Overwintering in the field: carabid communities

This dataset documents ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) communities sampled across commercial agricultural plots in Belgium between 2023 and 2025. Sampling followed a sugar beet–winter cereal crop succession over two independent crop cycles (2023–2024 and 2024–2025), allowing the carabid communities of successive crops grown on the same plots to be tracked through the rotation. Beetles were collected using two complementary methods: Barber pitfall traps, which captured the active (surface-dwelling) fauna, and emergence tents, which captured individuals emerging directly from within the plots. The pitfall traps used several preservatives (vinegar, propylene glycol, and brine). Sampling was carried out during three seasonal periods (April, July, and October), with repeated sampling weeks within each period, and at multiple within-plot positions to capture spatial variation. The data are organised as a sample-by-species abundance matrix. Each row corresponds to a single trap collection, described by contextual variables (year, crop, sampling period and week, plot, within-plot line/position, trap type, and trap status), followed by the recorded abundances of each carabid species. Trap status flags collections that were lost or damaged in the field. The dataset was generated to investigate the overwintering ecology and recolonisation dynamics of carabids in arable rotations, in particular, the contribution of in-field overwintering populations to the spring communities of the following crop, and provides a basis for further analyses in conservation biological control.