Semi-Natural Habitats and Field Margins in a Typical Agroecosystem of the Argentinean Pampas as a Reservoir of Carabid Beetles

Abstract

Changes in edaphic carabidofauna abundance in a wheat crop plot, its field margins, and four semi-natural adjacent habitats were evaluated. A low specific richness of carabids was found in the wheat crop. No species was found exclusively in the wheat plot, but there were species found in the surrounding habitat. The observed responses of different species regarding moisture conditions determined their presence or absence in these semi-natural habitats as well as in dominance structures of each particular ambient. A gradual decrease in the number of captured individuals from the field margin to the center of the wheat plot was observed. Semi-natural habitats and field margins become an important requirement for habitat and shelter of the best represented species of ground beetles, particularly for predatory and omnivorous varieties.