Effects of Small-Scale Dead Wood Additions on Beetles in Southeastern U.S. Pine Forests

Abstract

Pitfall traps were used to sample beetles (Coleoptera) in plots with or without inputs of dead loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) wood at four locations (Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas) on the coastal plain of the southeastern United States. The plots were established in 1998 and sampling took place in 1998, 1999, and 2002 (only 1998 for North Carolina). Overall, beetles were more species rich, abundant and diverse in dead wood addition plots than in reference plots. While these differences were greatest in 1998 and lessened thereafter, they were not found to be significant in 1998 due largely to interactions between location and treatment. Specifically, the results from North Carolina were inconsistent with those from the other three locations. When these data were excluded from the analyses, the differences in overall beetle richness for 1998 became statistically significant. Beetle diversity was significantly higher in the dead wood plots in 1999 but by 2002 there were no differences between dead wood added and control plots. The positive influence of dead wood additions on the beetle community can be largely attributed to the saproxylic fauna (species dependent on dead wood), which, when analyzed separately, OPEN ACCESSForests 2012, 3 633 were significantly more species rich and diverse in dead wood plots in 1998 and 1999. Ground beetles (Carabidae) and other species, by contrast, were not significantly affected. These results suggest manipulations of dead wood in pine forests have variable effects on beetles according to life history characteristics.

The resilience of reef invertebrate biodiversity to coral mortality

“…Although declines in habitat-modifying foundation species are often associated with dramatic losses in ecosystem function and stability (Ellison et al 2005, Altieri and Witman 2006, Bracken et al 2007, Polidoro et al 2010, there is increasing evidence that some communities associated with dead foundation species can be just as diverse, if not more diverse, than those associated with live foundation species. This pattern has been documented in the mobile macroinvertebrates found in dead seagrass mattes (Borg et al 2006), diatom assemblages on dead grass stems (Grimes et al 1980), and beetle communities associated with dead pine trees (Klepzig et al 2012).…”

Microclimate and habitat heterogeneity as the major drivers of beetle diversity in dead wood

“…Some studies focusing on experimentally added dead wood have found positive effects of the amount of dead wood of the same type on abundance, species number and diversity of saproxylic beetles (e.g. Klepzig et al 2012;Gossner et al 2013a). Although our gradient of dead-wood diversity comprised only four different levels, richness of saproxylic beetles responded to dead-wood diversity even when controlling for abundance ( Fig.…”

Decadal effects of landscape‐wide enrichment of dead wood on saproxylic organisms in beech forests of different historic management intensity

“…Dispersal limitations should not play a large role at the scale of our study (20–30 km), as the majority of saproxylic beetles and wood‐inhabiting fungi are good dispersers (Komonen & Müller, ). It is known that saproxylic beetle communities are mainly shaped by habitat filtering and dead‐wood amounts (Bouget, Larrieu, Nusillard, & Parmain, ; Gossner, Floren, Weisser, & Linsenmair, ; Heikkala et al, ; Klepzig et al, ). Therefore, within a decade, dead‐wood enrichment contributed directly to the change in community composition (see also Thorn et al, ).…”