Land-use change is one of the main drivers affecting biodiversity loss. In order to alleviate these species loss we need to understand present distribution of species and predict future distribution of the species. But recent studies have shown that past landscape structure have significant impacts on the present species distributions. Thus, it is important to evaluate impacts of past landscape structure and to build the models for the present and future distribution of species.

We surveyed ground beetles in broad-leaved forests in Tokachi plains, Hokkaido. These are habitats that suffered from a rapid decline during the last century. We examined whether past or present landscape structure affects current distribution of ground-beetle (Coleoptera: Carabinae).

We showed that species richness of larger ground-beetle were positively correlated with the past forest area (50 years ago) and the species richness of smaller ground-beetle was not associated with either past or current landscape structure.

Our results suggest that past landscape structure may influence current distribution of some ground-beetle and that inclusion of past landscape structure could be a valuable tool for studies on relationship between ground-beetle and habitat alteration.