Negative spatial and coexistence patterns and species associations are uncommon for carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) at a small scale

Biotic interactions are an important factor in determining community composition. However, spatial and coexistence patterns and species associations within a trophic group remain unclear, particularly for belowground ecosystems. We tested the hypothesis that the spatial patterns, coexistence patterns and species associations would be negative for ground carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) at a small scale and that negative species associations would be stronger within a subfamily than between different subfamilies. To test this hypothesis, ground carrion beetles were collected from two permanent plots (each 300 × 300 m) within a mixed broad-leaved Korean pine forest in northeastern China and separated into the subfamilies Nicrophorinae and Silphinae. Geostatistical methods were used to evaluate the spatial patterns and spatial species associations. Null model analyses were performed to examine the coexistence patterns and coexisting species associations. Overall, most communities and species populations were positively spatially autocorrelated at multiple scales. Moreover, spatial patterns of all communities and most species populations were non-randomly aggregated, and most coexisting patterns of communities were also non-random. Furthermore, most spatial species associations were positive, with only a small number of nonsignificant negative spatial species associations observed between Nicrophorinae species. All coexisting species associations that were significant occurred only within the same subfamily. Notably, all significant spatial and coexisting species associations were positive. Based on this study, negative spatial and coexistence patterns and species associations are uncommon for carrion beetles at a small scale, and the only significant positive associations were within the same subfamily.