Project properties

Title Ecological Indicators in carabid beetle research (BSc-thesis)
Group Entomology, Laboratory of
Project type thesis
Credits 12-18
Supervisor(s) Dr. Lia Hemerik and Dr. Peter de Jong
Examiner(s) Prof. dr. M. Dicke
Contact info lia.hemerik@wur.nl
Begin date 2022/08/01
End date
Description This is a BSc-thesis project.

Species diversity (i.e. the combination of species richness and abundance) is a much used variable in ecological research projects. Typically, a comparison is made between two or more habitats or experimental plots and differences in diversity are quantified. However, diversity in itself contains little information on the ecology of the species involved, and therefore, the power of inferences based on diversity alone can be quite limited. In order to obtain more meaningful answers in entomological research, traits and strategies such as size, diet, flying abilities, habitat specialisation, etc. could be used as additional response variables to be incorporated into models.

Ground beetles (Carabidae) are a species rich family that form an ideal subject for ecological research. A ubiquitous and abundant presence in most ecosystems, coupled with a high spatial and temporal turnover makes them well suited as indicator species. Indicator species are those that can inform researchers about the characteristics and quality of an ecosystem through their ecological traits and strategies.

The question is whether recent developments in entomological research have led to new methods and techniques being used for quantifying ecological aspects of insect species under study and which indicators might be relevant to ground beetle research? Why would they suitable? Do they contain new information as compared to existing indicators?

The student project would consist of a bibliographical search for suitable response variables in recent entomological and/or carabid beetle research as well as for papers on ecological traits on a specific list of species. Species lists based on current research on arable fields, as well as on mesotrophic grasslands and dry coastal dunes are available to work with.
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