Most European forests have been converted into forest plantations that are managed for timber production. The main goal of this paper was to determine the difference between mature native sessile oak (Quercus petraea) stands and non-indigenous Norway spruce (Picea abies) plantations with respect to communities of Athous click beetles in approximately 6,500 ha of lowland plantation forest area in the Czech Republic. Athous subfuscus was the most abundant and widespread species, followed by A. zebei and A. haemorrhoidalis, while A. vittatus was considered rare. Spatial analysis of environmental variables inside studied patches showed that the species composition of Athous beetles best responded to a 20 m radius surrounding traps. Species’ responses to the environment showed that A. vittatus and A. haemorrhoidalis preferred oak stands, while A. zebei and A. subfuscus were associated with spruce plantations. In addition, oak stands showed higher diversity of beetle communities. The studied species are important for their ecosystem services (e.g. predation on pests or bioturbation) and seems to tolerate certain degrees of human disturbances, which is beneficial especially for forest plantations managed for timber production.

Most European forests have been converted into forest plantations that are managed for timber production. The main goal of this paper was to determine the difference between mature native sessile oak (Quercus petraea) stands and non-indigenous Norway spruce (Picea abies) plantations, with respect to communities of Athous click beetles in approximately 6,500 ha of lowland plantation forest area in the Czech Republic. Athous subfuscus was the most abundant and widespread species, followed by A. zebei and A. haemorrhoidalis, while A. vittatus was considered rare. Spatial analysis of environmental variables inside studied patches showed that the species composition of Athous beetles best responded to a 20 m radius surrounding traps. The species’ responses to the environment showed that A. vittatus and A. haemorrhoidalis preferred oak stands, while A. zebei and A. subfuscus were associated with spruce plantations. In addition, oak stands showed higher diversity of beetle communities. The studied species are important for their ecosystem services (e.g. predation on pests or bioturbation) and seem to tolerate certain degrees of human disturbances, which is especially beneficial for forest plantations managed for timber production.

No abstract

Plantation forests with timber production as the major function are highly fragmented and disturbed regarding the tree species composition and stand area. Their closed canopies also have different microclimatic conditions compared with better studied conservation areas. We studied three beetle families (click, longhorn, and rove beetles) with different ecological demands in lowland plantation forests dominated by Sessile oak and Norway spruce in the Czech Republic. Our main interest was how their species richness, abundance, diversity, body length, rarity, red-list status, species composition and individual species were driven by the main tree species, stand area and canopy openness. We analyzed 3466 individuals from 198 beetle species and the results revealed complex and contrasting responses of the studied beetle families - click beetles mostly preferred sun-exposure and spruce as the dominant tree species, longhorn beetles mainly preferred large stands, whereas rove beetles were mostly influenced by oak as the dominant tree species and increasing area. We also observed that some species had different preferences in plantation forests than is known from the literature. The main conclusions of our results are that the dominance of non-natural spruce plantations and a large stand area (both originating from artificially replanted large clear-cuts) did not affect the majority of the studied taxa as we expected. On the other hand, our results might have been influenced by other factor, such as the current small total area of the former vegetation, which in the past might have led to extinction debt; or a large area of other conifers in the surroundings that might have promoted conifer-associated fauna.