Rapid recovery of invertebrate communities after ecological restoration of boreal mires

Abstract

Mire degradation due to drainage for forestry results in the loss of mire specialist species. To halt the loss in biodiversity, ecological restoration is needed and already implemented. However, a major challenge in ecological restoration is whether actions taken have the desired outcome. Key abiotic and biotic conditions for the successful restoration of invertebrate communities can be identified by testing the "Field of Dreams" hypothesis, which postulates that if a habitat is successfully restored, species will return. This study was conducted in nine boreal mires located in Eastern Finland, 1-3 years after restoration. Parts of each mire were drained for forestry during the 1960s and 1970s, and restored in 2003-2006. Two 250 m transects were established in each of three treatments (pristine, drained, restored) per mire. We used pitfall trapping to sample carabid beetles and spiders, sweep netting to sample micromoths and crane flies and counts along the transects to sample macromoths. Vegetation cover, water table level, and climatic variables were measured along all transects. Mire specialist species and invertebrate communities responded positively to restoration and negatively to drainage, whereas generalists showed varied responses. In addition, mire specialists were associated with high cover of Sphagnum mosses and with low numbers of tall trees (>3 m). Therefore, to successfully restore populations and communities of mire specialist invertebrates, maintaining environmental conditions that favor the growth of Sphagnum mosses, rewetting the sites and removing larger trees are necessary measures.

The effects of drainage and restoration of pine mires on habitat structure, vegetation and ants

“…In general, our results showed predictable responses in both habitat structure -including vegetation -and ant assemblages to mire drainage and restoration. This conclusion is similar to the results in a mire restoration study dealing with a number of solitary invertebrate groups (Noreika et al 2015). Taken together, our results are consistent with the Field of Dreams hypothesis (Palmer et al 1997), which suggests that if you rebuild the habitat structure, the flora and fauna will return; here mire restoration resulted in rapid recovery of mire vegetation and ant assemblages (see also Fig.…”

“…For species abbreviations, see Appendix 2 (abbreviations represent the first three letters of the genus name and the first three letters of the species name). Noreika et al 2015). However, for mire-specialist ant species the results were variable and longerterm monitoring is needed to evaluate the success of restoration.…”

“…In boreal areas, a few studies have shown that drainage of mires affects mire-ant species negatively (Krogerus 1960;Collingwood 1963;Vepsäläinen et al 2000;Punttila and Kilpeläinen 2009), but knowledge on mire ant communities and their assembly processes are scarce globally (Sveum 1978;Vepsäläinen et al 2000;Dlussky 2001;Ellison et al 2002;Gotelli and Ellison 2002a;Mabelis and Chardon 2005;Ratchford et al 2005;Sanders et al 2007;Bujan et al 2010). The effects of mire restoration and subsequent vegetation succession on ants and other insect fauna are poorly understood (Laiho et al 2001;van Duinen et al 2003;Watts et al 2008;Elo et al 2015;Noreika et al 2015).…”

Within‐season changes in habitat use of forest‐dwelling boreal bats

“…The complexity and diversity of vegetation determine the diversity and behavior of higher organisms by influencing the availability and diversity of resources and niches (Hekkala, Tarvainen, & Tolvanen, 2014), modifying microclimatic conditions (Melin, Matala, & Mehtatalo, 2014), or by providing sites for breeding and roosting (Fabianek, Simard, Racine, & Desrochers, 2015) and shelter or concealment from predators (Muiruri, Rainio, & Koricheva, 2016). The importance of forest structure on diversity has been recognized in the boreal zone, where industrial forestry has been an important economic driver for decades (Maanavilja, Aapala, Haapalehto, Kotiaho, & Tuittila, 2014; Noreika et al, 2015; Santangeli, Hogmander, & Laaksonen, 2013). Forest management practices determine the composition of forest ecosystems and the resources available for organisms inhabiting it.…”

Restoration trajectory of carabid functional traits in a formerly afforested blanket bog

“…A number of drivers are expected to contribute to the restoration of carabid communities and their FTs, such as habitat structure, and this is supported by RLQ results together with other variables such as distance to bog pools and plot perimeter. There are indeed examples of restoration by tree felling and ditch blocking leading to remarkably fast (1-3 years) recovery of arthropods in drained Finnish mires, particularly for tyrphobiont (bog specialist) carabids (Noreika et al 2015). Such results provide some evidence that animal assemblages, and the ecosystem functions they provide (Sudduth et al 2011), could be naturally re-established once the vegetation structure required is in place (Palmer et al 1997) but basic research in community ecology will also benefit.…”