A comparison of three methods to estimate species richness of saproxylic beetles (Coleoptera) in logs and high stumps of Norway spruce

2005 ◽  
Vol 137 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars-Ove Wikars ◽  
Erik Sahlin ◽  
Thomas Ranius

AbstractThe amount of dead wood in forests has decreased owing to modern forest practices, and many species associated with this habitat are currently threatened. In Sweden during the last decade, naturally downed logs have been retained and, at clearcuts, high stumps have been artificially created to maintain saproxylic (dead wood dependent) insects. We tested how much these types of dead wood are used by sampling saproxylic beetles in dead wood of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.; Pinaceae) in managed forests in central Sweden. To analyse how surveys should be conducted in these kinds of studies, we compared three methods over an entire growing season. We found that the relationship between the type of dead wood and species richness was statistically significant when we used bark sieving and emergence traps, but not when we used window traps. It is impossible to ascertain whether beetles collected with window traps are related to the type of dead wood on which they are found and, therefore, such traps are less useful in studies of specific substrates. The yield from sieving was highest in spring and autumn, whereas species richness in window trap samples peaked in June and July and that in emergence traps peaked from May to July. With emergence traps we collected, on average, about twice the number of species over the whole season as we did by sieving on a single occasion in the spring. Both emergence trapping and sieving reveal what is present in individual pieces of dead wood, but these methods sample partly different faunas. We found fewer species on artificially created high stumps (on clearcuts); however, these stumps seem to be useful for some red-listed species.

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (12) ◽  
pp. 2494-2507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Franc

For conservation of forest biodiversity, dead wood in the form of logs, snags, or cut high stumps is sometimes left or created when forests are harvested. In Scandinavia, such dead wood usually comes from conifers. For forests in temperate regions, few studies have analysed composition and species richness of beetles using dead wood of oaks ( Quercus spp). In this study in southern Sweden, I examined the occurrence of saproxylic beetles trapped at lying (logs) and standing (snags) dead wood of European oaks ( Quercus robur L. and Quercus petraea (Mattuschka) Liebl.) in 13 oak-rich mixed forests of relatively high conservation value. The assemblage of beetles differed strikingly between the lying and standing dead wood. Traps on lying dead wood, compared to traps on standing dead wood, had more fungivores and fewer primary and secondary wood boring species. Of 94 species tested for individual substrate preferences, 48 showed prevalence for different trap/substrate types. Absolute species richness was significantly higher on logs than snags, but a smaller proportion of the snag substrate or snag beetles may have been sampled. For red-listed beetles, no differences in their species richness were detected among substrates. These results suggest that logs of dead oaks are valuable and that both snags and logs of oak should be retained and, if needed, created in forestry, such that they are continuously available in stands.


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-60
Author(s):  
Nicolai Olenici ◽  
Ecaterina Fodor

Nature reserves harbour considerable richness and diversity of saproxylic organisms since dead wood is preserved in situ, this being also the case of Voivodeasa beech-spruce-fir forest in North-Eastern Romania, the area investigated under the present research. Flight interception traps were employed to capture insects during a vegetation season with the goal to characterize saproxylic Coleoptera community in terms of diversity and several other structural features. Among the captured insects, the majority pertained to obligate saproxylic species (217 species). However, the unexpected high species richness corresponded to an area with modest representation of deadwood due to previous status of commercial forest. The identified beetles were members of different habitat-guilds depending on what type of substrate they colonized: recently dead wood (23%), decomposed dead wood (41%), wood inhabiting fungi (34%) and treehollow detritus (2%). According to their trophic position, the identified saproxylic beetles pertained to the following guilds: xylophagous (40%), mycetophagous (39%), predatory (14%), and species relying on other food resources. The observed richness corresponded to the case of hyperdiverse communities where sampling never leads to the stabilization of species richness under a realistic sampling scheme. The diversity profiles constructed on Shannon, Gini-Simpson, Berger-Parker and evenness indices for the pooled inventory and for separate samples across the vegetation season indicated the aggregated saproxylic community as highly diverse and highly uneven, with rich representation of rare species, dominated by few abundant species. We assembled four bipartite, unweighted, and undirected networks to approach the temporal changes across the sampling period extended over one vegetation season. The topology of beetles’ community and of the three main trophic guilds (xylophagous, mycetophagous and predatory) networks linked to time sequences are characterized by high connectance, high nestedness and modularity, with the exception of the mycetophagous sub-network not displaying significant modularity. Among the identified species, 13% indicate high degree of naturalness of the Voievodeasa forest. 62 of the identified species are included in the Red List of European Saproxylic Beetles of which five are near threatened (Protaetia fieberi, Cucujus cinnaberinus, Crepidophorus mutilatus, Ceruchus chrysomelinus, Prostomis mandibularis), Ischnodes sanguinolentus is vulnerable and Rhysodes sulcatus is an endangered species. During the study, two Coleoptera species, new for Romanian insect fauna were identified: Denticollis interpositus Roubal, 1941 and Hylis procerulus (Mannerheim 1823).


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1558
Author(s):  
Andrzej Mazur ◽  
Radosław Witkowski ◽  
Robert Kuźmiński ◽  
Roman Jaszczak ◽  
Mieczysław Turski ◽  
...  

Background: Resources of dying and dead trees, decaying fragments of stems, stumps and branches, i.e., coarse woody debris (CWD), are an important structural element of biocenoses and are drivers of biodiversity. The aim of this study was to describe assemblages of saproxylic beetles in pine stands of western Poland in view of dead wood resources. We present faunistic (species identity) and quantitative (species and individual counts) data from two types of stands: 1. unmanaged pine stands, in which no trees have been extracted for over 30 years, with processes connected with tree dying and self-thinning of stands being undisturbed, 2. managed pine stands, in which routine tending operations extracting trees are performed in accordance with forest management plans and naturally dying trees are removed in the course of tending and sanitary logging; Methods: Beetles were captured in the years 2013–2014 using window flight traps. Assemblages of saproxylic beetles were assessed based on the indices of dominance, diversity (the Shannon–Weiner index), and species richness (Margalef’s index) as well as the estimated habitat fidelity index, feeding habits, and zoogeographical distribution. Similarity between the assemblages was evaluated applying cluster analysis. Dependence between dead wood resources and the diversity and species richness indices were analysed; Results: A total of 2006 individuals classified to 216 species were captured. Assemblages show considerable similarity on the local scale. Higher values of species diversity indicators were observed in unmanaged stands, in which no sanitation cuttings are performed; Conclusions: The decision to refrain from sanitation logging in pine monocultures results in increased CWD resources, which nevertheless does not lead to a marked increase in the values of biodiversity indicators. Unmanaged stands were characterised by a high share of zoophagous, mycetophagous, and saproxylic species. In contrast, managed stands were characterised by a high share of xylophagous beetles.


Author(s):  
Valeriia Diedus

The study of factors that affect to the biodiversity of forest insects has not lost its relevance for several decades. As obligate fungicolous, minute tree-fungus beetles (Coleoptera, Ciidae) are one of the main destructors of saproxylic fungi. Since primeval forests are characterized by different age of tree stands and a large volume of dead wood of different stages of decomposition – the number of saproxylic fungi, and, as a consequence, minute tree-fungus beetles, show a high variety. In managed forests, selective felling and removal of dead wood is carried out, which leads to the loss of habitats and, as a consequence, to the impoverishment of the biodiversity of minute tree-fungus beetles. The fauna of minute tree-fungus beetles of primeval beech forest of the Uholsky massif of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve and managed 150-year-old beech forest from adjacent territories has been studied. According to the literature, at the beginning of our research the fauna of Ciidae were consisted 34 species of fauna of the Ukrainian Carpathians, and 11 species were known for the beech primeval forests of the Uholka Shyrokyi Luh preservation massif of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve (CBR). The material was collected with the combined window-type traps (polytrap) during the growing season 2017-2018. In general, 3302 specimens of minute tree-fungus beetles, belonging to 31 species from 8 genera, were collected and identified. For the first time for the region of the Ukrainian Carpathians were indicated such species: Cis rugulosus Mellie, 1848, Cis striatulus Mellie, 1848, Ennearthron pruinosulum (Perris in Abeille, 1864) and Rhopalodontus strandi Lohse, 1969. Taking into account our research and literature data, the faunal list of minute tree-fungus beetles for the Ukrainian Carpathians include 38 species. The species richness of beech primeval and 150-year-old managed forest is close in value, and the relative density of individuals in primeval forest is three times higher than its value in managed forest. Thus, 30 species from 8 genera (2442 individuals) have been identified for primeval beech; for managed beech forest – 28 species from 8 genera (860 specimens of minute tree-fungus beetles). Primeval beech forests are an important center for the diversity of minute tree-fungus beetles, because of the 38 species known from the Ukrainian Carpathians, 31 species have been registered in the Uholsky massif of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve.


Author(s):  
O. A. Zadorozhna ◽  
T. P. Shyianova ◽  
M.Yu. Skorokhodov

Seed longevity of 76 spring barley gene pool samples (Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. distichon, convar. distichon: 56 nutans Schubl., two deficience (Steud.) Koern., two erectum Rode ex Shuebl., two medicum Koern.; convar. nudum (L.) A.Trof.: one nudum L. та subsp. vulgare: convar. vulgare: nine pallidum Ser., three rikotense Regel.; convar. coeleste (L.) A.Trof.: one coeleste (L.) A.Trof.) from 26 countries, 11 years and four places of reproduction was analyzed. Seeds with 5–8% moisture content were stored in chamber with unregulated and 4oC temperature. The possibility of seed storage under these conditions for at least 10 years without significant changes in germination has been established. The importance of meteorological conditions in the formation and ripening of seeds for their longevity is confirmed. The relationship between the decrease of barley seeds longevity and storage conditions, amount of rainfall, temperature regime during the growing season of plants is discussed.


Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 943
Author(s):  
Katri Nissinen ◽  
Virpi Virjamo ◽  
Antti Kilpeläinen ◽  
Veli-Pekka Ikonen ◽  
Laura Pikkarainen ◽  
...  

We studied the growth responses of boreal Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.) and silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) seedlings to simulated climate warming of an average of 1.3 °C over the growing season in a controlled field experiment in central Finland. We had six replicate plots for elevated and ambient temperature for each tree species. The warming treatment lasted for the conifers for three growing seasons and for the birch two growing seasons. We measured the height and diameter growth of all the seedlings weekly during the growing season. The shoot and root biomass and their ratios were measured annually in one-third of seedlings harvested from each plot in autumn. After two growing seasons, the height, diameter and shoot biomass were 45%, 19% and 41% larger in silver birch seedlings under the warming treatment, but the root biomass was clearly less affected. After three growing seasons, the height, diameter, shoot and root biomass were under a warming treatment 39, 47, 189 and 113% greater in Scots pine, but the root:shoot ratio 29% lower, respectively. The corresponding responses of Norway spruce to warming were clearly smaller (e.g., shoot biomass 46% higher under a warming treatment). As a comparison, the relative response of height growth in silver birch was after two growing seasons equal to that measured in Scots pine after three growing seasons. Based on our findings, especially silver birch seedlings, but also Scots pine seedlings benefitted from warming, which should be taken into account in forest regeneration in the future.


Oecologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 195 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-223
Author(s):  
Mark A. Lee ◽  
Grace Burger ◽  
Emma R. Green ◽  
Pepijn W. Kooij

AbstractPlant and animal community composition changes at higher elevations on mountains. Plant and animal species richness generally declines with elevation, but the shape of the relationship differs between taxa. There are several proposed mechanisms, including the productivity hypotheses; that declines in available plant biomass confers fewer resources to consumers, thus supporting fewer species. We investigated resource availability as we ascended three aspects of Helvellyn mountain, UK, measuring several plant nutritive metrics, plant species richness and biomass. We observed a linear decline in plant species richness as we ascended the mountain but there was a unimodal relationship between plant biomass and elevation. Generally, the highest biomass values at mid-elevations were associated with the lowest nutritive values, except mineral contents which declined with elevation. Intra-specific and inter-specific increases in nutritive values nearer the top and bottom of the mountain indicated that physiological, phenological and compositional mechanisms may have played a role. The shape of the relationship between resource availability and elevation was different depending on the metric. Many consumers actively select or avoid plants based on their nutritive values and the abundances of consumer taxa vary in their relationships with elevation. Consideration of multiple nutritive metrics and of the nutritional requirements of the consumer may provide a greater understanding of changes to plant and animal communities at higher elevations. We propose a novel hypothesis for explaining elevational diversity gradients, which warrants further study; the ‘nutritional complexity hypothesis’, where consumer species coexist due to greater variation in the nutritional chemistry of plants.


2008 ◽  
Vol 54 (No. 4) ◽  
pp. 189-193
Author(s):  
M. Żmihorski

Clearcuts are one of the results of forest management. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of clearcuts on bird communities in a managed forest in Western Poland. I applied the method of point transect counts. 20 points were located near clearcuts (less than 100 m from the nearest clearcut) and 25 points in the forest interior. In total, 36 bird species were recorded. On average, I found 9.20 bird species at points located near clearcuts and 6.72 species at points situated in the forest interior, and the difference was significant. The cumulative number of bird species for a given number of sampling points in the vicinity of clearcuts was higher than in the forest interior. The obtained results indicate that in managed, even-aged forests the generation of clearcuts can lead to an increase in local bird species richness.


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