Drought impact on ground beetle assemblages (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in Norway spruce forests with different management after windstorm damage – a case study from Tatra Mts. (Slovakia)

Abstract

After the windstorm of November 2004, the ground beetle assemblages (Coleoptera, Carabidae) differentiated after the windstorm into four groups reflecting degree of damaging and forestry management (intact stand, fallen timber in situ, extracted timber, fire). The stand with fallen timber reduced abundances of original species. Removal of timber eliminated sensitive forest species and favored tolerant species, whereas the fire allowed invasions of field species. Later, the assemblages on burned sites converged to those in the unburned sites. Their restoration has a sigmoid-like course. Independently on the above differentiation and course assemblage succession, episodes of severe drought resulted with a 1-2-years delay in sudden decline of number of individuals and species. Their numbers were restoring after longer humid periods. Because these extremes occur with a considerable regularity, the observed extremes of fluctuations of number of species and individuals represent the variability limits of the Carabid assemblages in such conditions. The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index was shown, using the cross-correlation of SPEI and number of individuals and species of Carabids, as a suitable means to explain and predict such changes for the period of 1-2 years.

Carabus Population Response to Drought in Lowland Oak Hornbeam Forest

“…Moreover, none of the months in 2016 were evaluated as extremely warm, which contributed to the positive water balance in 2016. As in the findings of [37], we can suppose, that the two-year delay effect of the meteorological conditions on carabid populations was manifested in our study as well. The cause of such a delay stems from the relationship between the predator and the prey population dynamics.…”

“…Carabidae are not adapted to low humidity and Central European species are strictly hydrotactic [36]. The work in [37] studied the impact of drought on ground beetle assemblages in Norway spruce forests with different management after windstorm damage. Comparison of the changes in the numbers of individuals and species as a result of drought periods showed that changes in both the numbers of species and individuals mostly occur with an approximate delay of 1-2 years after an incidence of extreme drought or rainy years.…”

Drought Analyses of the Horné Požitavie Region (Slovakia) in the Period 1966–2013

“…Although this drought impact assessment has been also carried out, ecological aspects of drought occurrence have been analyzed byŠustek and Vido [35,36], drought impacts on forest ecosystems were analyzed by Nalevanková et al [37] andŠkvareninová et al [38], and application of the SPI in forest drought assessment was carried out by Vido et al [39].…”

Drought in the Upper Hron Region (Slovakia) between the Years 1984–2014

“…Our selection is based on a previous investigation pointing out that the one-month scale refers to short-term drought fluctuations (meteorological drought) [27,28]. In contrast, the indices for the 12-month scale are used when assessing long-term (cumulated) drought episodes with a severe impact on ecosystems and the socio-economic structure [12,[29][30][31].…”