Forest disturbance and arthropods: Small‐scale canopy gaps drive invertebrate community structure and composition

Perry, Kayla I.; Wallin, Kimberly F.; Wenzel, John W.; Herms, Daniel A.

doi:10.1002/ecs2.2463

Cited by 39 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…This suggests that, although dependent on forest proximity, some Malagasy dung beetles tolerate more microclimatic variation than previously thought. On the other hand, certain level of forest disturbance may also increase the types of microhabitat available which, in case there are different species with different temperature optima, could explain some of the increase in dung beetle diversity in disturbed vegetation (Mehrabi et al, ; Perry, Wallin, Wenzel, & Herms, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unexpectedly diverse forest dung beetle communities in degraded rain forest landscapes in Madagascar

2020

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Tropical forests, which harbor high levels of biodiversity, are being lost at an alarming speed. Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot, has lost more than half of its original forest cover. Most of the remaining forests are small fragments of primary and secondary forest with differing degrees of human impact. These forests, as well as coffee and fruit plantations, may be important in supporting the forest‐dependent biodiversity in Madagascar but this has been little studied. In Madagascar, dung beetles, which offer important ecosystem services, are largely restricted to forests. We examined the ability of fragmented and degraded forests to support dung beetle diversity, compared to the large areas of primary forest in eastern Madagascar. We found a general trend of a reduction of species with a loss of forest connectivity. In contrast, a higher level of forest disturbance was associated with higher species diversity. In several sites of low‐quality forest as many or more species were found as in less disturbed and primary forests. The average size of dung beetles was smaller in the lower quality localities than in the primary forests. These findings suggest that many forest dung beetles in Madagascar are better adapted to forest disturbance than earlier expected, although they require some level of connectivity to surrounding forest. Abstract in Malagasy is available with online material.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unexpectedly diverse forest dung beetle communities in degraded rain forest landscapes in Madagascar

2020

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“…The use of tree microhabitat by GDAs may be either specific or random. Our study suggests the latter for PJ woodlands, yet, there are many instances where GDAs are sensitive to changes in vegetation structure [45][46][47][48][49]. Canopy-closure creates microhabitats which host different GDA communities than open areas [50], including in PJ woodlands [26][27][28].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 81%

“…Canopy-closure creates microhabitats which host different GDA communities than open areas [ 50 ], including in PJ woodlands [ 26 – 28 ]. So, while most GDAs may not be affected by tree composition, some may be confined to canopied habitat with open habitats acting as barriers [ 46 ]. How isolated a tree is may affect what GDAs occur under it.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ground-dwelling arthropods of pinyon-juniper woodlands: Arthropod community patterns are driven by climate and overall plant productivity, not host tree species

et al. 2020

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Pinyon-juniper (PJ) woodlands have drastically changed over the last century with juniper encroaching into adjacent habitats and pinyon experiencing large-scale mortality events from drought. Changes in climate and forest composition may pose challenges for animal communities found in PJ woodlands, especially if animals specialize on tree species sensitive to drought. Here we test habitat specialization of ground-dwelling arthropod (GDA) communities underneath pinyon and juniper trees. We also investigate the role of climate and productivity gradients in structuring GDAs within PJ woodlands using two elevational gradients. We sampled 12,365 individuals comprising 115 taxa over two years. We found no evidence that GDAs differ under pinyon or juniper trees, save for a single species of beetle which preferred junipers. Climate and productivity, however, were strongly associated with GDA communities and appeared to drive differences between sites. Precipitation was strongly associated with arthropod richness, while differences in GDA composition were associated with environmental variables (precipitation, temperature, vapor pressure, and normalized difference vegetation index). These relationships varied among different arthropod taxa (e.g. ants and beetles) and community metrics (e.g. richness, abundance, and composition), with individual taxa also responding differently. Overall, our results suggest that GDAs are not dependent on tree type, but are strongly linked to primary productivity and climate, especially precipitation in PJ woodlands. This implies GDAs in PJ woodlands are more susceptible to changes in climate, especially at lower elevations where it is hot and dry, than changes in dominant vegetation. We discuss management implications and compare our findings to GDA relationships with vegetation in other systems.

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“…Canopy openness can affects resource availability and habitat quality in forest understory through various direct, indirect and interacting pathways; directly by influencing light availability, temperature, soil moisture, indirectly as a result of changes to decomposition of organic matter and nutrient cycling, vegetation growth and composition, food and shelter availability for organisms (Ritter et al ., ; Gálhidy et al ., ; Muscolo et al ., ). These direct and indirect changes to understory can interact to affect resources and habitat quality and quantity, and biodiversity characteristics (Blakely & Didham, ; Thorn et al ., ; Perry et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The effect of canopy openness of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests on ground‐dwelling spider communities

Černecká

Mihál

Gajdoš

et al. 2019

Insect Conserv Diversity

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1. The composition of spider communities in forests is affected by habitat characteristics, such as canopy openness, vegetation cover or tree species diversity; therefore, we assume that the effect of canopy will differ among tree species.2. As research in European beech forests has not been conducted, we studied the effect of understory environmental characteristics associated with a gradient of overstory canopy openness in beech forest on ground-dwelling spider richness, abundance and guild composition in the Western Carpathians, Slovakia. Canopy openness, the cover of understory vegetation and litter, litter thickness and variability and soil reaction were recorded. In total, 17 332 individuals of 174 spider species were trapped during 518 days. We used Generalised Linear Models to explain the effect of environmental characteristics on the assemblages of ground-dwelling spiders; the unique and shared contributions of the predictors were calculated using variation partitioning.3. The association of canopy openness with spider species richness was hump-shaped and displayed positive linear relationship with abundance. Abundance was also affected by soil pH.4. The composition of spider communities was significantly affected by canopy openness and understory characteristics; a major part of this variation was shared between all variables. The guild composition of the assemblages interacted with canopy openness, as sheet-web weavers were dominant under the most closed canopy, that below 20% of canopy openness, while ground hunters dominated in the rest of the canopy gradient.5. The gradient of beech forest canopy openness affected spider species richness, abundance and guild composition and supported distinct assemblages.

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Forest disturbance and arthropods: Small‐scale canopy gaps drive invertebrate community structure and composition

Cited by 39 publications

References 82 publications

Unexpectedly diverse forest dung beetle communities in degraded rain forest landscapes in Madagascar

Unexpectedly diverse forest dung beetle communities in degraded rain forest landscapes in Madagascar

Ground-dwelling arthropods of pinyon-juniper woodlands: Arthropod community patterns are driven by climate and overall plant productivity, not host tree species

The effect of canopy openness of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests on ground‐dwelling spider communities

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