1 CHANGES IN CARABID (COLEOPTERA: CARABIDAE) ASSEMBLAGES AND DIVERSITY PATTERNS BETWEEN 1997 AND 2014 IN A DESALINIZED, INTENSIVELY CULTIVATED AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF NORTHERN CHINA XIN ZHANG College of Agricultural Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, China College of Architecture and Art, Hebei University of Architecture, Zhangjiakou 075000, China PANLONG WU,YUNHUI LIU, YIN HAN, XUZHU ZHANG, PIAOPIAO DAI, ZHENRONG YU College of Agricultural Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, China
[email protected] AND JAN C. AXMACHER UCL Department of Geography, University College London, London, UK 2 ABSTRACT Reclamation of salinity-affected land for intensive agricultural production represents a highly promising pathway towards feeding our increasing global population. Nonetheless, biodiversity and ecosystem service responses to agricultural intensification in desalinized landscapes remain poorly understood. In our study, we analyzed long-term diversity responses of carabids as important pest control agents to agricultural intensification in desalinized landscapes by comparing data from 1997 and 2014, and we analyzed the potential role of field- margins as beetle refuge habitats. Despite agricultural intensification, carabid species richness increased significantly following desalinization, with this increase being chiefly limited to field margins. Carabid assemblages also showed a dramatic temporal species turnover, leading towards a species-rich homogeneous