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Conservation of grassland patches failed to enhance colonization of ground-active beetles on formerly cultivated plots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2008

SYLVAIN FADDA ,
JEROME ORGEAS ,
PHILIPPE PONEL ,
ELISE BUISSON  and
THIERRY DUTOIT
SYLVAIN FADDA*
Affiliation:
Aix-Marseille Université, Université Paul Cézanne, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (UMR CNRS/IRD), Europôle Méditerranéen de l'Arbois BP80, Pavillon Villemin, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 04, France
JEROME ORGEAS
Affiliation:
Aix-Marseille Université, Université Paul Cézanne, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (UMR CNRS/IRD), Europôle Méditerranéen de l'Arbois BP80, Pavillon Villemin, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 04, France
PHILIPPE PONEL
Affiliation:
Aix-Marseille Université, Université Paul Cézanne, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (UMR CNRS/IRD), Europôle Méditerranéen de l'Arbois BP80, Pavillon Villemin, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 04, France
ELISE BUISSON
Affiliation:
Aix-Marseille Université, Université Paul Cézanne, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (UMR CNRS/IRD), Europôle Méditerranéen de l'Arbois BP80, Pavillon Villemin, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 04, France Université d'Avignon - IUT, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (IMEP, UMR CNRS IRD 6116), Site Agroparc, BP 1207, 84 911 Avignon Cedex 09, France
THIERRY DUTOIT
Affiliation:
Université d'Avignon - IUT, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (IMEP, UMR CNRS IRD 6116), Site Agroparc, BP 1207, 84 911 Avignon Cedex 09, France
*
*Correspondence: Dr Sylvain Fadda Tel: +33 4 42 90 84 76 Fax: +33 4 42 90 84 48 e-mail: sylvain.fadda@univ-cezanne.fr
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Summary

The dry grasslands of the Mediterranean Basin have been traditionally managed since ancient times, but have been drastically degraded by recent human activities such as cultivation. Cultivated plots in a dry grassland of Southern France were abandoned more than 20 years ago, but their vegetation and ground-active beetle community structure and composition differ considerably from neighbouring uncultivated grassland plots. Because these formerly cultivated plots are adjacent to an uncultivated grassland area, they constitute a model system for examining beetle recolonization patterns on field margins. No edge effect or ecotone was identified on the margins between two of the formerly cultivated plots and the uncultivated dry grassland; there was no significant peak of beetles species richness in this area. All the most common dry grassland beetle species (mainly saprophagous and predatory species, which are less habitat-specialist than phytophagous species) had already recolonized the formerly cultivated plots. However, although uncultivated dry grassland was adjacent to the formerly cultivated plots it was insufficient for complete regeneration of dry grassland beetle communities on formerly cultivated plots, indicating habitat quality remained lower even after 20 years. Understanding the causes of spatial variation in active-ground beetles at the species level is important before the ecological restoration of habitat quality to its prior state, using the adjacent steppe as a reference.

Keywords

Coleopteradisturbanceecoclineecotoneedge effectfield boundaryMediterranean grasslandresilience
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , June 2008 , pp. 109 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2008

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