How will low-intensity burning after clear-felling affect mid-boreal insect assemblages.pdfVIP

H i J D R A t s i t c w S a a c n A b n t Z d u f t m 1 dBasic and Applied Ecology 11 (2010) 363–372 ow will low-intensity burning after clear-felling affect mid-boreal nsect assemblages? oakim Hj?ltén?, Heloise Gibb1, John P. Ball epartment of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-901 83 Ume?, Sweden eceived 18 March 2009; accepted 16 December 2009 bstract Intensive forest management and fire protection programs have dramatically reduced the frequency of fires and this is believed o have negative effects on biodiversity. As a result, fire is used as a restoration tool to improve conditions for fire adapted/favoured pecies. The aim of our study was to determine how burning of clear-felled areas (i.e. those typical of real-world management n Fennoscandinavia) influenced beetle assemblages, and to identify taxonomic and functional groups and individual species hat are favoured by burning as it is currently practiced. We studied five sites, each consisting of one burned and one unburned lear-cut. Beetles were collected in sixteen pitfall traps per site for three consecutive years. Regardless of whether beetles ere divided into taxonomic or functional groups, abundance was generally higher on burned clear-cuts, with the exception of taphylinidae which showed indications of an opposite response. The species assemblages differed significantly between burned nd control clear-cuts in all years. The species contributing most to the difference included Corticaria ferruginea, Pterostichus dstrictus, Corticaria rubripes, Atomaria pulchra and Hylobius abietes (all more common on burned clear-cuts), and Drusilla analiculata and Atomaria peltata (more common on controls). We also found a succession of species, i.e. Otiorhynchus odosus and Anthicus ater became dominant species on burned clear-cuts the third year after burning whereas C. ferruginea and . pulchra became scarce. In conclusion, clear-cut burning clearly changed the a