Urbanisation and agricultural land use, result in novel, “domesticated” ecosystems. So far it is not clear if and how species, persisting at sites during these transition, alter their characters or not. The aim of this study is to investigate trait change of species occurring in nearly natural and novel ecosystems along spatio-temporal gradients.
By using the collection of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin we followed the traits (various body measures) of two functionally different ground beetles species (Harpalus affinis; Pseudoophonus rufipes) in the area of Berlin-Brandenburg during the last 150 years. In parallel we investigate the same traits of these species in the current landscape along a spatial gradient from the city and areas of intense agriculture to natural habitats.
We hypothesized that persisting species react to the challenges of “novel” environments, visible in morphological trait changes. These changes could be evolutionary or phenologically adaptations to new ecological conditions and/or reflecting environmental stress. Trait change should be traceable in both gradients, reflecting the same change from natural to novel habitats. We further expected differences in trait change between two functionally different species.
Results/Conclusions
Voucher specimens were assigned according to origin, Berlin (urban) or Brandenburg (rural), and different time slices (1892-1949, 1957-1998, 2016-2017), both for Berlin and Brandenburg.
The results revealed trait changes in space and time dependant on functional group (herbivore versus omnivore), the activity pattern (day/night) and the sex.
Males of P. rufipes (omnivore) decrease in body length in urban areas over time, whereas females and both sexes of H. affinis (herbivore) did not change.
Body proportions in H. affinis for instance differed between regions.