Publication details
The saproxylic beetles (Coleoptera) and ants (Formicidae) of Central European hardwood floodplain forests.
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| Year of publication | 2000 |
| Type | Monograph |
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| Description | The saproxylic communities of beetles (Coleoptera) and ants (Formicidae) were studied in hardwood floodplain forests located in South Moravia (Czech Republic) from 1996 to 1999. The study focused on the impact of floods on the communities, particularly those in fallen trunks of pedunculate oak. Further objectives were to provide species inventories for floodplain sites, to assess the sites' conservation value, and to make recommendations regarding habitat management. Two sites with similar dead wood quantities but differing as to their exposure to floods were compared: one that has not been flooded since 1971, and one exposed to semi-natural flooding and struck by a summer flood in 1997. Limited collecting was conducted on a third site. The communities of lying oak trunks were studied using emergence traps. Window traps, tree photoeclectors, hand-collecting and rearing were employed to investigate the sites' total saproxylic beetle assemblages (also yielding additional ant species). In total about 5 500 ant and 13 800 beetle specimens were collected. Of 16 ant species recorded, 14 were classified as saproxylic (only 8 were found on the flooded site). 310 beetle species (3 416 individuals) were classified as obligate to potentially saproxylic (the saproxylic status was assigned based on published data and interviews with specialists). Including 81 additional species recorded in a preceding study, the total for the studied sites amounts to 389 saproxylic species belonging to 57 families of Coleoptera (Staphylinidae were only partially analysed and Ptiliidae excluded from the analysis). Mean annual emergence densities were calculated for individual species and their assemblages collected by the emergence traps. Density differences between the study sites were tested for significance. Several methods were employed to estimate the true species richness of saproxylic beetles in lying oak trunks on the sites. Similarity, species diversity and evenness were computed and compared for the appropriate data sets. The communities were further analysed in regard to trophic types and the species' preferences for micro- and macro-habitats. Also further information on the ecology, distribution and conservation status of individual species as well as on their potential as forest pests was reviewed. The found communities were compared with those reported from other European forests as well as with faunistic data from the area and wider region. |
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