Experiments with dead wood reveal the importance of dead branches in the canopy for saproxylic beetle conservation

Seibold, Sebastian; Hagge, Jonas; Müller, Jörg; Gruppe, Axel; Brandl, Roland; Bässler, Claus; Thorn, Simon

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2017.11.052

Cited by 43 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…1 and other reports (Dahlberg and Stokland 2004) suggest a clear split between communities of conifer and broadleaf species. On the other hand, experiments manipulating microclimate conditions, yielded considerably different communities (Vodka et al 2009, Bouget et al 2011, Seibold et al 2018 or a clear preference of single species to a host only under a specific microclimate (Buse et al 2007(Buse et al , 2013. However, no experimental approaches manipulated microclimate and tree species in a full factorial design.…”

Section: Taxon Specific Importance Of Host and Microclimatementioning

confidence: 99%

Primary determinants of communities in deadwood vary among taxa but are regionally consistent

Müller

Ulyshen

Seibold

et al. 2020

Oikos

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The evolutionary split between gymnosperms and angiosperms has far-reaching implications for the current communities colonizing trees. The inherent characteristics of dead wood include its role as a spatially scattered habitat of plant tissue, transient in time. Thus, local assemblages in deadwood forming a food web in a necrobiome should be affected not only by dispersal ability but also by host tree identity, the decay stage and local abiotic conditions. However, experiments simultaneously manipulating these potential community drivers in deadwood are lacking. To disentangle the importance of spatial distance and microclimate, as well as host identity and decay stage as drivers of local assemblages, we conducted two consecutive experiments, a 2-tree species and 6-tree species experiment with 80 and 72 tree logs, respectively, located in canopy openings and under closed canopies of a montane and a lowland forest. We sampled saproxylic beetles, spiders, fungi and bacterial assemblages from logs. Variation partitioning for community metrics based on a unified framework of Hill numbers showed consistent results for both studies: host identity was most important for sporocarp-detected fungal assemblages, decay stage and host tree for DNAdetected fungal assemblages, microclimate and decay stage for beetles and spiders and decay stage for bacteria. Spatial distance was of minor importance for most taxa but showed the strongest effects for arthropods. The contrasting patterns among the taxa highlight the need for multi-taxon analyses in identifying the importance of abiotic and biotic drivers of community composition. Moreover, the consistent finding of microclimate as the primary driver for saproxylic beetles compared to host identity shows, for the first time that existing evolutionary host adaptions can be outcompeted by local climate conditions in deadwood.

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Section: Taxon Specific Importance Of Host and Microclimatementioning

confidence: 99%

Primary determinants of communities in deadwood vary among taxa but are regionally consistent

Müller

Ulyshen

Seibold

et al. 2020

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“…Like all trees, trees showing 'veteran characteristics' contribute to ecosystem services such as carbon storage, water retention and microclimate regulation (Rubino and McCarthy 2003;Lachat et al 2013;Sist et al 2014). In addition, they are also a very important source of decaying and dead wood, a rare and declining habitat throughout Europe (Siitonen 2001;Butler et al 2002), and support a wide range of saproxylic organisms including fungi (Cooke 1984;Boddy 2001), epiphytes (Read 2000;Butler et al 2002;Ranius et al 2008) and invertebrates, especially beetles (Speight 1989;Seibold et al 2018). It is estimated that 6% of British invertebrate species rely solely on decaying wood ecosystems (Alexander 1999).…”

Section: Value and Importance Of Ancient And Other Noteworthy Treesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ancient Tree Inventory: a summary of the results of a 15 year citizen science project recording ancient, veteran and notable trees across the UK

et al. 2020

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Ancient, veteran and notable trees are ecologically important keystone organisms and have tangible connections to folklore, history and sociocultural practices. Although found worldwide, few countries have such a rich history of recording and treasuring these trees as the UK, with its extensive Royal and aristocratic land ownership, unique land management methods and long-standing interest in natural history and species record collecting. As a result, the UK has collated an extensive database of ancient, veteran and notable trees called the Ancient Tree Inventory (ATI). The ATI is the result of a successful, long-term citizen science recording project and is the most comprehensive database of ancient and other noteworthy trees to date. We present here the first review of the ATI in its entirety since its initiation in 2004, including summaries of the UK ancient, veteran and notable tree distributions, the status and condition of the trees, and key information about the recording process and maintenance of the database. Statistical analysis of components of the dataset, comprising 169,967 tree records, suggest there are significant differences in the threats, size, form and location of different types of trees, especially in relation to taxonomic identity and tree age. Our goal is to highlight the value of the ATI in the UK, to encourage the development of similar ancient tree recording projects in other countries, and to emphasise the importance to conservation of continued efforts to maintain and expand databases of this kind.

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“…In general, previous research has found high abundance and diversity of beetles in small diameter wood [ 32 , 33 , 35 ]. Our results contrast greatly with these findings, but is more in line with Ferro and Gimmel (2014), who found much lower colonization rates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the body size of an insect is tightly connected to its resource use [ 14 ] and, in the case of wood-boring beetles, also influences how tunnels and galleries within the wood are created [ 38 , 39 ]. Additionally, features of the dead wood, such as the diameter, decay stage, vertical position within the canopy and tree species, have been found to influence insect communities and decomposition rates [ 25 , 32 , 33 , 44 , 45 ]. Therefore, a diversity of niche preferences within an insect community may decrease competition and increase resource partitioning [ 46 – 48 ], thus potentially increasing decomposition rates [ 8 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Veteran trees have divergent effects on beetle diversity and wood decomposition

et al. 2021

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Veteran hollow trees are keystone structures in ecosystems and provide important habitat for a diverse set of organisms, many of which are involved in the process of decomposition. Since veteran trees are ‘islands’ of high biodiversity, they provide a unique system in which to study the relationship between biodiversity and decomposition of wood. We tested this relationship with a balanced experiential design, where we quantified the taxonomic and functional diversity of beetles directly involved in the process of decomposing wood, and measured the decomposition of experimentally added bundles of small diameter wood around 20 veteran trees and 20 nearby young trees in southern Norway. We found that the diversity (both taxonomic and functional) of wood-decomposing beetles was significantly higher around the veteran trees, and beetle communities around veteran trees consisted of species with a greater preference for larger diameter wood. We extracted few beetles from the experimentally added wood bundles, regardless of the tree type that they were placed near, but decomposition rates were significantly lower around veteran trees. We speculate that slower decomposition rates around veteran trees could have been a result of a greater diversity of competing fungi, which has been found to decrease decay rates. Veteran trees provide an ecological legacy within anthropogenic landscapes, enhance biodiversity and influence wood decomposition. Actions to protect veteran trees are urgently needed in order to save these valuable organisms and their associated biodiversity.

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Experiments with dead wood reveal the importance of dead branches in the canopy for saproxylic beetle conservation

Cited by 43 publications

References 37 publications

Primary determinants of communities in deadwood vary among taxa but are regionally consistent

Primary determinants of communities in deadwood vary among taxa but are regionally consistent

The Ancient Tree Inventory: a summary of the results of a 15 year citizen science project recording ancient, veteran and notable trees across the UK

Veteran trees have divergent effects on beetle diversity and wood decomposition

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