Summary:
In this postgraduate thesis the aim was to study the differentiation of soil fauna in the dominant habitat types on the island of Andros, with a special emphasis on the species of the families Tenebrionidae and Carabidae of Coleoptera.More specifically, the aim of the work was to study the effect of organic crops on the composition and structure of the biocommunities of soil arthropods with emphasis on the Coleoptera of Andros.An additional objective was to evaluate the biotope preferences of the species of the families Tenebrionidae and Carabidae as well as to study the role of neighboring areas - in this study the natural ecosystems - in the cultivated organic systems.Coleoptera is one of the most important groups of macro-arthropods in the soil fauna of Mediterranean ecosystems.This is a very successful group, which has colonized every type of terrestrial habitat, including crops, and for this reason they have been the subject of numerous researches on whether or not they are influenced by cultivation practices.Species of the families Tenebrionidae and Carabidae are the most common and sensitive species to various changes in environmental parameters and habitat type resulting in being biodiversity indicators.To carry out the experiment, a total of 16 sampling stations were placed in each of which we placed 10 interference traps.Sampling began in May and was completed in August with a monthly collection of the material.Therefore, a total of 3 trap changes were made, finally having 480 traps for study.A total of 96,014 invertebrates were collected, of which 58,361 belonged to Coleoptera.Of these, 47.622 individuals belonged to the family Tenebrionidae which belong to 24 species while only 832 individuals belonged to the family Carabidae, belonging to 27 species.Due to the destruction of some traps, the results from 6 traps of each station are presented instead of 10 of the original design.The composition and structure of the vegetation as well as the type of soil substrate appeared to be the main factors influencing the structure and composition of the species of the families Tenebrionidae and Carabidae.In contrast, organic farming management practices seemed to affect them much less.In some cases, the neighboring areas (controls) that functioned as sources of food for the crops seemed to play an important role, while some differences were observed related to the ecological requirements of the groups and their different natural history.In general, Tenebrionidae appeared to prefer plants characterized by herbaceous vegetation with a particular preference for sand dune systems and then crops and meadows.On the contrary, the Carabidae recorded the majority of their individuals in the Mediterranean formations, i.e. in the phryganic and maci systems.
Keywords:
organic farming, biocommunity, arthropods,Carabidae,Tenebrionidae
