The decline and disappearance of seminatural grasslands in Japan have caused a reduction in plant and animal species inhabiting such grasslands. We aimed to understand the assemblage structure, species diversity, and distribution of carabid beetles in traditionally managed seminatural grasslands, by comparing with the adjacent old beech forest. We investigated the carabid beetle assemblages in a seminatural grassland maintained by prescribed burning and annual mowing, and the adjacent old beech forest in Yamagata Prefecture, northeast Japan. We recorded several forest species along with open habitat species and habitat generalists in the grassland, suggesting that forest species may utilize the adjacent grasslands as temporary habitats. Cluster analysis showed that the assemblage structure of carabid beetles in the grassland differed from that in the beech forest. There were no clear differences in the carabid assemblages between the burned grassland sites and the grassland sites mowed in July after burning. This suggests that the annual mowing had little influence on the response of grassland carabid species in parts of the grassland. We recorded Harpalus roninus (Coleoptera: Carabidae), a rare carabid species in Japan, indicating that this beetle can be a characteristic of the studied grassland. Redundancy analysis showed that the eight abundant grassland species were associated with canopy openness, grass height, and understory vegetation cover, whereas the five most common species recorded from the beech forest were associated with litter depth and soil moisture.

中文翻译：

---

日本东北部半自然草原和相邻的老山毛榉林中的甲虫组合（鞘翅目：甲虫科）

日本半自然草原的衰退和消失导致栖息在这些草原上的动植物物种减少。我们旨在通过与相邻的老山毛榉林进行比较，了解传统管理的半自然草原中甲虫的组合结构、物种多样性和分布。我们调查了日本东北部山形县的半天然草原中的甲虫组合，该草原由规定的燃烧和每年割草维护，以及相邻的老山毛榉林。我们记录了草原中的几种森林物种以及开放栖息地物种和栖息地通才，这表明森林物种可能利用相邻的草原作为临时栖息地。聚类分析表明，草地与山毛榉林的甲虫群落结构存在差异。燃烧后的草地与7月份割草的草地之间的甲虫组合没有明显差异。这表明，每年割草对部分草原地区的草原甲虫的反应影响不大。我们记录了 Harpalus roninus（鞘翅目：Carabidae），这是日本一种罕见的carabid 物种，表明这种甲虫可能是所研究草原的特征。冗余分析表明，8 种丰富的草原物种与冠层开放度、草高和林下植被覆盖率有关，而从山毛榉森林记录的 5 种最常见的物种与凋落物深度和土壤湿度有关。