Ground beetle (Coleoptera, Carabidae) assemblages inhabiting Scots pine stands of Puszcza Piska Forest: six-year responses to a tornado impact

Abstract

Ground beetle assemblages were studied during 2003-08 in the Pisz Forest by comparing stands disturbed by a tornado to undisturbed control stands. The following exploratory questions were put forward. (1) How do the carabid assemblages change during six years following the tornado impact? (2) Does the carabid assemblage recovery begin during the six first post-tornado years? To assess the state of carabid assemblages we used two indices: the MIB (Mean Individual Biomass) and the SPC (Sum of Progressive Characteristics). Carabid assemblages in the disturbed and in the control stands, as expressed by these two indices, were compared using the length of a regression distance (sample distance in a MIB:SPC coordinate system). A cluster analysis revealed that the assemblages of the disturbed and the control stands were different. The tornado-impacted stands produced lower carabid catch rates, but species richness was significantly higher there than in the control stands. They hosted lower proportions of individuals of European species, of large zoophages, and of forest and brachypterous species, than the control stands. The observed reduction in SPC and MIB, and an increase in the regression distances may indicate that the carabid assemblages had not started to recover from the tornado-caused disturbance. Carabid assemblages apparently responded to the tornado in two steps. Firstly, the first three years were characterized by moderate decreases of index values. Secondly, from the fourth to the sixth year after the tornado, many observed changes became magnified. We did not observe clear signals of the recovery of forest carabid assemblages during the six follow-up years.

Range of Pterostichus oblongopunctatus (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in conditions of global climate change

“…This species is abundant in the forests of South Moravia (Šejnohová, 2006). The species dominates in the forests of Poland (Sklodowski, 2006(Sklodowski, , 2014Kwiatkowski, 2011;Sklodowski & Garbalinska, 2011;Zalewski et al, 2012). There numerous reports of finding this species in Lithuania (Tamutis et al, 2011).…”

Forty years of carabid beetle research in Europe – from taxonomy, biology, ecology and population studies to bioindication, habitat assessment and conservation

“…The rate at which species composition changes during succession and the successional trajectory followed by the carabid assemblages depends on environmental conditions, such as soil properties (Szyszko 1986b, 1990; Schwerk 2008), dominant tree species (Du Bus de Warnaffe and Lebrun 2004), and the type of disturbance that initiated the succession (Du Bus de Warnaffe and Lebrun 2004). Indeed, the larger the newly-created gap is and the fewer trees retained, the more severe the perturbation for carabid assemblages (Koivula 2002b following timber harvest; Bouget 2005 and Skłodowski and Garbalińska 2010 following windthrow gap). As a consequence, the maintenance of a variety of successional phases of the forest cycle results in increased heterogeneity at the landscape level and, therefore greater regional carabid diversity (e.g.…”

Response of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) to forest gaps formed by a typhoon in a red pine forest at Gwangneung Forest, Republic of Korea

“…Skłodowski and Garbalińska (2007) showed that carabidae assemblages markedly declined in abundance, although species richness was significantly higher in damaged stands compared to control stands after a hurricane in Puszcza piska pine forests. Skłodowski and Garbalińska (2011) emphasized that carabidae assemblages in the disturbed and control stands were different but no clear signals of recovery of carabidae assemblages were observed during a 6 year follow-up. Duelli et al (2002) found that a hurricane significantly increased carabid species richness in gaps.…”