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16 July 2021 Disturbance-Induced Trophic Niche Shifts In Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) In Restored Grasslands
Azeem U. Rahman, Holly P. Jones, Sheryl C. Hosler, Seth Geddes, Melissa Nelson, Nicholas A. Barber
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Abstract

Ecosystem restoration is a critical component of land management, countering the loss of native biodiversity. Restoration efforts are enhanced by reintroducing naturally occurring ecosystem processes, including disturbances that may impact species characteristics such as niche position or niche size. In grasslands, grazing and fire affect plant diversity and habitat complexity, which potentially influence insect dietary behaviors and thus their contributions to functions like seed and arthropod predation. Using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes, we characterized variation in the dietary niche of six ground beetle species (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in response to grazing by reintroduced bison and prescribed fire disturbances in twenty tallgrass prairies. Management disturbances did not affect activity density for most beetle species and mean trophic position was mostly unaffected. However, five of six species exhibited increased trophic niche area and breadth with disturbances, indicating a switch to a more generalist diet that incorporated a wider range of food items. The combination of bison and fire impacts may increase vegetation patchiness and heterogeneity, driving these diet changes. Morphological traits and microhabitat preferences might mediate response to disturbances and the resulting heterogeneity. Combining prescribed fire and grazing, which increases plant diversity and vegetation structural diversity, may help beetle communities establish over time and support the ecological functions to which these insects contribute.

© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
Azeem U. Rahman, Holly P. Jones, Sheryl C. Hosler, Seth Geddes, Melissa Nelson, and Nicholas A. Barber "Disturbance-Induced Trophic Niche Shifts In Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) In Restored Grasslands," Environmental Entomology 50(5), 1075-1087, (16 July 2021). https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvab065
Received: 16 February 2021; Accepted: 6 June 2021; Published: 16 July 2021
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KEYWORDS
ecosystem restoration
grazing
prescribed fire
stable isotope analysis
tallgrass prairie
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