Ecological and faunistic overview of ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in the northwest of the Murmansk part of the Green Belt of Fennoscandia

• Published in: Proceedings of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• Main Author: Olga Trushitsyna
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Russian
• Published: Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2019
• Subjects: green belt of fennoscandia; ground beetle fauna; zoogeographic characteristics; biotopic groups; life forms; Science; Q; Murmansk; Pasvik; Pechenga; Fennoscandia; Tundra
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.17076/eco1082; https://doaj.org/article/a990fc60a9134dc6bccee361278c5005

The article presents data on the fauna of ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in the northwestern part of the Green Belt of Fennoscandia. The material was collect-ed in the Pasvik Strict Nature Reserve, in the territory of the planned regional Pazovsky Nature Reserve and in the Korablekk Nature Park. Some data were obtained from the vi-cinity of Nikel, Zapolyarny and Pechenga urban areas. Beetles were collected by soil traps in 2007 and 2010–2012 in communities of different types. Additionally, manual collec-tion was used. A total of 3607 imago ground beetles were collected during the surveys. The fauna of ground beetles of the studied territory includes 47 species of 21 genera. The most diverse are the genera Amara(10 species) and Bembidion(5 species). Four species were dominant: Carabus glabratusLinnaeus, 1758, Loricera pilicornis(Fabricius, 1775), Calathus micropterus(Duftschmid, 1812), Amara lunicollisSchiødte, 1837. The zoogeographic composition is characterized by the prevalence of Palaearctic (45 % of the number of species and 48 % of the total abundance) and Holarctic (34 and 28 %, respectively) species. The share of European-Siberian and European species is signifi-cantly lower. According to habitat preferences, 8 groups were distinguished (forest, for-est-mire, mire, waterside, meadow, meadow-field, pyrophilic and tundra). Forest species dominate both in terms of species numbers (24 %) and abundance (63 %). A high species diversity was noted for meadow (19 %), forest-mire (17 %) and waterside groups (17 %), while their abundance was low (10, 16, 2 % of the total, respectively). Zoophages pre-vailed among life forms both in terms of species numbers (61 %) and abundance (81 %), which is generally typical of the population of ground beetles at high latitudes.