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Research article2007Peer reviewed

Saproxylic beetles in artificially created high-stumps of spruce and birch within and outside hotspot areas

Lindbladh M, Abrahamsson M, Seedre M, Jonsell M

Abstract

Artificially created high-stumps (snags) are created regularly during forest felling operations in Swedish coniferous production forests. The saproxylic beetle fauna in high-stumps of spruce and birch, on 20 clearcuts in Southern Sweden, were sampled by bark sieving. Ten of the clearcuts were located in hotspot areas with documented occurrence of many red-listed saproxylic beetle species. The other ten clearcuts were located in a typical production forest landscape (i.e. the matrix). Our aim was to investigate whether the benefit of creating high-stumps differs if the clearcuts is located in a hotspot area or in the matrix. In total 4,179 saproxylic beetles were found, belonging to 66 species, 9 of which were red-listed. Birch high-stumps hosted more species, on average, than spruce high-stumps. In an ordination analysis, tree species had the strongest explanatory effect among the environmental variables. No difference in beetle fauna could be found between the hotspot and matrix clearcuts, for neither birch nor spruce, according to all parameters: species numbers, species composition and red-listed species. The study does not indicate that conservation efforts in coniferous production forests should be concentrated to hotspot areas

Published in

Biodiversity and Conservation
2007, Volume: 16, number: 11, pages: 3213-3226 Publisher: SPRINGER