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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]

Plant phenotypes often differ in their resistance to natural enemies, but the mechanism for this has seldom been identified. The aim of this study was to determine if the spatial patterns of phenotype use of a highly specialized insect herbivore (the galling sawfly Pontania triandrae) in a natural willow population can be related to phenotypic variation in plant secondary chemistry. Furthermore, we tested if traits that confer resistance to one type of natural enemy, i.e. the galling sawfly, also confer resistance to others, in our case a leaf beetle Gonioctena linnaeana and the rust fungus Melampsora amygdalinae. We identified 18 phenotypes with high and 18 phenotypes with low gall density in our field population and determined gall densities, the degree of leaf damage and rust infection on each phenotype and collected leaves for chemical analyses. The concentration of phenolics was higher in phenotypes with high density of galls suggesting that this galling sawfly may use phenolics as oviposition cues. Rust infection showed the opposite pattern, with lower levels on clones with high concentration of phenolics, while leaf damage by G. linnaeana did not differ between clone types. This indicates that these important natural enemies may assert divergent selection on willow phenotypes and that this might provide a mechanism for maintaining phenotypic variation within willow populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensive forestry practises in the Swedish landscape have led to the loss and fragmentation of stable old-growth habitats. We investigated relationships between landscape composition at multiple scales and the composition of saproxylic beetle assemblages in nine clear-cut, mature managed and old-growth spruce-dominated forest stands in the central boreal zone of Sweden. We set out fresh spruce and birch logs and created spruce snags in 2001–2002 to experimentally test the effects of coarse woody debris (CWD) type and forest management on the composition of early and late successional, and red-listed saproxylic beetle assemblages. We examined effects of CWD availability at 100 m, and landscape composition at 1 and 10 km on saproxylic beetle abundances. Additionally, we tested whether assemblage similarity decreased with increasing distance between sites. We collected beetles from the experimental logs using eclector and window traps in four periods during 2003. CWD was measured and landscape composition data was obtained from maps of remotely sensed data. The composition of saproxylic beetles differed among different CWD substrates and between clear-cuts and the older stand types, however differences between mature managed and old-growth forests were significant only for red-listed species. Assemblage similarities for red-listed species on clear-cuts were more different at greater distances apart, indicating that they have more localised distributions. CWD availability within 100 m of the study sites was rarely important in determining the abundance of species, suggesting that early successional saproxylic beetles can disperse further than this distance. At a larger scale, a large area of suitable stand types within both 1 and 10 km resulted in greater abundances in the study sites for several common and habitat-specific species. The availability of suitable habitat at scales of 1–10 km is thus likely to be important in the survival of many saproxylic species in forestry-fragmented areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many species use coarse woody debris (CWD) and are disadvantaged by the forestry-induced loss of this resource. A neglected process affecting CWD is the covering of the surfaces of downed logs caused by sinking into the ground (increasing soil contact, mostly covering the underside of the log), and dense overgrowth by ground vegetation. Such cover is likely to profoundly influence the quality and accessibility of CWD for wood-inhabiting organisms, but the factors affecting covering are largely unknown. In a five-year experiment we determined predictors of covering rate of fresh logs in boreal forests and clear-cuts. Logs with branches were little covered because they had low longitudinal ground contact. For branchless logs, longitudinal ground contact was most strongly related to estimated peat depth (positive relation). The strongest predictor for total cover of branchless logs was longitudinal ground contact. To evaluate the effect on cover of factors other than longitudinal ground contact, we separately analyzed data from only those log sections that were in contact with the ground. Four factors were prominent predictors of percentage cover of such log sections: estimated peat depth, canopy shade (both increasing cover), potential solar radiation calculated from slope and slope aspect, and diameter of the log (both reducing cover). Peat increased cover directly through its low resistance, which allowed logs to sink and soil contact to increase. High moisture and low temperatures in pole-ward facing slopes and under a canopy favor peat formation through lowered decomposition and enhanced growth of peat-forming mosses, which also proved to rapidly overgrow logs. We found that in some boreal forests, peat and fast-growing mosses can rapidly cover logs lying on the ground. When actively introducing CWD for conservation purposes, we recommend that such rapid covering is avoided, thereby most likely improving the CWD's longevity as habitat for many species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]