Authors：Wenbe Hwang, Chao-Nien Koh

Year：2013

Key words：necrophilous beetles, bait effect, biodiversity, community structure, long-term monitoring.

We used necrophilous beetles for the long-term monitoring of biodiversity in the Hapen Nature Preserve in northern Taiwan, evaluating changes in the species compositions of beetle communities in 2 different habitats over a 6-yr period. The species richness, individual numbers, and diversity indices of the beetles were significantly higher in a forest habitat than in a meadow habitat. The species similarity between the beetle communities in the 2 habitats was 3.95%. Differences in species richness and heterogeneity of the vegetation may have affected the compositions of the beetle communities in the 2 habitats. Compared to non-baited pitfall traps, the species richness and individual numbers were greater in baited pitfall traps. Different dominant structures of beetles between non-baited and baited traps were demonstrated. We suggest using baited traps to investigate the effects of global warming on compositions of necrophilous beetle communities. We selected 42 species of necrophilous beetles representing 7 families as indicator species for longterm monitoring of biodiversity during the survey periods. Diversity indices of beetles monitored in the meadow habitat significantly increased in 2006 compared to those in 2001. The community similarity between the 2001 and 2006 survey periods was only 14.7% for the meadow habitat. In the forest habitat, the diversity indices varied and significantly differed among 2001, 2006, and 2007, despite the annual individual numbers not significantly differing. Based on comparisons of data from 2001 with those from the 2006 and 2007 survey periods, beetle-community similarities in the forest habitat were 49.0 and 44.9%, respectively. Variations in species compositions of beetle communities in the 2 habitats in different years may have been due to changes in the ambient temperature. Moreover, communities of necrophilous beetles in the meadow habitat were probably more strongly influenced by changes in temperature than those in the forest habitat.