9 Hedgerow 7 Dermaptera 91.9 Hedgerow 3 Coleoptera 20.0 Hedgerow 7 Beetle families Cantharidae 60.0 Hedgerow 1 Elateridae 39.8 Herbaceous floodplain 7 Lampyridae 68.4 Hedgerow 2 Latridiidae 39.1 Hedgerow 6 Nitidulidae 60.9 Hedgerow 4 Scarabaeidae 38.8 Grassland with scattered LY2606368 datasheet fruit trees 5 Scydmanidae 49.2 Hedgerow 3 Silphidae 39.5 Herbaceous floodplain 7 Ground beetle genera Anchomenus 56.0 Hedgerow 7 Bembidion 37.9 River bank vegetation
7 Leistus 100.0 Hedgerow 1 Limodromus 76.5 Hedgerow 3 Nebria 47.0 Hedgerow 6 Notiophilus 55.0 Hedgerow 4 Panagaeus 47.5 Herbaceous floodplain 5 Ground beetle species Agonum micans 61.4 River bank vegetation 2 Amara aenea 74.1 Grassland with scattered fruit trees 3 Anchomenus dorsalis 56.0 Hedgerow 7 Bembidion tetracolum 99.3 River bank vegetation 2 Leistus fulvibarbis 80.0 Hedgerow 1 Leistus rufomarginatus 60.0 Hedgerow 1 Limodromus assimilis 76.5 Hedgerow 3 Nebria brevicollis 47.0 Hedgerow 6 Notiophilus biguttatus 80.0 Hedgerow 1 Panagaeus
cruxmajor I-BET151 solubility dmso 47.5 Herbaceous floodplain 5 The significance was tested with a random reallocation procedure comprising 500 permutations Discussion Limitations of the present analysis The present study compared four arthropod datasets of different taxonomic detail on their discriminatory power for various environmental characteristics in a lowland floodplain area along the river Rhine. The datasets comprised arthropod groups at class-order level (n = 10), beetle families (n = 32), ground beetle genera (n = 30) and ground beetle species (n = 68). The variance partitioning showed similar results for the different datasets, suggesting that their discriminatory power for floodplain characteristics is comparable. The focus on beetles and ground beetles, however, inevitably raises the question whether the results are specific to these groups or of a more generic nature. More specifically,
one may wonder whether genera and species of for example ants, isopods, harvestmen or other beetle families would actually have shown larger discriminator power for the environmental variables investigated. One way to consider selleck products this question is to examine typical ratios among numbers of orders, families, genera, and species. The lower these ratios, the larger will be the similarities between responses and properties across different taxonomic levels (Lenat and Resh 2001). Conversely, high ratios could then indicate that a higher degree of taxonomic detail would increase the discriminatory power of the taxa. Considering the taxonomic diversity specific for The Netherlands, the order of the beetles (Coleoptera) is rather rich in both families and species in comparison to most of the other groups investigated (Dutch Species Catalogue; www.nederlandsesoorten.nl). For example, the order of isopods (Isopoda) comprises 27 families including 306 species.