The effect of the construction and renovation of a highway bypass in Central Poland on the carabid beetle fauna (Coleoptera: Carabidae)

• Main Author: Izabela DYMITRYSZYN
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Science 2014-12-01
• Series: European Journal of Entomology
• Subjects: coleoptera; carabidae; roadsides; highway bypass renovation; landscape
• Online Access: https://www.eje.cz/artkey/eje-201405-0009_The_effect_of_the_construction_and_renovation_of_a_highway_bypass_in_Central_Poland_on_the_carabid_beetle_fauna.php
• ISSN: 1210-5759; 1802-8829

The aim of this research was to define the effect of the construction and renovation of a highway bypass around the town of Skępe on the environment and assemblages of carabid beetles. This four-year study was based on catching samples of beetles using pitfall traps. The traps were set first in 2008 and later from 2010 to 2012, after the renovation of the road, along roadside verges adjacent to two ca. 100-year-old pine forest stands, wet habitats and fallows of arable fields and inside these habitats about 25 m from the road (control plots). The carabids collected were identified to species and numbers of individuals and dominance values of each of the species were calculated for each study plot and each year. Furthermore, the dominance of the different species of plants was assessed. Numbers of species, numbers of individuals, percentage share of forest species and individuals, and Shannon diversity values of the carabid assemblages were analyzed. Multivariate statistical analyses (ordinations) were carried out using the dominance of the different species of carabids and using the ecological indicator values of plants as environmental factors. The construction of the bypass in 1987 resulted in more diversified carabid assemblages along the roadsides. Carabid fauna along the roadsides differed from that in the control plots in forests and in terms of some parameters from the control plots in wet habitats, but not statistical from the control plots in the fallow areas of arable fields. The renovation of the road 22 years after construction did not result in any significant changes in the characteristic parameters of the carabid assemblages along the roadsides, but gradient analysis indicated that it did have an effect. In terms of the environmental conditions of the habitats based on the plant associations occurring there the roadside habitats differed from the control plots in forests and wetlands. Since the number of sites studied is rather low, the results of this study have to be considered to be preliminary, but may provide research hypotheses for further research on highway roadsides.