Responses of diversity and morphometric traits of ground beetles to soil chemical properties in industrial city of China

•Soil elements had effects on carabids diversity, composition, morphometric traits.•Soil Zn, N, Ca and Mn elements were predominantly related to assemblage composition.•Soil elements had larger effects on species body wide, profemora and protibia length.•Mg, Mn, N and pH value were main reason for the variability of morphometric traits.