The amplitude of dead wood resource pulses produced by plantation thinning mediates the assembly of wood‐boring beetles

Thibault, Monic; Moreau, Gaétan

doi:10.1002/ecs2.1215

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…We used variables known to affect saproxylic beetle colonization patterns: downed woody debris volume and decay stages (Wikars, Sahlin & Ranius, ; Vanderwel et al ., ; Thibault & Moreau, ), snag diameter (Økland et al ., ), snag decay stage (Jacobs et al ., ), snag type (Lachat et al ., ) and resource spatial locations (Gibb et al ., ; Nadeau, Majka & Moreau, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indirect effects of an ecosystem engineer: how the Canadian beaver can drive the reproduction of saproxylic beetles

2017

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Environmental rearrangements by ecosystem engineers influence food‐web characteristics by altering resource accessibility/availability in the newly created habitat. However, the paucity of empirical studies on this indirect interaction has hindered the integration of ecosystem engineering and food‐web theory. Here, we investigated the effect of the Canadian beaver Castor canadensis on the activity, realized fecundity and ecosystem functions provided by saproxylic beetles by quantifying beetle emergence holes on woody debris within the Kouchibouguac National Park, New Brunswick, Canada. We tested the hypothesis that perturbation induced by beaver activity enhances the activity and realized fecundity of saproxylic beetles by modifying their habitat and resource accessibility. We used 16 sites identified as beaver modified, each paired with a control site <500 m away. At each site, we quantified insect emergence holes on snags at increasing distances from the watercourse. Our results suggest that engineered habitat patches enhance the activity and reproduction of saproxylic beetle species, small emergence holes from Scolytinae being only observed in abundance on small trees located close to the watercourse and large emergence holes from Cerambycidae being one third more abundant throughout beaver‐modified sites. The complementary relationship between the Canadian beaver and saproxylic beetles demonstrates the potential for conservation measures encapsulating all of these organisms.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indirect effects of an ecosystem engineer: how the Canadian beaver can drive the reproduction of saproxylic beetles

2017

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“…This trend may not be the case for longhorns, a family of wood‐boring beetles that primarily decompose deadwood, but include some pest species that damage or kill live trees. The total abundance and species diversity of beneficial, decomposer longhorns increases after harvesting (Thibault and Moreau ), but harvesting may also increase the access of pest species to adjacent unharvested patches, as has been noted for other wood‐boring beetles (Drooz ). Likewise, birds also perform important ecological functions in forest ecosystems including insect predation and seed dispersal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Functional diversity response to hardwood forest management varies across taxa and spatial scales

Murray

Holland

Summerville

et al. 2017

Ecological Applications

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Contemporary forest management offers a trade-off between the potential positive effects of habitat heterogeneity on biodiversity, and the potential harm to mature forest communities caused by habitat loss and perforation of the forest canopy. While the response of taxonomic diversity to forest management has received a great deal of scrutiny, the response of functional diversity is largely unexplored. However, functional diversity may represent a more direct link between biodiversity and ecosystem function. To examine how forest management affects diversity at multiple spatial scales, we analyzed a long-term data set that captured changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of moths (Lepidoptera), longhorned beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), and breeding birds in response to contemporary silvicultural systems in oak-hickory hardwood forests. We used these data sets to address the following questions: how do even- and uneven-aged silvicultural systems affect taxonomic and functional diversity at the scale of managed landscapes compared to the individual harvested and unharvested forest patches that comprise the landscapes, and how do these silvicultural systems affect the functional similarity of assemblages at the scale of managed landscapes and patches? Due to increased heterogeneity within landscapes, we expected even-aged silviculture to increase and uneven-aged silviculture to decrease functional diversity at the landscape level regardless of impacts at the patch level. Functional diversity responses were taxon-specific with respect to the direction of change and time since harvest. Responses were also consistent across patch and landscape levels within each taxon. Moth assemblage species richness, functional richness, and functional divergence were negatively affected by harvesting, with stronger effects resulting from uneven-aged than even-aged management. Longhorned beetle assemblages exhibited a peak in species richness two years after harvesting, while functional diversity metrics did not differ between harvested and unharvested patches and managed landscapes. The species and functional richness of breeding bird assemblages increased in response to harvesting with more persistent effects in uneven- than in even-aged managed landscapes. For moth and bird assemblages, species turnover was driven by species with more extreme trait combinations. Our study highlights the variability of multi-taxon functional diversity in response to forest management across multiple spatial scales.

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“…Commercial thinning is a sylvicultural treatment that involves removing a prescribed portion of the merchantable sized trees to improve resource access and diameter growth in remaining trees (Brissette et al., ; Pothier, ; Homyack et al., ; Simard et al., ). Both directly and indirectly, thinning will also affect several forest processes such as decomposition and mineralization (Thibodeau et al., ), species dispersal (Pothier, ), species fitness and trophic interactions (Moreau et al., ; Moreau & Quiring, ) as well as resource availability (Thibault & Moreau, ). Thus, we may suspect that one or several of these processes can produce documented increases in abundance and diversity of organisms following commercial thinning treatments (Hindmarch & Reid, ; Sullivan et al., ; Pothier, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For early successional wood-boring beetles (Coleoptera), commercial thinning produces a resource pulse in the form of small debris of fresh dead wood (Yang et al, 2008;Thibault & Moreau, 2016a) that attracts beetles (MacLean et al, 2015;Nadeau et al, 2015a;Thibault & Moreau, 2016a) and could result in resource colonization. However, the actual colonization by wood-boring beetles of the small debris of fresh dead wood from commercial thinning operations has never been documented.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To document the effect of plantation commercial thinning on various taxa, including beetles, a large-scale manipulative study aiming to produce variable amounts of horizontal and vertical woody debris was carried out in New Brunswick, Canada, from 2011 to (MacLean et al, 2015Nadeau et al, 2015a;Dracup et al, 2016;Haughian & Frego, 2016;Thibault & Moreau, 2016a). Here, we report the results of manipulative experiments conducted to determine the relative contributions of improved dispersal and increase in resource availability in thinning-induced surges in wood-boring beetle abundance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Settling in or passing through: differentiating between wood‐boring beetle visitation and colonization after a dead wood pulse

Gandiaga

Thibault

Nadeau

et al. 2018

Entomologia Exp Applicata

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To determine the effect of resource pulses on animal communities, it is important to differentiate the species colonizing the resource substrate from the ones simply moving through the system. In a manipulative field study, we surveyed the response of wood‐boring beetles (Coleoptera) to the small debris produced by commercial thinning operations in white spruce plantations using two methods. First, we sampled the wood‐boring beetles visiting the plantations using flight intercept traps. Then, at the end of the resource pulse in fresh woody debris, we documented the abundance of beetle emergence holes on vertical and horizontal woody debris, which indicate wood‐boring beetle colonization. Results demonstrated that the small horizontal debris generated by commercial thinning were used by saproxylic beetles but were not a preferred resource for colonization, by contrast with vertical dead wood. Only small‐body beetles colonized the horizontal debris and most debris were not colonized. Vertical dead wood, even if present in relatively small quantity when compared to horizontal dead wood, was a major determinant of beetle colonization and community composition. Biomass removal was shown to have a strong detrimental impact on beetle colonization rates. Based on these results, we suggest that most of the saproxylic species trapped after commercial thinning operations were attracted in response to the initial pulse of resource but did not actually colonize the debris from thinning. Thus, we stress the importance of distinguishing between species visitation and colonization following a resource pulse when sampling relies on indirect trapping methods.

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The amplitude of dead wood resource pulses produced by plantation thinning mediates the assembly of wood‐boring beetles

Cited by 12 publications

References 70 publications

Indirect effects of an ecosystem engineer: how the Canadian beaver can drive the reproduction of saproxylic beetles

Indirect effects of an ecosystem engineer: how the Canadian beaver can drive the reproduction of saproxylic beetles

Functional diversity response to hardwood forest management varies across taxa and spatial scales

Settling in or passing through: differentiating between wood‐boring beetle visitation and colonization after a dead wood pulse

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