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Harvard Forest REU Symposium Abstract 2022
- Title: Effects of anthropogenic activities on ground beetle diversity: an approach using intraspecific trait variation
- Author: Riley A Wolcheski (University of Connecticut)
- Abstract:
Ecological diversity, the variation of organisms in an ecosystem, is necessary for society’s well-being. Diversity can be measured functionally or taxonomically, and previous studies on functional diversity have focused on mean trait values for species. This focus inhibits the ability to consider processes that lead to niche partitioning such as competition. Body size is linked to an individual’s use of resources in an ecosystem, thus making it a potential proxy for measuring a species’ niche and the degree of interspecific competition. Soil-dwelling beetles can be used as indicators for long term changes in soil quality, which could give environmental scientists insight about the changing climate and increasing anthropogenic effects on the planet. This relationship allows carabids to become a potential proxy for biodiversity as well as richness across the continent during this time. We investigate changes in species functional and taxonomic diversity in response to human activity (distance from roads) using ground beetles (Carabidae) as a model system at the Bartlett NEON site in New Hampshire, USA. The Harvard Forest Hemlock Removal Experiment found that lower soil pH was linked to areas with lower beetle taxonomic diversity. Prior research in New England forests has also shown that soil pH declines with distance from roads. Thus, we expect that as distance from roads increases, beetle taxonomic diversity will decrease. As taxonomic diversity decreases, body size overlap will also decrease because remaining species will be able to more fully partition their niches through less competition for resources.
- Research Category: Regional Studies; Physiological Ecology, Population Dynamics, and Species Interactions; Group Projects; Biodiversity Studies
