of sand species 0.076(*) 28.2 0.13 0.046* 43.0 Bare

ground Carabids No. of sand species 0.046* 35.3 0.25 0.011* 59.4 Total area Carabids No. of sand species 0.066(*) 30.3 0.25 0.046* 42.9 Bare ground Beetles Total species number 0.603 0.0   0.768 0.0 Total buy CX-5461 area Beetles Total species number 0.544 0.0   0.742 0.0 Bare ground Carabids Total species number 0.653 0.0   0.637 0.0 Total area Carabids Total species number 0.714 0.0   0.751 0.0 R 2 and p values for regressions of area (total area and area of bare ground) against species number (total species number and number of sand species) for beetles and carabids, described with a log–log power function, S = c A Z , and a quadratic power function, S = 10(b0+b1 logA+b2 (logA)2) Significance levels: *p < 0.05; (*) p < 0.1 Fig. 2 The species-area relationship, see more described with a power function (straight lines) and quadratic power function (curved lines), a for all sand-dwelling beetles, b for sand-dwelling carabids. Summary statistics are shown in Table 2

When including beetles from all habitat categories, no SAR could be seen, neither for carabids nor for all beetle families (Table 2). Species composition In the CCA including all beetles, the species composition was best explained by the area of bare ground (Table 3). This can also be visualised in the CA-biplot (Fig. 3a) where the small sand pits are separated from the larger ones along the first axis. Also,

the sand species tend to be situated more to the right of the first axis together with the large and medium-sized sand pits (Fig. 3a). In the CA (with environmental variables included through an indirect gradient analysis) the three first axes explained 53.5% of the learn more variance in the species-environmental data (five variables included) and 43.3% of the variance in the species data (total inertia 2.130; eigenvalues 0.338, 0.284, and 0.231 for axes one, two and three). Table 3 Environmental variables fitted in a stepwise manner Cobimetinib mouse by forward selection in a CCA model Systematic group Explanatory variable Variance explained (%) p F Beetles Area of bare ground 27.7 0.012* 1.56 Proportion of sand material 20.9 0.210 1.20 Tree cover 19.0 0.334 1.11 Edge habitat 18.9 0.366 1.12 Vegetation cover 13.4 0.702 0.77 Carabids Area of bare ground 35.2 0.004* 2.51 Proportion of sand material 25.8 0.028* 2.02 Tree cover 15.1 0.266 1.21 Edge habitat 14.0 0.350 1.15 Vegetation cover 10.0 0.570 0.79 The significance of each variable was tested with a Monte Carlo permutation test (499 permutations). Variance explained is the percentage explained by each variable of the total variance explained by all five variables Significance level: *p < 0.05 Fig. 3 A correspondence analysis (CA) biplot of species composition of a beetles and b carabids, showing axes 1 and 2. Environmental variables are included through an indirect gradient analysis.