Beetles at Hardangervidda

On 26 August 2016, lightning killed 323 reindeer near the Vesle Saura Lake in the southern part of Hardangervidda. The carcasses were distributed over an area of 240 x 100 square m, with the highest concentration comprising about 50 x 50 sq m. The REINCAR Project established 75 permanent monitoring plots in a semi-regular grid covering the entire area. Of the 75 plots, 30 were used for trapping arthropods using pitfall traps. The traps had a diameter of 9 cm and were at 7 cm deep. Beetles were sampled at the carcass site and at a control site 500 meters apart.