Vegetation cover and grasslands in the vicinity accelerate development of carabid beetle assemblages on restored landfill sites

Abstract

There is an increasing evidence that rare and scarce carabid species of conservation importance are frequent in brownfield sites such as restored landfills. However, this potential has largely been unexplored. The present study was undertaken to examine carabid species composition, richness and abundance in relation to habitat quality and landscape structure on landfill sites in comparison with paired reference sites of existing wildlife value. Sampling was conducted by collecting carabids in ten pitfall traps set along two 100 m transects on each of nine restored landfill sites and their paired reference sites in the East Midlands region of the UK. A total of 1014 individuals representing 37 carabid species were found during April–September of 2007 and 2008. On the surveyed landfill sites, generalist species were common, while no nationally rare or scarce species were found. Neither species richness nor diversity of carabid species was found to be different from that of the reference sites. Seeding durin...