engleski

Understory Light and Ground Beetles Pathways in Natural Forests of Medvednica Nature Park, Croatia

For this investigation, five plots (50 x 50 m) were selected in forest ecosystems along the centre profile of Mt. Medvednica on both downhills of the mountain. Ground beetles were collected in 16 pitfall traps on each plot, placed in a regular rectangular net with cell size of 10x10 meters placed ten meters from the edges of the plot. Altogether, 80 pitfall traps were exposed through the vegetation season. Available understory light was measured with Sixtomat Flash "Gossen" apparatus during the May, when vegetation was fully developed. On all plots relative light were measured above each pitfall trap in comparison with available light measured in close open nonforest area. Pearson Product-Moment correlations were calculated between species abundance and portion of available light for each trap on five plots. For analyses only data about dominant and subdominant species were considered. Presence of most of the analyzed species was negatively correlated with light portion above traps throughout the investigated period. Statistically significant positive correlation was found for Carabus irregularis species.

carabidae; canopy opennes; forest; light

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