Consequences of the cessation of 3000 years of grazing on dry Mediterranean grassland ground-active beetle assemblages.
Due to extensive grazing regimes over a long period of time, the Plain of Crau, the unique steppe of France, is a particularly suitable model to study the role of sheep grazing on beetle (Coleoptera) assemblages and their response to grazing abandonment. After four years of abandonment, beetle assemblages first only undergo a decrease in the abundance of a few species and then a gradual and slight change in species composition. Later, there is a change in the structure of assemblages, which increases with increasing time since abandonment. After 23 years of grazing abandonment, there is no significant loss of species.
Université Aix-Marseille, Université Paul-Cézanne, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (UMR CNRS/IRD), Europôle Méditerranéen de l'Arbois, BP 80, Pavillon Villemin, Aix-en-Provence, France. sylvain.fadda@univ-cezanne.fr
Sylvain
S
Fadda
Frédéric
F
Henry
Jérôme
J
Orgeas
Philippe
P
Ponel
Elise
E
Buisson
Thierry
T
Dutoit
D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D005602:France; D005843:Geography; D006109:Poaceae; D011156:Population Density