Effects of cereal headland treatments on the abundance and movements of three species of carabid beetles

Published source details Hawthorne A.J., Hassall M. & Sotherton N.W. (1998) Effects of cereal headland treatments on the abundance and movements of three species of carabid beetles. Applied Soil Ecology, 9, 417-422.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Leave cultivated, uncropped margins or plots (includes 'lapwing plots') Action Link

Leave cultivated, uncropped margins or plots (includes 'lapwing plots')

A small study of the margin of an arable field in the Breckland Environmentally Sensitive Area, in the east of England (Hawthorne et al. 1998) found that the uncropped margin supported more adult ground beetles (Carabidae) than the cropped margin or the crop, and more larvae (uncropped: 38 larvae/trap, cropped: 12 larvae/trap). The ground beetle Bembidion lampros was significantly more abundant in the 6 m uncropped margin (reduced pesticides) than the cropped margin (fully sprayed) or crop, and tended to move into the crop. Catches of Pterostichus melanarius were consistently higher in the crop than the uncropped and the cropped margin. Agonum dorsale abundance was lowest in the uncropped margin, and tended to move from field boundaries into the crop. The uncropped margin had significantly less vegetation than the cropped margin. The field margin was divided into two blocks, each with both treatments (120 m-long). Ground beetles were sampled with five pitfall traps in each: plot (20 m apart), 32 m into the adjacent crop and field boundary block. Directional traps, an ‘H’ shape (2 m-long) barrier with five pitfalls on each side, were constructed to investigate movement at the field boundary-margin and margin-crop interface in each replicate strip. Traps were emptied weekly from April-August 1991.