Ground Beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidea) Community Structure as an Indication of Disturbance in Stoney Creek, Burnaby, BC

Abstract

To investigate the impact of constructing an off-channel pond in Stoney Creek, Burnaby, BC to ground dwelling arthropods, carabid beetles were sampled at three sites: the pond site, the adjacent site, and the upstream site. The pond site was the area in which the artificial pond was constructed to create spawning habitat for salmon, and it was the most disturbed site. The other two sites were relatively undisturbed and were used as a comparison. Species observed in all sites were forest generalists consisting of both native and invasive species. This indicates that all sites have experienced recent disturbance since significant time has not passed to allow specialists to become re-established. Species evenness, however, was calculated to be lowest in the pond site, greatest in the upstream site, and intermediate in the adjacent site. This is due to the different characteristics of each site; the pond site had an open canopy as most of its vegetation had been removed, the upstream site was dominated by tall trees and is characteristic of a natural riparian zone in BC, and the adjacent site had a relatively open canopy as much of the understory was dominated by Hedera helix (English ivy) and Rubus ameniacus (Himilayan blackberry). Unfortunately, statistical analysis could not be performed since a small number of individuals were caught at each site; the impact of the off-channel pond construction is inconclusive. Future studies can, however, use this study as a comparison and further elaborate on these results