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Forest protection against eastern spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clemens), relies on aerial applications of Bacillus thuringiensis (Btk). However, Btk prescriptions have been developed for balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) stands, generating uncertainty as to the relevance of this protection approach on white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss). The main goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of three Btk application treatments (early application, late application, and double application) for protecting white spruce and balsam fir in mixed stands. Our results show that all Btk treatments tested kept defoliation under the 50% threshold on balsam fir (27.7 to 38.1% less defoliation than in controls). In contrast, differences in defoliation among treatments were not significant for white spruce. Larval mortality was significantly lower on white spruce than on balsam fir. The low efficacy of Btk treatments on white spruce may be explained by its shoot phenology (most bud caps were still present during the early application), and its foliar chemistry, which could decrease Btk efficacy. Consequently, many larvae may survive simply because Btk spores do not reach them, or because they may consume sublethal doses. We recommend maintaining the current strategy in mixed stands, as it provides a good protection for balsam fir. Further research is needed to determine the causes of the low efficacy of Btk treatments on white spruce.

Knowledge on the diet of the Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus Swainson, 1832) is fragmentary and relies on a limited number of studies. Gaps remain in our understanding of the plasticity of its diet, particularly in the eastern part of its range. The main objective of this study was to assess the diet of Black-backed Woodpeckers in burned and unburned habitats and among sexes and ages in Québec. We collected feces and fecal bags from unburned and burned habitats in the Central Laurentians ecoregion of the eastern boreal shield ecozone, and assessed diets based on identified prey items. Buprestidae and Cerambycidae of the subfamily Lamiinae were predominant prey for adult Black-backed Woodpeckers in burned habitats, and the Pythidae Pytho niger (Kirby, 1837) and Lamiinae were the most prevalent prey in unburned habitats. Lamiinae were the most predominant prey items provisioned to nestling in burned habitat while P. niger was their predominant food in unburned habitat, followed by Cerambycidae (without Lamiinae) and Lamiinae. Our results present new insights into Black-backed Woodpecker diet where parents feed their offspring with the largest prey available, potentially providing higher fitness for their offspring. Furthermore, our study confirms that Black-backed Woodpeckers, at least in the eastern part of its range, are not restricted to feed on Lamiinae, but are rather opportunistic in taking advantage from resource-pulse interactions provided by recently disturbed habitats, especially from recently burned habitats

Annual estimates of defoliation are important tools for managing forest insect defoliators such as the hemlock looper, which feeds on conifer needles of all age classes. We tested the accuracy of defoliation classes obtained from aerial surveys by comparing them with ground-based estimates during a recent outbreak of this insect. We used an approach derived from the Fettes method to estimate defoliation on the current-year shoots as well as on the shoots of the four previous years. Defoliation on the current-year shoots provided accurate estimates of the overall defoliation and the strength of the relationship gradually decreasing for one-year-old to four-year-old foliage. The aerial survey provided accurate estimates of light and moderate defoliation during the first year of the outbreak, but accuracy was lower for both ends of the defoliation gradient and was much less reliable after the second year of the outbreak. All levels of defoliation were then observed in stands where defoliation had not been detected by an aerial survey. Cumulative defoliation on all age classes of foliage brings a new challenge to crews assigned to aerial survey programs. Ground-level defoliation estimates on the current-year shoots can help appraise the risk of tree mortality in the following year.

Increased demand for timber, the reduction in the available timber resources, and more frequent and severe forest fires under a changing climate have increased the use of salvage logging in North American forests despite concerns regarding impacts on biodiversity and long-term forest productivity. We aimed to complement previous approaches that used bird species richness or individual abundance in salvage-logged habitats to assess the sustainability of this practice. We looked for commonalities in the taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic components of bird assemblages among these three post-disturbance habitats across a broad geographic range. We compiled six North American datasets selected from primary and grey literature that documented species composition of avian assemblages in habitats after recent fire, post-fire salvage logging, and traditional logging. Our results revealed contrasting patterns of bird trait assemblage among burned, post-fire salvage, and traditionally logged habitats. In salvage-logged habitats, taxonomic diversity, functional diversity, and functional and phylogenetic redundancy were significantly lower than in both burned and traditionally logged habitats. The frequency of insectivores was significantly lower after salvage logging than after both fire and traditional logging. These findings suggest that cumulative disturbances have a negative effect on early assembly of bird communities. The outcomes of this study encourage further assessments, at landscape level, of salvage logging intensity, burn size, and fire severity on bird functional structure to better plan for their conservation.

Postfire salvage logging is used to reduce economic losses; however, burned trees are rapidly colonized by wood-boring insects, which reduce the merchantable value of the wood. This study aims to predict wood borer (Monochamus Megerle in Dejean, 1821) attacks after wildfire as a function of rapidly available variables such as tree basal area, stem diameter, and burn severity using the differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR). In 2011, we sampled 60 black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.) or jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) plots in five burns from 2010 in the Haute-Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada. A 50 cm bole section was debarked on seven trees in each plot to estimate wood borer attack density. Wood borer attacks were more abundant in black spruce than in jack pine. As a continuous variable, dNBR unveiled a quadratic effect of burn severity on attack density in black spruce, which was higher at moderate burn severity. In jack pine, the highest levels of attack density were found at high burn severity. Models produced in this article will help forest managers to better prioritize areas for salvage logging and thus reduce economic losses due to wood borer activity.

With current trends in global warming, it has been suggested that spruce budworm outbreaks may spread to northern parts of the boreal forest. However, the major constraints for a northward expansion are the availability of suitable host trees and the insect winter survival capacity. This study aimed to determine the effect of larval feeding on balsam fir, white spruce and black spruce on various spruce budworm life history traits of both the parental and the progeny generations. Results indicated that the weight of the overwintering larval progeny and their winter survival were influenced by host tree species on which larvae of the parental generation fed. White spruce was the most suitable host for the spruce budworm, producing the heaviest pupae and the heaviest overwintering larvae while black spruce was the least suitable, producing the smallest pupae and the smallest overwintering progeny. Overwintering larvae produced by parents that fed on black spruce also suffered higher winter mortality than individuals coming from parents that fed on balsam fir or white spruce. With current trends in global warming, spruce budworm is expected to expand its range to northern boreal forests where black spruce is the dominant tree species. Such northern range expansion might not result in outbreaks if low offspring winter survival on black spruce persist.

Despite an increasing number of studies highlighting the impacts of climate change on boreal species, the main factors that will drive changes in species assemblages remain ambiguous. We quantify two climate-induced pathways based on direct and indirect effects on species occupancy and assemblage dis-similarity under different harvest management scenarios. The direct climate effects illustrate the impact of climate variables while the indirect effects are reflected through the changes in land cover composition. To understand the main causes in assemblage dissimilarity, we analyze the regional and the latitudinal species assemblage dissimilarity by decomposing it into balanced variation in species occupancy and occurrence and occupancy and occurrence gradient. We develop empirical models to predict the distribution of more than 100 bird and beetle species in the Côte-Nord region of Québec over the next century. Our results show that the two pathways are complementary and alter biodiversity, mainly caused by balanced variation in species occupancy and occurrence. At the regional scale, both effects have an impact on decreasing the number of winning species. Yet, responses are much larger in magnitude under mixed climate effects (a mixture of direct and indirect effects). Regional assemblage dissimilarity reached 0.77 and 0.69 under mixed effects versus 0.09 and 0.10 under indirect effects for beetles and birds, respectively, between RCP8.5 and baseline climate scenarios when considering harvesting. Therefore, inclusion of climatic variables considers aspects other than just those related to forest landscapes, such as life cycles of animal species. Latitudinally, assemblage dissimilarity increased following the climate conditions pattern. Our analysis contributes to the understanding of how climate change alters biodiversity by reshaping community composition and highlights the importance of climate variables in biodiversity prediction.

Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-28T19:44:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-09-02 The amount of carbon stored in deadwood is equivalent to about 8 per cent of the global forest carbon stocks1. The decomposition of deadwood is largely governed by climate2–5 with decomposer groups—such as microorganisms and insects—contributing to variations in the decomposition rates2,6,7. At the global scale, the contribution of insects to the decomposition of deadwood and carbon release remains poorly understood7. Here we present a field experiment of wood decomposition across 55 forest sites and 6 continents. We find that the deadwood decomposition rates increase with temperature, and the strongest temperature effect is found at high precipitation levels. Precipitation affects the decomposition rates negatively at low temperatures and positively at high temperatures. As a net effect—including the direct consumption by insects and indirect effects through interactions with microorganisms—insects accelerate the decomposition in tropical forests (3.9% median mass loss per year). In temperate and boreal forests, we find weak positive and negative effects with a median mass loss of 0.9 per cent and −0.1 per cent per year, respectively. Furthermore, we apply the experimentally derived decomposition function to a global map of deadwood carbon synthesized from empirical and remote-sensing data, obtaining an estimate of 10.9 ± 3.2 petagram of carbon per year released from deadwood globally, with 93 per cent originating from tropical forests. Globally, the net effect of insects may account for 29 per cent of the carbon flux from deadwood, which suggests a functional importance of insects in the decomposition of deadwood and the carbon cycle. Ecosystem Dynamics and Forest Management Group School of Life Sciences Technical University of Munich Berchtesgaden National Park Epidemiology Biostatistics and Prevention Institute University of Zurich Southern Research Station USDA Forest Service Field Station Fabrikschleichach University of Würzburg Biological Sciences University of Toronto Scarborough Fenner School of Environment and Society The Australian National University Department of Biogeography University of Bayreuth Department of Disturbance Ecology University of Bayreuth Instituto de Ecología Regional CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Tucumán Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology University of Würzburg Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology Institute of Microbiology The Czech Academy of Sciences Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Centre of Mazandaran Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Universidade Federal de Lavras Department of Biodiversity Conservation Goethe-University Frankfurt Bavarian Forest National Park CIRAD UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane (EcoFoG) AgroParisTech CNRS INRA Universite des Antilles Universite de Guyane Environmental Change Institute University of Oxford Grassland Vegetation Lab Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management Norwegian University of Life Sciences Institute of Ecology and Botany Centre for Ecological Research Institute for Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences Animal Ecology University of Marburg École d’Ingénieurs de Purpan Université de Toulouse UMR 1201 Dynafor Ecosystem Science and Management Program University of Northern British Columbia Laboratory of Applied Ecology University of Abomey-Calavi Department of Ecology University of Granada Réserves Naturelles de France Royal Alberta Museum Conservation Ecology University of Marburg Science and Engineering Faculty Queensland University of Technology Centre for the Environment Institute for Future Environments Forest Research Institute Malaysia International Institute of Tropical Forestry USDA Forest Service Forest Entomology Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL Evolutionary Zoology University of Salzburg Natural Resources Canada Canadian Forest Service Eurofins Ahma Oy Department of Plant Systematics University of Bayreuth Department of Wildlife Fish and Environmental Studies Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Applied Landscape Ecology Chuo University School of Forest Sciences University of Eastern Finland School of Agricultural Forest and Food Sciences Bern University of Applied Sciences CAS Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia Kunming Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences ECNU-Alberta Joint Lab for Biodiversity Study Tiantong National Station for Forest Ecosystem Research East China Normal University Institute of Biological Sciences University of the Philippines Los Banos Department of Thermodynamics Universidad Nacional del Nordeste Tropical Forests and People Research Centre University of the Sunshine Coast Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Laboratory National University of Mongolia School of Environment and Science Griffith University School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences University College Cork Edge Hill University Institute of Forestry Tribhuvan University Institute of Evolution University of Haifa Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute) School of Forestry University of Canterbury Institute of Zoology University of Hamburg Faculté des Sciences Université d’Antananarivo Tropical Biodiversity and Social Enterprise Departamento de Ecologia Universidade Estadual Paulista Ecology Group University Erlangen-Nuremberg H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest Environmental and Conservation Sciences Murdoch University Environmental Futures Research Institute Griffith University Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment ARC Centre for Forest Value University of Tasmania Terrestrial Ecology Research Group School of Life Sciences Technical University of Munich EcoBank Team National Institute of Ecology College of Forestry Beijing Forestry University Departamento de Ecologia Universidade Estadual Paulista

Large-scale aerial spray operations against the spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana (Clemens)) (SBW) with the biological insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis ssp. kurstaki (Btk) aim at maintaining trees alive during outbreaks. This objective is thought to be achieved when ≥ 50% of current-year foliage is preserved until the end of the outbreak. This protection target is associated with low balsam fir (Abies balsamea [L.] Mill.) mortality. However, it is unknown whether this approach is always needed or whether less frequent interventions could provide similar results at a lower cost. Between 2010 and 2016, we conducted field experiments in Quebec’s Cote-Nord region to determine the efficacy of five different Btk spraying scenarios for protecting balsam fir, white spruce (Picea glauca [Moench] Voss) and black spruce (P. mariana [Mill.] BSP) in mixed stands. We used the residual photosynthetic capacity (RPC) to evaluate the efficacy of the five scenarios. RPC makes it possible to take into account the impact of SBW defoliation on foliage contribution to tree photosynthetic effort over several years, and can be used as a proxy of the risk of tree mortality. We hypothesized that less frequent Btk applications could maintain the required RPC level to keep trees alive. Our results show that areas not protected resulted in great losses of RPC in balsam fir and white spruce. Btk applications every 3 years kept RPC above 50% for 2 years in balsam fir and 4 years in white spruce. RPC losses were above 62% after 4 years in both species. The strategy currently employed in Quebec (spraying every year after a first year of moderate-severe defoliation) and the intensive protection scenario (Btk applications every year) meet the protection goals for these hosts. However, their cost prevents their application at a large scale. Btk applications every 2 years seems a relevant alternative to the current strategy to protect balsam fir and white spruce stands given the adequate level of protection provided (RPC above 39%) and the reduction in the number of Btk applications required (36% fewer applications over 7 years, resulting in 36% lower cost), particularly if the objective is to maintain trees alive. Black spruce maintained at least 54% of its RPC, even without protection. Btk applications every 3 years might be a valid alternative to reduce growth losses in black spruce-dominated stands. The use of different spraying scenarios may allow us to develop cost-efficient treatment strategies to protect Quebec’s forests.

Exotic insect species are an increasing concern with international trade. Detecting and removing any insect are thus important for any imported/exported product, including wood products. For example, wood transportation is known to be an important pathway for the introduction and dispersal of the Emerald Ash Borer, Agrilus planipennis (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). This Asian species is causing high mortality of ash trees in its introduced range because of the weak natural defense of trees and the virtual absence of natural enemies. For similar reasons, there are concerns in Europe that the Bronze Birch Borer, A. anxius, native to North America, could be introduced and cause important birch mortality. Having efficient detection methods and phytosanitary measures to prevent introducing it is thus important. In this study, we evaluated tomodensitometry—or CT-scan—as a detection method for detecting these two Agrilus spp. using debarking as the method of reference. Using CT-scan, we were also able to precisely measure the depth of insects in ash and birch trees in order to recommend proper phytosanitary measures for exportation and importation of wood products. Both techniques efficiently detect the presence of insects in ash, paper birch, and yellow birch. However, the number of A. anxius detected depended on both the technique and the diameter of the sample. The depth of insects depended on tree species, sample diameter, and life-stage. Globally, A. planipennis are deeper in ash trees than A. anxius in birch trees, and prepupae are deeper than larvae. The maximal depth in the sapwood (excluding bark thickness) for ash, paper birch, and yellow birch was 21.9 mm, 6.30 mm, and 3.22 mm, respectively. While CT-scan is more expensive and requires access to expensive equipment, debarking is more time-consuming, especially if the number of insects needs to be determined.

This is the second article of a series of three where we develop temperature-driven models to describe the seasonal interactions between parasitoids and their hosts which we use to explore the impact of climate on their spatiotemporal biology. Here, we model the biology of Meteorus trachynotus (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) with an individual-based model of its daily interactions with two host species. This model predicts the performance of the parasitoid in response to temperature affecting its seasonal development and that of the two hosts. We compare model output with an extensive set of field observations from natural host populations. The predicted activity of the first adult parasitoid generation closely matches the seasonal pattern of attack on the spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) within the limitations of available data. The model predicts 1–4 full generations of M. trachynotus per year in eastern North America, with generations well synchronized with larvae of a known overwintering host, the obliquebanded leafroller Choristoneura rosaceana. The model predicts the observed density dependence of parasitism on spruce budworm. Predicted performance exhibits spatial variation caused by complex life-history interactions, especially synchrony with the overwintering host. This leads to a better performance in warm but not hot environments at middle latitudes and elevations. The model’s predicted spatial patterns correspond closely to our field observations on the frequency of parasitism on spruce budworm. Under climate change, the model predicts that the performance of M. trachynotus populations will improve in the northern portion of its range.

Separating the influence of climate and habitat characteristics on forest communities could help better understand their potential sensitivity to environmental change. In this study, we sampled spiders and beetles in similar forest types, located along a ca. 4°C mean annual temperature spatial gradient in the boreal forest zone in Quebec, Canada. Specifically, we aimed to separate the effect on arthropod communities of two habitat-related factors that can be influenced by forest management (stand composition and stand age), and another one that cannot (climate). Overall, spider assemblages tended to be more abundant and species-rich in younger forest stands, while beetle assemblages were more abundant and species-rich in deciduous forest stands. Eight beetle and six spider species were significantly influenced by climate, independently from forest type, whereas 11 beetle and seven spider species were significantly influenced by both forest type and climate. While most of the beetle species affected by climate were associated with warmer locations, several spider species were more abundant in colder locations. By helping to ensure the retention of key forest types along potential dispersal pathways at the landscape level, forest management activities could help the conservation of species belonging to relatively cryptic taxa such as arthropods in a climate change context.

Standing deadwood is an important attribute of old-growth boreal forests and it provides essential microhabitats for deadwood-associated species. In managed boreal forests, short rotations tend to limit the amount and diversity of standing deadwood. This study evaluates if the anthropogenic supply of deadwood attributes through tree girdling or by providing nest boxes may favor deadwood-associated species. We studied the short-term response of saproxylic beetles, foraging woodpeckers, and secondary cavity users to snag and cavity supply in 50 to 70-year-old black spruce stands. In spring 2015, we girdled 8000 black spruce according to two spatial distributions (uniform and clustered), and we also installed 450 nest boxes of six different sizes at three distances from the forest edge. Using trunk window traps, we captured significantly more beetles in sites with girdled trees than in control sites in both 2015 and 2016. We also recorded a trend of a greater abundance of beetles in clusters of girdled trees than within uniformly distributed girdled trees. Trypodendron lineatum (Oliver) dominated beetle assemblages, representing 88.5% of all species in 2015 and 74.6% in 2016. The number of beetles captured was 7&times, higher in 2015 than in 2016. In contrast, we observed greater amounts of woodpecker foraging marks in fall 2016 than in either fall 2015 or spring 2016. Woodpeckers foraged significantly more in clusters of girdled trees than within uniformly distributed girdled trees. Woodpeckers&rsquo, foraging mark presence was positively associated with the proportion of recent cuts at 1 km around the study sites. Five Boreal Chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus Forster) pairs used nest boxes and occupied smaller box sizes that were located away from the forest edge. Our study showed that structural enrichment can be effective in rapidly attracting deadwood-associated species within managed forest stands.

Sexes of adult Cerambycidae (Coleoptera) are usually discriminated by the greater length of male antennae. However, in Spondylidinae, adult antennae are short and the difference between sexes is negligible and difficult to appraise. Only two species belong to this subfamily in North America, one of these being Neospondylis upiformis (Mannerheim), a species rarely caught in eastern North America. Unexpectedly, we collected numerous specimens of Neospondylis upiformis on Anticosti Island, Quebec, which appears as a hotspot for this species in eastern Canada. We show that sexual dimorphism in the mandible shape of N. upiformis (Mannerheim) can be used to discriminate sexes. Females have robust mandibles with a sharp cutting inner edge while males have thin mandibles and a well-rounded inner edge. There was no overlap between sexes in all measures done on mandibles, showing that mandible shape was a reliable criterion for sexing N. upiformis. We also tested previously reported criteria using antennae, as well as other characteristics such as body size, and show that they can hardly discriminate between sexes in N. upiformis. We also present illustrations of male and female genitalia, which is rarely available for Cerambycidae.

Eastern white pine forests of La Mauricie National Park of Canada have been severely affected by logging and forest fire suppression since the 1850s, and by the exotic white pine blister rust since the beginning of the twentieth century. These alterations have changed the ecological trajectory of eastern white pine ecosystems, which now appear hardly sustainable. Eastern white pine saplings are nearly absent, and balsam fir saplings are strong competitors for space and light. Since 1991, Parks Canada uses prescribed burning for restoring eastern white pine ecosystems. We studied seven pine stands in which prescribed burning was applied and compared them with nine unburned stands. Over 63% of balsam fir saplings were killed by prescribed burning, thus eliminating a significant part of the competition to eastern white pine seedlings. These were four times more abundant in burned than in unburned sites (21,333 vs. 5178 seedlings/ha). In the short term, the eastern white pine regeneration objectives established by Parks Canada have been achieved. Pine seedlings growth is slow, and they should be monitored regularly to ensure long-term success of this restoration programme. If necessary, it might be helpful to increase light penetration by girdling mature balsam firs or spruces.

Fire-killed timber is considered as a loss of potential revenues and is thus increasingly salvaged, though not without concerns for biodiversity conservation. Indeed, a large diversity of burn-associated saproxylic beetles use recently burned trees. This study intends to reduce potential impacts of salvage logging on biodiversity by identifying high conservation value forests (HCVFs) for burn-associated beetles, which are considered the most at risk. In five burns ignited naturally in 2010 in the eastern Canadian boreal forest, we selected 31 and 29 stands of black spruce and jack pine respectively. Three 50-cm bole segments were retrieved from each stand and placed in emergence cages to measure tree utilisation by saproxylic beetles. This yielded 7235 beetles from 103 taxa, of which 67 were considered rare ( 5% occurrence in logs). Among the common taxa, we identified six groups of ecologically related species using co-occurrence-based hierarchical clustering, among which three were mainly formed by opportunistic species that are currently of little concern in a post-fire logging context. The three other groups were formed by burn-associated species that could be affected by salvage logging. HCVFs include jack pine stands and large trees of either tree species of low- to mid-range burn severity. We also recommend retaining the periphery of burned stands, as ecotones are rich habitats used by several burn-associated species that are found in low numbers in green forests but they benefit from burned habitats by increasing their populations significantly.

Forest fragmentation by management activities has been implicated in the decline of forest biodiversity. Even though boreal ecosystems are generally deemed quite resilient to disturbance effects, high contemporary levels of disturbance might push forest-interior species toward decline or extinction. In this study, we examined beetle communities in forest patches of different sizes, including clearcuts, residual postharvest patches from 0.03 to 50 ha in size, and large mature forest tracts (>1000 ha). Overall, community structure follows a gradient between clearcuts and large mature forest tracts, even if patch size effects were more difficult to detect among patches >2.5 ha. Beetles were most abundant in clearcuts, and species richness was highest in small tree groups (0.03–0.05 ha). The effects of fragmentation were strongly conditioned by beetle feeding habits. Predators and xylophagous beetles were mostly associated with clearcuts or smaller patches (i.e., small tree groups or large tree groups [0.3–0.5 ha]), whereas fungivorous beetles were associated with forest-interior habitats. Although many forest-interior species were still present in relatively small patches 1–5 years after harvesting, negative effects of habitat fragmentation on these species might increase in the long-term.

This study aimed to characterize the vertical distribution of longhorned beetle larvae in burned trees of the eastern Canadian boreal forest. Black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.) and jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) trees burned at three severity levels were cut, and 30 cm boles were collected from the ground up to a height of 9.45 m. Boles were debarked and dissected to collect insect larvae. Results show that the three most abundant longhorned beetle species were vertically segregated among burned jack pine and black spruce trees, but the section having the highest timber value was heavily infested by woodborer larvae. Larval density distribution of Monochamus scutellatus scutellatus (Say) and of Acmaeops proteus proteus (Kirby) could be linked with bark thickness, which also depends on fire severity. Lightly burned stands of black spruce were the most heavily infested and should be salvaged only if they are easily accessible and can thus be rapidly harvested and processed at the mill. More severely burned stands should be salvaged later as they will be less affected by woodborers, as should jack pine, which is lightly infested compared with black spruce. The ecological role of stumps should be further investigated because they could still have an ecological value after salvage logging as Arhopalus foveicollis (Haldeman) uses them specifically.

The balsam twig aphid, Mindarus abietinus Koch (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is one of the most important pests of balsam fir (Abies balsamea (Linnaeus) Miller; Pinaceae) grown as Christmas trees in eastern North America. Aphid feeding on the current-year shoots results in needle distortion and shoots stunting, which reduces the aesthetic value of balsam fir trees and can have substantial economic impact. Syrphidae (Diptera) fly predators attacking this aphid are poorly known. We identified four species attacking the balsam twig aphid. Syrphus torvus Osten Sacken (Diptera: Syrphidae) was the most abundant species followed by Eupeodes lapponicus (Zetterstedt) (Diptera: Syrphidae) and Eupeodes americanus (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Syrphidae). We described the seasonal natural history of the two most abundant syrphids feeding on this aphid and we studied their synchrony with their prey. Syrphid larval density on balsam fir shoots increased rapidly and closely followed density of the balsam twig aphid. We also reported heavy parasitism of syrphid pupae by two Hymenoptera on tree foliage but lower parasitism on pupae in the soil under trees. Several cases of multiple parasitism and hyperparasitism were observed in syrphid pupae under trees. Abundance of predaceous syrphid species was higher in untreated balsam fir plantations compared with treated plantations. More research is needed to understand the role and the impact of these predators on balsam twig aphid population dynamics.

Natural disturbances are fundamental to forest ecosystem dynamics and have been used for two decades to improve forest management, notably in the boreal forest. Initially based on fire regimes, there is now a need to extend the concept to include other types of disturbances as they can greatly contribute to forest dynamics in some regions of the boreal zone. Here we review the main descriptors—that is, the severity, specificity, spatial and temporal descriptors and legacies, of windthrow and spruce bud worm outbreak disturbance regimes in boreal forests—in order to facilitate incorporating them into a natural disturbance-based forest management framework. We also describe the biological legacies that are generated by these disturbances. Temporal and spatial descriptors characterising both disturbance types are generally variable in time and space. This makes them difficult to reproduce in an ecosystem management framework. However, severity and specificity descriptors may provide a template upon which policies for maintaining post harvesting and salvage logging biological legacies can be based. In a context in which management mainly targets mature and old-growth stages, integrating insect and wind disturbances in a management framework is an important goal, as these disturbances contribute to creating heterogeneity in mature and old-growth forest characteristics.

During an inventory of insect diversity on Anticosti Island in 1993, we caught unprecedented numbers of Neospondylisupiformis (Mannerheim), a longhorned beetle rarely observed in eastern North America. All specimens were caught using 12-funnel Lindgren traps baited with 95% ethanol and α-pinene. This longhorned beetle was captured again in 2007 on Anticosti with the same traps. Other than that, seven specimens of N.upiformis were caught elsewhere in Quebec between 1993 and 2015. Only 14 specimens were found in the 45 most important insect collections of the province, the most recent specimen dating back to 1964. At least 90% of the captures came from old-growth balsam fir stands of the south-central part of the island. Seasonal flight activity ranged from early June to late July, but adult captures peaked in early July. Results suggest that Anticosti Island might be a hot spot for N.upiformis in eastern North America, particularly in its south-central part where old-growth balsam fir forests still exist.

International audience; Species assemblages can result from deterministic processes, such as niche differentiationand interspecific interactions, and from stochastic processes, such as random colonisationand extinction events. Although changes in animal communities following disturbanceshave been widely examined, few studies have investigated the mechanisms structuringcommunities during ecological succession. We assessed the impact of logging on smallmammal and beetle assemblages in landscapes dominated by old-growth boreal forests.Our objectives were to 1) characterize variations in communities during the first 66 years ofpost-harvest forest succession, 2) determine if there are non-random patterns of speciesco-occurrence (i.e., deterministic processes), and if there are, 3) establish whether non-randomco-occurrences are best explained by habitat attributes or by interspecific interactions.We captured small mammals and beetles along a gradient of forest succession (5±66years) and in old-growth forest, and characterized key vegetation attributes. First, we testedwhether community compositions in clear-cut stands became similar to those in naturalstands after 66 years. We then used null models, which were either unconstrained or constrainedby habitat attributes, to address the last two objectives and distinguish effects ofvegetation attributes from interspecific interactions on community assembly. We showedthat beetle assemblages differed in stands 21±30 years post-harvest compared to oldgrowthforests. In contrast, harvesting did not influence the composition of small mammalcommunities. Overall, our results suggest that community assembly during forest successionis driven by both stochastic and deterministic processes, the latter being linked to interspecificinteractions more strongly than to vegetation attributes.

Logging to "salvage" economic returns from forests affected by natural disturbances has become increasingly prevalent globally. Despite potential negative effects on biodiversity, salvage logging is often conducted, even in areas otherwise excluded from logging and reserved for nature conservation, inter alia because strategic priorities for post-disturbance management are widely lacking.A review of the existing literature revealed that most studies investigating the effects of salvage logging on biodiversity have been conducted less than 5 years following natural disturbances, and focused on non-saproxylic organisms.A meta-analysis across 24 species groups revealed that salvage logging significantly decreases numbers of species of eight taxonomic groups. Richness of dead wood dependent taxa (i.e. saproxylic organisms) decreased more strongly than richness of non-saproxylic taxa. In contrast, taxonomic groups typically associated with open habitats increased in the number of species after salvage logging.By analysing 134 original species abundance matrices, we demonstrate that salvage logging significantly alters community composition in 7 of 17 species groups, particularly affecting saproxylic assemblages.Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that salvage logging is not consistent with the management objectives of protected areas. Substantial changes, such as the retention of dead wood in naturally disturbed forests, are needed to support biodiversity. Future research should investigate the amount and spatio-temporal distribution of retained dead wood needed to maintain all components of biodiversity.

There are concerns that deadwood supply (both snags and downed wood) may become a limiting resource for biodiversity conservation as the bio-economy develops. Despite this concern, it remains difficult to monitor all elements of biodiversity to ensure that forest management activities are not reducing deadwood below minimum thresholds. As a dynamic resource, deadwood quantity and quality does change throughout forest succession. Simulation modelling represents one approach to integrating this variability and supporting the refinement of forest management guidelines. In this paper, we review important considerations for developing deadwood models that address biodiversity concerns. These include defining initial conditions, estimating deadwood inputs over time, identifying parameters necessary to represent biodiversity, identifying data available to parameterize, calibrate and validate models, and identifying requirements for model validation and documentation. In addition, we consider how deadwood characteristics such as form, size, state of decay, tree species, cause of mortality and position can be treated in models to represent the full range of biodiversity requirements. Lastly, we review examples of stand-alone and study-specific deadwood modelling approaches to provide a road map for development of a robust, temporally dynamic deadwood model that addresses biodiversity and sustainability issues related to biomass harvest for bioenergy.

Dead wood decomposition begins immediately after tree death and involves a large array of invertebrates. Ecological successions are still poorly known for saproxylic organisms, particularly in boreal forests. We investigated the use of dead wood as nesting sites for ants along a 60-yr postfire chronosequence in northeastern coniferous forests. We sampled a total of 1,625 pieces of dead wood, in which 263 ant nests were found. Overall, ant abundance increased during the first 30 yr after wildfire, and then declined. Leptothorax cf. canadensis Provancher, the most abundant species in our study, was absent during the first 2 yr postfire, but increased steadily until 30 yr after fire, whereas Myrmica alaskensis Wheeler, second in abundance, was found at all stages of succession in the chronosequence. Six other species were less frequently found, among which Camponotus herculeanus (Linné), Formica neorufibarbis Emery, and Formica aserva Forel were locally abundant, but more scarcely distributed. Dead wood lying on the ground and showing numerous woodborer holes had a higher probability of being colonized by ants. The C:N ratio was lower for dead wood colonized by ants than for noncolonized dead wood, showing that the continuous occupation of dead wood by ants influences the carbon and nitrogen dynamics of dead wood after wildfire in northern boreal forests.

The ecology and management of boreal forest ecosystems are drawing greater attention worldwide as their importance is being increasingly recognized for carbon sequestration or for harbouring the world’s largest remaining intact forests. Selection cuts have been introduced as a more socially acceptable silvicultural method to improve the maintenance of habitat structure and functions as they mimic aspects of boreal forest succession dynamics. Many studies have shown that selection cutting helps maintaining arthropod communities in mature forests, but few have examined the increased risks of damage by bark- and wood-boring insects in boreal forests of eastern North America. We used multidirectional flight-interception traps to quantify the response of these beetles to 25 and 40% selection cutting in a balsam fir–white birch forest of Qu� Canada. The abundance and species number of both cerambycid and scolytid beetles were 5–6 times larger in selectively cut stands than in controls the year following treatments. Analyses revealed that bark- and woodboring beetles’ response was mostly associated with increased canopy openness in selectively cut stands (and sun-exposed locations within them) and residual tree injuries caused by harvesting operations. These conditions attracted beetles such as Trypodendron lineatum (Scolytinae) and Rhagium inquisitor (Cerambycidae), two species known for their ability to attack weakened, dying and dead hosts. Most species were more abundant in selection cuts, except for Evodinus m. monticola (Cerambycidae) whose abundance was strongly reduced after treatment. Some beetles can have detrimental effects on residual trees and thus could reduce timber value, but most species found in treated stands do not represent a high risk for healthy trees. Thus, selection cuts do not seem favourable to the establishment of tree-killing beetles. However, as they were found more active/ abundant after selection cutting, it would be wise to further study their population dynamics over mid- and long-term periods, along with the ecological and economic implications associated with this silvicultural treatment.

Producing closed-cell foams is generally cheaper and simpler than open-cell foams. However, the acoustic and filtration efficiency of closed-cell foam materials is generally poor because it is very difficult for fluid or acoustic waves to penetrate into the material. A new method using shock waves to remove the membranes closing the cell pores (known as reticulation) and thus to improve the acoustic and filtration behavior of closed-cell foam material is presented. Various shock treatments have been carried out on polyurethane and polyimide foams and the following conclusions were drawn: (1) reticulation efficiency increased and thus the airflow resistivity and tortuosity decreased when increasing the amplitude of the shock treatment; (2) the rigidity of the foam is decreased; (3) the process is reliable and repeatable and (4) obtained acoustic performance is comparable to classical thermal reticulation.

Indicator species have been used successfully for estimating ecosystem integrity, but comparative studies for defining optimal taxonomic group remain scarce. Furthermore, species combinations may constitute more integrative tools than single species indicators, but case studies are needed to test their efficiency. We used Indicator Species Analysis, which statistically determines the association of species to one or several groups of sites, to obtain indicators of ecosystem recovery after various deer density reductions. We used five taxonomic groups: plants, carabid beetles, bees, moths and songbirds. To test whether species combinations could complement single indicator species, we used plants as a model taxon and examined the indicator value of joint occurrence of two or three plant species. Our study relies on experimental controlled browsing enclosures established for six years on Anticosti Island (Quebec). Four levels of deer density (0, 7.5 and 15 deer km−2 and natural densities between 27 and 56 deer km−2) were studied in two vegetation cover types (uncut forests and cut-over areas), in a full factorial design for a total of eight experimental treatments. For all taxa but bees, we tested 54 treatment groups consisting in one specific density or in a sequence of two or more consecutive deer densities in one or both cover types (ten groups for bees, sampled only in cut-over areas). We found 12 plants, 11 moths and one songbird to be single species indicators of ecosystem conditions obtained under 12 different treatment groups. Six treatment groups were indicated by plants and six different ones by moths, of which one group was also identified by a songbird species. Moths were thus worth the extra sampling effort, especially since the groups they indicated were more treatment-specific (mainly one or two deer density treatments). We tested the same 54 treatment groups for plant species combinations represented by two or three co-occurring species. Plant combinations efficiently complemented plant singletons for detecting ecosystem conditions obtained under various deer densities. In fact, although singletons were highly predictive, 17 additional treatment groups were identified exclusively with two- and three-species combinations, some being more treatment-specific. Our findings show that plants and moths provide complementary indicators of ecosystem conditions under various deer densities, and that computing species combinations increases our capacity to monitor ecosystem recovery after reducing herbivore densities. Funding was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)-Produits forestiers Anticosti Industrial Chair to SDC, the Ministère des Ressources Naturelles et de la Faune du Québec, the Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada and an NSERC scholarship to MB and NSERC DG to MP and SP. We are grateful to the Centre de la Science de la Biodiversité du Québec and Centre d’études nordiques for scholarships.

Spruce budworm outbreaks represent the most important natural disturbance in the boreal balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) forest of Canada, killing trees over wide areas and thus generating large amounts of dead wood. This disturbance is part of the dynamic processes occurring within balsam fir forests, and its effects on biodiversity need to be understood in order to move closer towards sustainable forest management. We described stand structure and used beetles as biodiversity indicators to compare the ecological value of salvaged stands, managed afterwards with three different silvicultural treatments, with unsalvaged stands, 20 years after the last spruce budworm outbreak. Our experimental design involved five replicated stands of each of the four disturbance types for a total of 20 stands. A total of 3124 Coleoptera belonging to 47 families and 269 taxa were captured over 3 months of sampling. Results showed that habitat attributes still differed 20 years after a spruce budworm outbreak between unsalvaged and treated salvaged stands, such as more abundant and diverse dead wood in unsalvaged stands. Salvage logging and silvicultural treatments led to different beetle communities than in unsalvaged stands, even though abundance and richness did not change significantly. Most indicator species identified were saproxylic and associated with unsalvaged stands, suggesting salvage logging generated the largest changes to the original ecosystem while additional effects of the silvicultural treatments were less pronounced. This may result from the 67% reduction in downed dead wood volumes (e.g., 138 m3/ha in unsalvaged stands vs 46 m3/ha in managed stands). Even if this volume of dead wood is still relatively high, it is less diverse than in unsalvaged stands and includes almost no recent dead wood. Salvage logging affected saproxylic beetle communities, suggesting that the retention of naturally disturbed stands may help in implementing ecosystem management in boreal balsam fir forest and move closer towards sustainable management.

We present a novel intradermal needle-free drug delivery device which exploits the unsteady high-speed flow produced by a miniature shock tube to entrain drug or vaccine particles onto a skin target. A first clinical study of pain and physiological response of human subjects study is presented, comparing the new injector to intramuscular needle injection. This clinical study, performed according to established pain assessment protocols, demonstrated that every single subject felt noticeably less pain with the needle-free injector than with the needle injection. Regarding local tolerance and skin reaction, bleeding was observed on all volunteers after needle injection, but on none of the subjects following powder injection. An assessment of the pharmacodynamics, via blood pressure, of pure captopril powder using the new device on spontaneously hypertensive rats was also performed. It was found that every animal tested with the needle-free injector exhibited the expected pharmacodynamic response following captopril injection. Finally, the new injector was used to study the delivery of an inactivated influenza vaccine in mice. The needle-free device induced serum antibody response to the influenza vaccine that was comparable to that of subcutaneous needle injection, but without requiring the use of an adjuvant. Although no effort was made to optimize the formulation or the injection parameters in the present study, the novel injector demonstrates great promise for the rapid, safe and painless intradermal delivery of systemic drugs and vaccines.

Hemlock looper, Lambdina fiscellaria (Guenee) (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), is one of the most important defoliator in North American forests. The common egg parasitoid Telenomus coloradensis Crawford (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) plays a significant role as a natural control agent, with parasitism levels in spring typically higher than in fall. The objectives of this study were to quantify changes in host acceptance and reproductive performance of the parasitoid in relation to (1) host egg fertilization in fall, (2) host diapause status, (3) host embryonic development in spring, and (4) host deprivation during summer. Our results indicate that T. coloradensis do not have the capacity to develop in unfertilized host eggs, whereas early-diapausing eggs are more suitable for the parasitoid than post-diapausing eggs. Furthermore, the host physiological suitability decreases with embryonic development in spring. Finally, a host deprivation period during the summer tends to negatively affect the parasitic activity of T. coloradensis. These laboratory results confirm previous hypotheses concerning T. coloradensis seasonal ecology and contribute to a better understanding of the effect of hemlock looper egg physiology and availability on the reproductive potential of T. coloradensis.

A fully instrumented microscale shock tube, believed to be the smallest to date, has been fabricated and tested. This facility is used to study the transmission of a shock wave, produced in a large (37 mm) shock tube, into a 34 $\mathrm{\mu} \mathrm{m} $ hydraulic diameter and 2 mm long microchannel. Pressure microsensors of a novel design, with gigahertz bandwidth, are used to obtain pressure–time histories of the microchannel shock wave at five axial stations. In all cases the transmitted shock wave is found to be weaker than the incident shock wave, and is observed to decay both in pressure and velocity as it propagates down the microchannel. These results are compared with various analytical and numerical models, and the best agreement is obtained with a Navier–Stokes computational fluid dynamics computation, which assumes a no-slip isothermal wall boundary condition; good agreement is also obtained with a simple shock tube laminar boundary layer model. It is also found that the flow developing within the microchannel is highly dependent on conditions at the microchannel entrance, which control the mass flux entering into the device. Regardless of the micrometre dimensions of the present facility, shock wave propagation in a microchannel of that scale exhibits a behaviour similar to that observed in large-scale facilities operated at low pressures, and the shock attenuation can be explained in terms of accepted laminar boundary models.

Browsing by overabundant deer modifies plant communities and alters forest regeneration, which can indirectly impact associated insect fauna. We tested the hypothesis that the response of insect communities to changes in deer abundance should depend on the strength of their association with plants, which we considered as a key functional trait. Seven years after a deer density control experiment was established in partly harvested forests on Anticosti Island (Quebec, Canada), we evaluated the effects of reducing white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) density from >20 down to 15, 7.5 and 0 deer km−2, on four insect taxa representing different levels of dependence on plants. As predicted by our hypothesis, the sensitivity of insect taxa to deer density decreased along a gradient representing their degree of association with plants. Carabidae remained unaffected, while Apoidea and Syrphidae communities differed between uncontrolled and reduced deer densities, but not as clearly as for Lepidoptera. As expected, insect communities responded faster in harvested than in forested areas because vegetation changes more rapidly in open habitats. For most insect taxa, dominant species were the most strongly affected by deer density reduction, but it was clearly stronger for predator taxa (Syrphidae and Carabidae). A fast recovery of rare species was observed for macro Lepidoptera. Reducing deer density down to 15 deer km−2 is sufficient to restore insect diversity on Anticosti Island, but it is unlikely to be efficient in all situations, particularly when competing tree regeneration is firmly established.

Early postfire habitats harbour numerous saproxylic species. Some are opportunistic feeders, while others are closely associated with burned forests. This distinction is important for developing sound postfire forest management aimed at conserving biodiversity, as concerns should be mostly directed towards burn-associated saproxylic beetles rather than opportunistic species. Here, we examine species-habitat associations, temporal dynamics, and community structure of saproxylic beetles in black spruce and jack pine stands disturbed by wildfire and by a “non-fire” disturbance generated by girdling trees to mimic the small-scale gap dynamics characterizing old-growth boreal forests in Canada. We used flightinterception traps and reared logs to compare abundance, species richness, and species composition of saproxylic beetles among treatments. We found that over 30% of saproxylic beetles had an affinity with jack pine or black spruce affected by either fire or girdling. Assemblages consistently diff...

Fire-generated mosaics of habitat legacies such as dead and dying trees are key structural components in boreal forest ecosystems that support diverse saproxylic beetles. Our study sought to elucidate the spatial pattern of community composition (beta diversity) of saproxylic beetles along gradients of post-fire habitat legacies (tree species composition, tree size [dbh], and burn severities) and geographical distance. For 2 y, we reared saproxylic beetles from 360 logs retrieved from 72 sites in burned forests. Tests were performed to explain the overall beta diversity (βsor) by partitioning it into its 2 components: the “species spatial turnover” due to species replacement (βsim) and the “richness-driven” beta diversity due to species richness differences (βrich)- Variations in tree species, tree size, and burn severity had significant effects on overall beta diversity (βsor) of saproxylic beetles; these effects varied according to the differential influence of these factors on the 2 distinct ...

We describe seasonal patterns of parasitism by Telenomus coloradensis Crawford, Telenomus droozi Muesebeck, Telenomus flavotibiae Pelletier (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae), and Trichogramma spp. (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae), egg parasitoids of the hemlock looper, Lambdina fiscellaria (Guenee) (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), after a 3-yr survey of defoliated stands in the lower St. Lawrence region (Quebec, Canada). Results from sentinel trap sampling indicate that T. coloradensis and T. droozi are the most common species, whereas parasitism by T. flavotibiae and Trichogramma spp. is rare. Telenomus coloradensis and T. droozi show similar seasonal periods of parasitism, both species being active in early spring (late April) at temperatures as low as 4°C. Using thermal threshold (T0) and thermal constant (K) for immature development of T. coloradensis males and females from egg to adult emergence, we estimated that the spring progeny emerges in the middle of the summer while hemlock looper eggs are absen...

With the intensification of human activities, preserving animal populations is a contemporary challenge of critical importance. In this context, the umbrella species concept is appealing because preserving a single species should result in the protection of multiple co-occurring species. Practitioners, though, face the task of having to find suitable umbrellas to develop single-species management guidelines. In North America, boreal forests must be managed to facilitate the recovery of the threatened boreal caribou (Rangifer tarandus). Yet, the effect of caribou conservation on co-occurring animal species remains poorly documented. We tested if boreal caribou can constitute an effective umbrella for boreal fauna. Birds, small mammals, and insects were sampled along gradients of post-harvest and post-fire forest succession. Predictive models of occupancy were developed from the responses of 95 species to characteristics of forest stands and their surroundings. We then assessed the similarity of species occupancy expected between simulated harvested landscapes and a 90 000-km2 uncut landscape. Managed landscapes were simulated based on three levels of disturbance, two timber-harvest rotation cycles, and dispersed or aggregated cut-blocks. We found that management guidelines that were more likely to maintain caribou populations should also better preserve animal assemblages. Relative to fragmentation or harvest cycle, we detected a stronger effect of habitat loss on species assemblages. Disturbing 22%, 35%, and 45% of the landscape should result, respectively, in 80%, 60%, and 40% probability for caribou populations to be sustainable; in turn, this should result in regional species assemblages with Jaccard similarity indices of 0.86, 0.79, and 0.74, respectively, relative to the uncut landscape. Our study thus demonstrates the value of single-species management for animal conservation. Our quantitative approach allows for the evaluation of management guidelines prior to implementation, thereby providing a tool for establishing suitable compromises between economic and environmental sustainability of human activities.

It is often suggested that habitat attributes and interspecific interactions can cause non-random species co-occurrence patterns, but quantifying their contributions can be difficult. Null models that systematically exclude and include habitat effects can give information on the contribution of these factors to community assembly. In the boreal forest, saproxylic beetles are known to be attracted to recently burned forests where they breed in dead and dying trees. We examined whether species co-occurrences of saproxylic beetles that develop in, and emerge from, boles of recently burned trees show non-random patterns. We also estimated the extent to which both the post-fire habitat attributes and interspecific interactions among beetles contribute to such patterns. We sampled tree boles encompassing key attributes (tree species, tree size/dbh and burn severity) that are thought to characterize species-habitat associations of saproxylic beetles, a proposition that we tested using indicator species analysis. Two null models with no habitat constraints ("unconstrained") indicated that a total of 29.4% of the species pairs tested had significant co-occurrence patterns. Habitat-constrained null models indicated that most of the detected species aggregations (72%) and segregations (59%) can be explained by shared and distinct species-habitat relationships, respectively. The assembly pattern was also driven by interspecific interactions, of which some were modulated by habitat; for example, predator and prey species tended to co-occur in large-sized trees (a proxy of available bark/wood food resource primarily for the prey). In addition, some species segregation suggesting antagonistic, competitive, or prey-predator interactions were evident after accounting for the species' affinities for the same tree species. Overall, our results suggest that an intimate link between habitat and interspecific interactions can have important roles for community assembly of saproxylic assemblages even following disturbance by fire. We also show that a systematic application of null models can offer insight into the mechanisms behind the assembly of ecological communities.