TY - JOUR

T1 - Leaf litter arthropods show little response to structural retention in a Central European forest

AU - Ruppert, Laura Sophia

AU - Staab, Michael

AU - Klingenfuß, Sara

AU - Rappa, Nolan J.

AU - Frey, Julian

AU - Segelbacher, Gernot

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).

PY - 2023/10

Y1 - 2023/10

N2 - Decomposition of leaf litter is a central process of energy and nutrient cycling in forests, in which arthropods hold important roles. Thus, safeguarding the diversity of organisms including arthropods is increasingly being considered in contemporary forestry, not least to facilitate continued ecosystem functioning. Retention forestry tries to achieve biodiversity conservation by preservation of tree structural elements such as deadwood and tree microhabitats to provide more heterogeneous habitat. Leaf litter arthropods are, however, only indirectly connected with tree structure, which raises the question if and how the currently practised retention forestry influences the leaf litter arthropod community. As the leaf litter arthropod community includes a very diverse range of taxa that is challenging to identify morphologically, we sampled environmental DNA from leaf litter on 66 plots in the Black Forest in southern Germany that were distributed over gradients of forest and landscape features and differed in forest management intensity. We found that the richness of operational taxonomic units, a surrogate for species, was not related to forest structure but tended to increase with recent harvest intensity (which did not exceed a medium harvest intensity on our plots). Community composition was related to the share of coniferous trees present on a plot, and to a lesser extend to elevation and leaf litter coverage. Our results indicate that the leaf litter arthropod community is not responsive towards different degrees of forest structural changes introduced by management as long as the forest type is retained.

AB - Decomposition of leaf litter is a central process of energy and nutrient cycling in forests, in which arthropods hold important roles. Thus, safeguarding the diversity of organisms including arthropods is increasingly being considered in contemporary forestry, not least to facilitate continued ecosystem functioning. Retention forestry tries to achieve biodiversity conservation by preservation of tree structural elements such as deadwood and tree microhabitats to provide more heterogeneous habitat. Leaf litter arthropods are, however, only indirectly connected with tree structure, which raises the question if and how the currently practised retention forestry influences the leaf litter arthropod community. As the leaf litter arthropod community includes a very diverse range of taxa that is challenging to identify morphologically, we sampled environmental DNA from leaf litter on 66 plots in the Black Forest in southern Germany that were distributed over gradients of forest and landscape features and differed in forest management intensity. We found that the richness of operational taxonomic units, a surrogate for species, was not related to forest structure but tended to increase with recent harvest intensity (which did not exceed a medium harvest intensity on our plots). Community composition was related to the share of coniferous trees present on a plot, and to a lesser extend to elevation and leaf litter coverage. Our results indicate that the leaf litter arthropod community is not responsive towards different degrees of forest structural changes introduced by management as long as the forest type is retained.

KW - Arthropods

KW - eDNA

KW - Habitat heterogeneity

KW - Harvest intensity

KW - Leaf litter

KW - Retention forestry

KW - Biology

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85164031554&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10531-023-02677-w

DO - 10.1007/s10531-023-02677-w

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85164031554

VL - 32

SP - 3973

EP - 3990

JO - Biodiversity and Conservation

JF - Biodiversity and Conservation

SN - 0960-3115

IS - 12

ER -