Soil Arthropod Community in Spruce Forests (Picea abies) Affected by a Catastrophic Storm Event

Abstract

At the end of October 2018, the “Vaia” storm hit the eastern sector of the Italian Alps, causing major damage to forests. The resulting changes in habitat and resource availability are expected to shape the structure and abundance of soil communities. In this research, a soil arthropod community is studied one year after the catastrophic Vaia event in forests affected by the storm (W: Windthrow) to highlight the shift in the soil faunal community in a Mediterranean area increasingly impacted by climate change. Intact forests (IF) close to W were studied as a control condition and meadows (M) were considered to understand if W is moving toward a conversion to M or if the wooded character still prevails. Soil organic matter content was higher in IF than in W and M. The arthropod community was different between M and forests, both W and IF, while no differences were detected between W and IF considering the whole soil arthropod community. The Vaia catastrophic event does not appear to have radically changed the soil arthropod community and biodiversity after one year, despite upheaval to the vegetation cover, but the response is partially OTU (operative taxonomic unit)-specific. Hymenoptera adults and Coleoptera and Diptera larvae appear to be the most affected OTUs, showing lower abundance in W than IF. Conversely, Chilopoda seemed to benefit from the habitat changes, the result strongly related with the W condition. The two most present OTUs, Collembola and Acarina, were not affected by the Vaia storm. We may conclude that the soil system needs longer time to show a clear shift in the soil arthropod community.

Using Choice Experiments as a Planning Tool for Reforestation after Extreme Events: The Case of the Vaia Windstorm in Italy

“…The target area of this study is located in Northeast Italy, where the Vaia storm took place (Figure 1). The study area is characterized by alpine coniferous forests mostly composed of Norway spruce (Picea abies) and Silver fir (Abies alba) [23] between 1500 m and 2200 m above sea level with slopes varying from 20 to 45% and in a valley geologically formed by dolomite limestone [24]. The storm, characterized by wind gusts of 200 km/h, affected nearly fifty thousand hectares and felled nine million m 3 of wood in an area considered to be one of the most important wood production sites in Italy, affecting the timber market with a sudden increase in supply and a consequent decrease in price [2,23,25,26].…”