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Impact of rubber plantation on carabid beetle communities and species distribution in a changing tropical landscape (southern Yunnan, China)

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Abstract

Carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) have widely been used to assess biodiversity values of different habitats in cultivated landscapes, but rarely in the humid tropics. This study aimed to investigate effects of land use change on the carabid assemblages in a tributary valley of the Mekong River in tropical southern Yunnan, China. The study area includes habitats of traditional land use systems (rice production and shifting cultivation successions) and was dominated by natural forests until about 30 years ago. Since then, large areas of forest have been, and still are, successively transformed into commercial rubber monoculture plantations. In total, 102 species of Carabidae (including Cicindelinae) were recorded from 13 sites over different seasons, using pitfall traps, Malaise traps and aerial collectors in trees. Cluster analysis and indicator species analysis showed that three types of habitat (rice field fallows, early natural successions and natural forest) possess a degree of uniqueness in species composition. Non-metric multidimensional scaling revealed that the environmental factors explaining 80% of the total variation in carabid assemblage composition are the degree of vegetational openness of a habitat and its plant species diversity. Rice field fallows had significantly higher numbers of species and individuals than any other type of habitat and are probably dominated by species originating from other regions. Carabid assemblages of young rubber plantations (5 and 8 years) were quantitatively similar to those of forests, but without species of significant indicator value. With increasing plantation age (20 and 40 years), the number of carabid species decreased. Increasing age and a further spatial expansion of rubber plantations at the expense of forest areas will have negative impacts on the native forest carabid assemblages with strongest effects on forest specialists and rare species.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) in the project ‘LILAC’ (Living Landscapes China). International cooperation project (2007DFA91660) of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China partly funded this study. The Naban River Watershed National Natural Reserve (NRWNNR) provided the permission for the field studies. We are grateful to local Dai people Mr. Gong Ai for the numerous contributions in field work. We also thank Dr. Marc Cotter, University of Hohenheim, for preparing the land use map. The voucher specimen of the collected beetles were handed to Dr. Mei-Ying Lin at the National Zoological Museum of China, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing. We also thank Mr. Hong Wang and Mr. Guo-Da Tao for their help in the identification of the plant species. Mr. Shi-Shun Zhou cared for the voucher specimen at the Herbarium of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Mengla, Yunnan.

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Author notes

  1. Ling-Zeng Meng

    Present address: Agroecology in the Tropics and Subtropics (380b), University of Hohenheim, 70593, Stuttgart, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agroecology in the Tropics and Subtropics (380b), University of Hohenheim, 70593, Stuttgart, Germany

    Konrad Martin & Jing-Xin Liu

  2. Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, 666303, Yunnan, China

    Ling-Zeng Meng

  3. Rosalia Umweltmanagement, Am Schloßgarten 6, 07381, Wernburg, Germany

    Andreas Weigel

Authors
  1. Ling-Zeng Meng
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  2. Konrad Martin
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  3. Andreas Weigel
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  4. Jing-Xin Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ling-Zeng Meng.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 2 below.

Table 2 List of carabid species and numbers of individuals recorded from the 13 study sites compiled by habitat type
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Meng, LZ., Martin, K., Weigel, A. et al. Impact of rubber plantation on carabid beetle communities and species distribution in a changing tropical landscape (southern Yunnan, China). J Insect Conserv 16, 423–432 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-011-9428-1

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