Forest Disturbance and Arthropods: Small‐Scale Canopy Gaps Drive
Forest disturbance and arthropods: Small-scale canopy gaps drive invertebrate community structure and composition 1, 2,3 4 1,5 KAYLA I. PERRY , KIMBERLY F. WALLIN, JOHN W. WENZEL, AND DANIEL A. HERMS 1Department of Entomology, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University, 1680 Madison Avenue, Wooster, Ohio 44691 USA 2Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, 312H Aiken Center, Burlington, Vermont 05405 USA 3USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, 312A, Aiken, Burlington, Vermont 05405 USA 4Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 1847 PA-381, Rector, Pennsylvania 15677 USA 5The Davey Tree Expert Company, 1500 Mantua Street, Kent, Ohio 44240 USA Citation: Perry, K. I., K. F. Wallin, J. W. Wenzel, and D. A. Herms. 2018. Forest disturbance and arthropods: Small-scale canopy gaps drive invertebrate community structure and composition. Ecosphere 9(10):e02463. 10.1002/ecs2.2463 Abstract. In forest ecosystems, disturbances that cause tree mortality create canopy gaps, increase growth of understory vegetation, and alter the abiotic environment. These impacts may have interacting effects on populations of ground-dwelling invertebrates that regulate ecological processes such as decom- position and nutrient cycling. A manipulative experiment was designed to decouple effects of simultane- ous disturbances to the forest canopy and ground-level vegetation to understand their individual and combined impacts on ground-dwelling invertebrate communities. We quantified invertebrate abundance, richness, diversity, and community composition via pitfall traps in response to a factorial combination of two disturbance treatments: canopy gap formation via girdling and understory vegetation removal. For- mation of gaps was the primary driver of changes in invertebrate community structure, increasing activity- abundance and taxonomic richness, while understory removal had smaller effects.
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