The community concept in carabid studies. A short review

On the basis of a review of the first thirteen European Carabidologists’ Meetings we have analyzed how the community concept has been used in carabid studies. Four main approaches emerged from the analysis: the “community approach”, when the study is based on a “clas- sical” species-by-sites table; the “rational background approach”, when, for interpreting study results, the community is treated more like an ecological functional unit than a simple statistical aggregate of populations; the “implicit condition approach”, when the community is taken for granted, i.e. it is not demonstrated, and is meant as a statistical entity; and the “approach based on criticism”, i.e. new ways of treating data on carabid communities.