A Review of Forest Management Effects on Terrestrial Leaf Litter Inhabiting Arthropods

Abstract

Leaf litter arthropods are some of the most abundant and diverse communities in forests and provide myriad ecosystem services from decomposition and mineralization to pollination and predation. They are important to forest health and management and, in turn, are affected by how we manage our forests. Various forest management techniques such as clear cutting, burning, and chemical control of invasive species all have differing effects on ground dwelling arthropods and, despite their importance, a review of the literature on these effects does not currently exist. My objective with this paper is to review the effects of different types of forest management on arthropods in leaf litter systems.

Immediate effects of chemical and mechanical soil preparation techniques on epigaeic arthropod assemblages during reclamation of in situ oil and gas sites in northern Alberta, Canada

“…This result may reflect the location and site history of the agricultural areas which were in aspen parkland areas within a matrix of agricultural land, whereas our study was located in boreal mixedwood forest. Our findings agreed with other studies of ground beetle diversity in forests where species diversity is often dependent on site locations and specific forest type as well as the severity of soil disturbance (Beaudry et al 1997;Pearce and Venier 2006;Sklodowski 2017;Hartshorn 2021).…”

The Effects of Fire Disturbance on Litter Decomposition and C:N:P Stoichiometry in a Larix gmelinii Forest Ecosystem of Boreal China

“…Fungi have an impact on the activity of soil animals and microorganisms [69]. After fire disturbance, the temperature increases, the pH value and moisture content of the soil changes, and the living habitat of soil animals are affected, resulting in a reduction in the activity of soil animals and microorganisms to inhibit the decomposition of litter [70]. Additionally, extracellular enzyme activity is an essential indicator of litter decomposition in complex microenvironments after fire disturbance [33,71,72].…”

Foraging strata and dietary preferences of fifteen species of babblers in Sarawak, Malaysia

“…Being terrestrial, foliage and/or bark gleaning insectivores, the major prey groups of the babblers comprises of relatively more terrestrial (i.e., Coleoptera, Hymenopter,a and Araneae of understory level, similar to Mansor et al (2018), except Blattodea) rather than aerial arthropods (but see Mansor et al 2021). The abundance of Hymenoptera such as ants and Araneae (spiders) on the forest floor (Griffiths et al 2018;Hartshorn et al 2021) as well as those in the aerial leaf litter (Mansor et al 2019) might be a reason that they formed a major portion of the babblers' diet. With respect to nutritional composition, Coleoptera and Araneae were found to contain higher portions of crude protein and lipids than Hymenoptera (Razeng & Watson 2015).…”

“…With the increasing reports on the effects of forest disturbance on arthropods in the tropics (Hamer et al 1997;Chey et al 1998;Holloway 1998;Lawton et al 1998;Schowalter & Ganio 1999;Floren & Linsenmair 2001Hartshorn et al 2021), concerns over the associated effects on insectivorous birds are also raised. Equally, there is a need for more in-depth study on the foraging ecology of the tropical insectivorous birds in the tropics so as to determine which species are particularly affected by or resilient to forest disturbance.…”