From primary forest to human‐modified habitats: Impacts of land‐use change on Amazonian ground beetle diversity

Abstract Understanding how land‐use changes affect biodiversity components, including alpha and beta diversity, remains a central goal in community ecology, particularly in tropical ecosystems such as the Colombian Amazon, where insect diversity is exceptionally high yet poorly documented. We investigated how ground beetle assemblages (Carabidae and Cicindelidae) respond to land‐use change in the eastern Colombian Amazon by sampling across three land‐use types: primary forest, indigenous agricultural fields (‘chagras’) and urban zones, both of which were formerly forested. We also assessed how environmental variables are associated with beetle abundance and species composition. We collected 1019 individuals, representing 84 species, 35 genera and 20 tribes. Observed species richness was highest in chagras (43 species), followed by primary forest (41) and urban zones (30), but estimated richness via rarefaction revealed significantly higher values in the primary forest. Variation in beetle abundance was partly explained by ground surface moisture, and leaf litter depth accounted for a proportion of the variation in species composition. Primary forest hosted the highest number of exclusive species (30), followed by chagras (19) and urban zones (10). These patterns highlight the ecological sensitivity of ground beetles to forest transformation and support their use as indicators of environmental impacts caused by land‐use change. Our results indicate that chagras can support high levels of ground beetle diversity, but primary forests play an irreplaceable role in maintaining regionally unique faunas. This study provides empirical evidence relevant to land‐use planning and biodiversity conservation in Amazonian landscapes affected by small‐scale agriculture and urbanization.