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Conservation of biodiversity requires in-depth knowledge of trait-environment interactions to understand the influence the environment has on species assemblages. Saproxylic beetles exhibit a wide range of traits and functions in the forest ecosystems. Understanding their responses to surrounding environment thus improves our capacity to identify habitats that should be restored or protected. We investigated potential interactions between ecological traits in saproxylic beetles (feeding guilds and habitat preferences) and environmental variables (deadwood, type and age of surrounding forest). We sampled beetles from 78 plots containing newly created high stumps of Scots pine and Silver birch in boreal forest landscapes in Sweden for three consecutive years. Using a model based approach, our aim was to explore potential interactions between ecological traits and the surrounding environment at close and distant scale (20 m and 500 m radius). We found that broadleaf-preferring beetle species are positively associated with the local broadleaf-originated deadwood and broadleaf-rich forests in the surrounding landscapes. Conifer-preferring species are positively associated with the local amount of coniferous deadwood and young and old forests in the surrounding landscape. Fungivorous and predatory beetles are positively associated with old forests in the surrounding landscapes. Our results indicate that both local amounts of deadwood and types of forests in the landscape are important in shaping saproxylic beetle communities. We particularly highlight the need to increase deadwood amounts of various qualities in the landscape, exempt older forests from production and to increase broadleaf-rich habitats in order to meet different beetle species' habitat requirements. Trait responses among saproxylic beetles provide insights into the significance of broadleaf forest and dead wood as essential attributes in boreal forest restoration, which helps conservation planning and management in forest landscapes. • Trait – environment interactions of saproxylic beetles are investigated. • Broadleaf-preferring beetles thrive with local broadleaved deadwood. • Broadleaf-rich forests contribute to the abundance of broadleaf-preferring beetles. • Fungivores and predators positively interact with old forests in the landscape. • Deadwood increase and a 'broadleafication' of boreal forests need to be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of forest for wood production has altered ecosystem structures and processes and led to habitat loss and species extinctions, worldwide. Deadwood is a key resource supporting forest biodiversity, and commonly declines following forest management. However, different forest management methods affect dead wood differently. For example, uneven-aged silviculture maintains an age-stratified forest with ongoing dead wood production, while even-aged silviculture breaks forest continuity, leading to long periods without large trees. We asked how deadwood-dependent beetles respond to different silvicultural practices and if their responses depend on deadwood volume, and beetles preference for decay stages of deadwood. We compared beetle assemblages in five boreal forest types with different management strategies: clearcutting and thinning (both representing even-aged silviculture), selective felling (representing uneven-aged silviculture), reference and old growth forest (both uneven-aged controls without a recent history [~50 years] of management, but the latter with high conservation values). We collected beetles using window traps and by sieving the bark from experimental logs (bolts). Beetle assemblages on clear-cuts differed from all other stand types, regardless of trapping method or decay stage preference. Thinning differed from reference stands, indicating incomplete recovery after clear-cutting, while selective felling differed only from clear-cuts. In contrast to our predictions, early and late successional species responded similarly to different silvicultural practices. However, there were indications of marginal assemblage differences both between thinned stands and selective felling and between thinned and old growth stands (p = 0.10). The stand volume of early decay stage wood influenced assemblage composition of early, but not late successional species. Uneven-aged silviculture maintained species assemblages similar to those of the reference and old growth stands and might therefore be a better management option when considering biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uneven-aged silviculture may better maintain species assemblages associated with old-growth forests than clear felling in part due to habitat heterogeneity created by maintaining standing retention strips adjacent to harvest trails. Retention strips and harvest trails created at the time of tree removal will likely have different microclimate and may harbor different assemblages. In some cases, the resultant stand heterogeneity associated with uneven-aged silviculture may be similar to natural small-scale disturbances. For beetles, increased light and temperature as well as potential access to young vegetation and deadwood substrates present in harvset trails may harbor beetle assemblages similar to those found in natural gaps. We sampled saproxylic beetles using flight intercept traps placed in harvest corridors and retention strips in 9 replicated uneven-aged spruce stands in central Sweden. We compared abundance, species richness and composition between harvest corridors and retention strips using generalized linear models, rarefaction, permutational multivariate analysis of variance and indicator species analysis. Canopy openness doubled, mean temperature and variability in daily temperature increased and humidity decreased on harvest trails. Beetle richness and abundance were greater in harvests trails than in retention strips and the beetle species composition differed significantly between habitats. Twenty-five species were associated with harvest trails, including three old-growth specialists such as Agathidium discoideum (Erichson), currently red-listed. We observed only one species, Xylechinus pilosus (Ratzeburg) that strongly favored retention strips. Harvest trails foster both open habitat species and old-growth species while retention strips harbored forest interior specialists. The combination of closed canopy, stratified forest in the retention strips and gap-like conditions on the harvest trails thus increases overall species richness and maintains more diverse assemblages at the stand level than would otherwise be seen in less heterogeneous stand types. This suggests that uneven-aged silviculture may provide added conservation benefits for both open habitat and old-growth specialists than silvicultural approaches that reduce stand heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing demand for biofuels from logging residues require serious attention on the importance of dead wood substrates on clear-cuts for the many forestry-intolerant saproxylic (wood-inhabiting) species. In particular, the emerging harvest of low stumps motivates further study of these substrates. On ten clear-cuts we compared the species richness, abundance and species composition of saproxylic beetles hatching from four to nine year old low stumps, high stumps and logs of Norway spruce. By using emergence traps we collected a total of 2,670 saproxylic beetles among 195 species during the summers of 2006, 2007 and 2009. We found that the species assemblages differed significantly between high stumps and logs all three years. The species assemblages of low stumps, on the other hand, were intermediate to those found in logs and high stumps. There were also significant difference in species richness between the three examined years, and we found significant effect of substrate type on richness of predators and fungivores. As shown in previous studies of low stumps on clear-cuts they can sustain large numbers of different saproxylic beetles, including red-listed species. Our study does, in addition to this fact, highlight a possible problem in creating just one type of substrate as a tool for conservation in forestry. Species assemblages in high stumps did not differ significantly from those found in low stumps. Instead logs, which constitute a scarcer substrate type on clear-cuts, provided habitat for a more distinct assemblage of saproxylic species than high stumps. It can therefore be questioned whether high stumps are an optimal tool for nature conservation in clear-cutting forestry. Our results also indicate that low stumps constitute an equally important substrate as high stumps and logs, and we therefore suggest that stump harvesting is done after carefully evaluating measures to provide habitat for saproxylic organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The species‐energy hypothesis predicts increasing biodiversity with increasing energy in ecosystems. Proxies for energy availability are often grouped into ambient energy (i.e., solar radiation) and substrate energy (i.e., non‐structural carbohydrates or nutritional content). The relative importance of substrate energy is thought to decrease with increasing trophic level from primary consumers to predators, with reciprocal effects of ambient energy. Yet, empirical tests are lacking. We compiled data on 332,557 deadwood‐inhabiting beetles of 901 species reared from wood of 49 tree species across Europe. Using host‐phylogeny‐controlled models, we show that the relative importance of substrate energy versus ambient energy decreases with increasing trophic levels: the diversity of zoophagous and mycetophagous beetles was determined by ambient energy, while non‐structural carbohydrate content in woody tissues determined that of xylophagous beetles. Our study thus overall supports the species‐energy hypothesis and specifies that the relative importance of ambient temperature increases with increasing trophic level with opposite effects for substrate energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topographic heterogeneity causes gradients in altitude, potential solar radiation and soil humidity on a range of scales from micro- to macro-habitat. These gradients are important determinants for the distribution of many organisms but have been largely neglected in studies of species associated with dead wood, a group of great conservation concern. In this study, we evaluated the effects of topography-related gradients (altitude, potential solar radiation and soil humidity) and habitat characteristics (bark cover, ground contact and dead wood volume) on saproxylic (wood-inhabiting) beetle assemblages. We sampled boreal saproxylic beetles hatching from 750 experimentally exposed spruce and birch logs in a regional scale field experiment including 10 landscapes and spanning gradients of altitude (range 85–510 m asl), potential solar radiation (based on slope and slope aspect and highest in equator-facing slopes, PADIR, range 0.24–0.71) and soil humidity (humidity index, range 2.3–3.1). The logs were placed in north Swedish forests and clear-cuts and beetles were sampled with emergence traps the 4th summer after the logs were introduced. Saproxylic assemblage composition varied considerably in response to altitude, potential solar radiation and soil humidity. The response was evident in both forests and clear-cuts and for both birch and spruce logs. Species density and abundance responses differed among trophic groups. For birch logs, fungivore species density increased significantly with increased potential solar radiation. For spruce logs, altitude affected total species density and density of cambium consumers positively and abundance of fungivores negatively, suggesting a delay in succession due to slower decomposition at higher altitudes. In addition to the topography-related gradients, ground contact and bark cover of logs as well as the availability of dead wood in the vicinity influenced the beetle assemblages. Our results clearly show that topography-related gradients affect assemblage composition of saproxylic beetles. These factors should be considered in the management of saproxylic biodiversity. To ensure the safeguarding of intact saproxylic assemblages it is important that the full range of dead wood habitats is conserved. Topographic heterogeneity may provide opportunities for landscape scale survival in response to rapid climate change but there is also a risk that some niches will disappear. Some of the negative effects of climate change could be mitigated by allocating set asides and restoration efforts in areas where gradient in altitude, solar radiation and soil humidity are particularly well developed over short distances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In managed landscapes, conservation planning requires effective methods to identify high-biodiversity areas. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of airborne laser scanning (ALS) and forest estimates derived from satellite images extracted at two spatial scales for predicting the stand-scale abundance and species richness of birds and beetles in a managed boreal forest landscape. Multiple regression models based on forest data from a 50-m radius (i.e., corresponding to a homogenous forest stand) had better explanatory power than those based on a 200-m radius (i.e., including also parts of adjacent stands). Bird abundance and species richness were best explained by the ALS variables "maximum vegetation height" and "vegetation cover between 0.5 and 3 m" (both positive). Flying beetle abundance and species richness, as well as epigaeic (i.e., ground-living) beetle richness were best explained by a model including the ALS variable "maximum vegetation height" (positive) and the satellite-derived variable "proportion of pine" (negative). Epigaeic beetle abundance was best explained by "maximum vegetation height" at 50 m (positive) and "stem volume" at 200 m (positive). Our results show that forest estimates derived from satellite images and ALS data provide complementary information for explaining forest biodiversity patterns. We conclude that these types of remote sensing data may provide an efficient tool for conservation planning in managed boreal landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]