4% of total) and Synuchus cyloderus (1,783 individuals, 28.5%) respectively. Non-metric multidimensional scaling based on Bray-Curtis similarity showed that ground beetle assemblage was not different between forest stands, but it was significantly different among regions. Overall, forest stands of secondary forests may not show a different community structure of ground beetle assemblages in our study. However, monitoring on the ground beetle fauna as well as other arthropods of secondary forests in agricultural landscapes is still important for the management and conservation of biodiversity, because forests provides important habitats for many predatory arthropods, such as ground beetles, spiders and rove beetles.