Assemblages of carabid beetles (coleoptera: carabidae) as zoo-indicator of water tourism impact on forest - lake ecotones

We studied the impact of medium rate and high rate water tourism on epigeic carabid beetles inhabiting alder forest (A) located on lakesides and pine forest (P) located 50 meters away from the first ones. The main exploratory questions were, whether (1) an increase of water tourism pressure will result in an increase of carabid species numbers, changes of assemblages structure and a decrease of Mean Individual Biomass (MIB) of Carabidae and SPC index and (2) the intensity of these changes depends on intensity of tourism pressure and quality of the forest habitats. The modifications of carabid beetle assemblages were proven by both the SPC and the MIB indicator and demonstrated by a SPC/MIB model. The results showed that a higher level of regressive changes (increase of share of individuals of small zoophages and dimorphic species and decrease of percentage share of individuals belonging to autumn and hygrophilous species) was correlated with an increase of water tourism pressure. Under stronger tourism pressure the number of species standardized by rarefaction increased as well. The results suggest changes in the studied forest environments. However, the level of changes was lower in comparison to changes caused by clear cuts. Our results suggest modifications in carabid assemblages not only due to intensity of tourism impact but also to differences in quality of the environment. However, the latter factor seems to have less relevance.