Consequences of urban living: Urbanization and ground beetles

Urbanization is increasing worldwide, transforming environmental and habitat parameters, and causing adverse effects on organisms living in urban habitats. Urban studies on ground beetles are exponentially increasing and cover all levels of biological organization. Still, to date, there is no comprehensive paper reviewing the impacts of urbanization on ground beetles at different levels of biological organization. At the population level, urbanization induces changes in the morphological characters, including fluctuating asymmetry, physiological condition, behavioral characteristics, seasonal activity, population size, and genetic diversity in ground beetles. Different species groups (habitat specialists vs. generalists, large vs. small-sized species, poor vs. good dispersers, predators vs. herbivores) respond differently to urbanization. Community-level changes associated with urbanization include the abundance, taxonomic as well as functional diversity, community assembly mechanisms, composition, and body size distribution. At the ecosystem level, urbanization influences several ecosystem processes and functions related to ground beetles, but data are only available concerning the edge effect and predation. Urbanization has a considerable effect at various levels of the biological organization on ground beetles living in urban habitats. However, results—especially at the population and community levels—show inconsistent patterns. This discrepancy may result from individual responses and different sensitivity of species to urbanization, suggesting the importance of individualistic and functional approach in future urban studies. To preserve a rich carabid diversity in urban areas, multi-scale greenspace planning and management schemes are needed; these will also ensure both the recreational and the diversity-preserving function of urban green spaces.