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Differences in Life History Traits in Rural vs. Urban Populations of a Specialist Ground Beetle, Carabus convexus

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Urbanization is an important driver of global change, with negative consequences for biodiversity. Specialist species living in isolated urban forest fragments may be the most impacted by urbanization-driven environmental modifications. We compared various life history parameters of...

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Autores principales: Magura, Tibor, Mizser, Szabolcs, Horváth, Roland, Nagy, Dávid D., Tóth, Mária, Csicsek, Réka, Lövei, Gábor L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8230416/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34200777
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12060540
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author Magura, Tibor
Mizser, Szabolcs
Horváth, Roland
Nagy, Dávid D.
Tóth, Mária
Csicsek, Réka
Lövei, Gábor L.
author_facet Magura, Tibor
Mizser, Szabolcs
Horváth, Roland
Nagy, Dávid D.
Tóth, Mária
Csicsek, Réka
Lövei, Gábor L.
author_sort Magura, Tibor
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Urbanization is an important driver of global change, with negative consequences for biodiversity. Specialist species living in isolated urban forest fragments may be the most impacted by urbanization-driven environmental modifications. We compared various life history parameters of a forest specialist ground beetle in its original forest habitat and in urban forest fragments. Abundance was more than five times higher in the rural forest stands than in the urban forest fragments. We found no significant differences in body size or condition between the rural and urban individuals of either sex. Despite higher temperatures in urban habitats, the beginning of the reproductive period did not start earlier in the urban than the rural habitat. The number of ripe eggs was significantly higher in urban than rural females. The urban environmental conditions, however, seemed to cause high mortality of the immature stages, preventing the growth of urban populations. ABSTRACT: Urbanization is increasing worldwide and causes substantial changes in environmental parameters, generating various kinds of stress on arthropods, with several harmful consequences. We examined a forest specialist ground beetle, Carabus convexus, in forested habitats to evaluate the changes in four important life history traits between rural and urban populations. Analyzing beetles from the overwintered cohort in their first breeding season, we found no significant differences in body length or body mass between the rural and urban individuals. Body condition, judged by fat reserve scores, was similarly poor in both habitats, indicating that beetles were not able to accumulate substantial fat reserves at either habitat. Females with ripe eggs in their ovaries were first captured at the same time in both areas. The number of ripe eggs, however, was significantly higher in females of the low-density urban population (6.13 eggs/female) than in those of the high-density rural population (4.14 eggs/female), indicating density-dependent fecundity. Altered environmental and habitat conditions by urbanization, however, seemed to cause high mortality during egg hatching and/or larval development, preventing the growth of the urban population to the level of rural one.
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spelling pubmed-82304162021-06-26 Differences in Life History Traits in Rural vs. Urban Populations of a Specialist Ground Beetle, Carabus convexus Magura, Tibor Mizser, Szabolcs Horváth, Roland Nagy, Dávid D. Tóth, Mária Csicsek, Réka Lövei, Gábor L. Insects Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Urbanization is an important driver of global change, with negative consequences for biodiversity. Specialist species living in isolated urban forest fragments may be the most impacted by urbanization-driven environmental modifications. We compared various life history parameters of a forest specialist ground beetle in its original forest habitat and in urban forest fragments. Abundance was more than five times higher in the rural forest stands than in the urban forest fragments. We found no significant differences in body size or condition between the rural and urban individuals of either sex. Despite higher temperatures in urban habitats, the beginning of the reproductive period did not start earlier in the urban than the rural habitat. The number of ripe eggs was significantly higher in urban than rural females. The urban environmental conditions, however, seemed to cause high mortality of the immature stages, preventing the growth of urban populations. ABSTRACT: Urbanization is increasing worldwide and causes substantial changes in environmental parameters, generating various kinds of stress on arthropods, with several harmful consequences. We examined a forest specialist ground beetle, Carabus convexus, in forested habitats to evaluate the changes in four important life history traits between rural and urban populations. Analyzing beetles from the overwintered cohort in their first breeding season, we found no significant differences in body length or body mass between the rural and urban individuals. Body condition, judged by fat reserve scores, was similarly poor in both habitats, indicating that beetles were not able to accumulate substantial fat reserves at either habitat. Females with ripe eggs in their ovaries were first captured at the same time in both areas. The number of ripe eggs, however, was significantly higher in females of the low-density urban population (6.13 eggs/female) than in those of the high-density rural population (4.14 eggs/female), indicating density-dependent fecundity. Altered environmental and habitat conditions by urbanization, however, seemed to cause high mortality during egg hatching and/or larval development, preventing the growth of the urban population to the level of rural one. MDPI 2021-06-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8230416/ /pubmed/34200777 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12060540 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Magura, Tibor
Mizser, Szabolcs
Horváth, Roland
Nagy, Dávid D.
Tóth, Mária
Csicsek, Réka
Lövei, Gábor L.
Differences in Life History Traits in Rural vs. Urban Populations of a Specialist Ground Beetle, Carabus convexus
title Differences in Life History Traits in Rural vs. Urban Populations of a Specialist Ground Beetle, Carabus convexus
title_full Differences in Life History Traits in Rural vs. Urban Populations of a Specialist Ground Beetle, Carabus convexus
title_fullStr Differences in Life History Traits in Rural vs. Urban Populations of a Specialist Ground Beetle, Carabus convexus
title_full_unstemmed Differences in Life History Traits in Rural vs. Urban Populations of a Specialist Ground Beetle, Carabus convexus
title_short Differences in Life History Traits in Rural vs. Urban Populations of a Specialist Ground Beetle, Carabus convexus
title_sort differences in life history traits in rural vs. urban populations of a specialist ground beetle, carabus convexus
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8230416/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34200777
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12060540
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