Effects of logging and coarse woody debris harvest on lepidopteran communities in the eastern deciduous forest of North America

Abstract

1 Expansion of biomass energy production using woody feedstocks is being accomplished through post-timber harvest removal of coarse woody debris > 10 cm. The effect of this management on forest Lepidoptera is poorly known. 2 The present study aimed to determine whether forest lepidopteran diversity and species composition were affected by two silvicultural disturbances: timber harvest and post-logging removal of coarse woody debris > 10.0 cm in diameter. 3 In 2014, Lepidoptera were sampled from nine forest stands subject to one of three management treatments: control (no manipulation at all), clear cut and partial retention of coarse woody debris (80% removal), and clear cut and complete removal of coarse woody debris. 4 As expected, species richness and composition were significantly impacted by timber harvest. Subsequent removal of 80% or 100% coarse woody debris, however, did not affect specialists, detritivores and pollinators. 5 The absence of an effect as a result of the removal of coarse woody debris could be a result of the limited number of replicate stands, small stand size and the limited range of retention treatments. We suggest, however, that retention of fine woody debris with a diameter < 10.0 cm and inclusion of unlogged stands in the forest landscape maintains some of the habitat elements necessary for Lepidoptera.

Macromoth community structure along a 95‐year post‐harvest chronosequence in managed forests of northwest Washington State (U.S.A.), with comparison to old growth forest communities

“…The Macroheterocera, a group commonly called 'macromoths' that includes the moth superfamilies Bombycoidea, Drepanoidea, Geometroidea, Lasiocampoidea, and Noctuoidea (Kawahara et al, 2019) has proven useful in assessing the impacts of logging in various forest ecosystems, including tropical and subtropical forests (Willot, 1999;Kitching et al, 2000;Hilt et al, 2006;Hawes et al, 2009;de Camargo et al, 2016), temperate deciduous forests of North America (Summerville & Crist, 2002;Summerville et al, 2004;Parrish & Summerville, 2015;Summerville & Marquis, 2017), and temperate coniferous forests of Japan (Moon et al, 2018) and eastern North America (Thomas, 2002). Macromoths are well suited for such studies because they are abundant, diverse, easily sampled, and taxonomically well-known (Miller & Hammond, 2000).…”

“…Although a recent suite of studies (Summerville & Crist, 2008;Summerville, 2011;Highland et al, 2013;Parrish & Summerville, 2015;Summerville & Marquis, 2017) has shown that the community composition of North American macromoths responds to a variety of factors including habitat disturbance, the degree to which macromoth communities differ between natural and managed forests is unknown for most North American forest ecosystems. In particular, no studies have assessed the impacts of logging on macromoth communities in coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest, where there are over 1500 macromoth species (Miller & Hammond, 2000;Pohl et al, 2015).…”