Importance of natural biotopes for the utilization of ecosystem services by ground beetles (Carabidae) in a winter rape field

This diploma thesis deals with the importance of semi-natural biotopes for the carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) and benefits of these beetles for the production of the oilseed rape. Evaluation was done by measuring the diversity of communities of carabid beetles by pitfall trapping followed by the evaluation of total abundance, Shannon´s diversity index and the Shannon´s evenness index in the field oilseed rape and in the adjacent semi-natural biotopes. Diversity was measured at two locations (location A, B). Monitored biotopes of the location A were the meadow, the field, the unmanaged field boundary and the forest. At the site B, monitored biotopes were the meadow and the field. Carabid beetles were captured in one-week intervals continuously from May to September 2013. In total 3076 individuals represented by 78 species were captured. The most numerous species in samples were Poecilus cupreus, Pterostichus melanarius, Poecilus versicolor, Pseudoophonus rufipes and Loricera pilicornis, which formed together 72 % of the total numbers. The monitored biotopes of location A did not differ significantly in total abundance (p = 0.13) nor in the Shannon´s eveness (p = 0.43). They differed by the diversity index (p = 0.03), but this accounted for difference between the field boundary and the forest biotopes (p = 0.04). No difference in the three measured parameters were found by the comparison the field sites and next semi-natural sites at locality A (i.e. meadow A/field A1, forest/field A2), nor by comparing the biotopes field and meadow in both the localities (A, B) in one model (p < 0.05). The results suggest the importance of the immigration of carabid from the semi-natural biotopes into the field, which supports the field populations of carabids and the ecosystem service of biological control provided by them