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Abstract

The habitat requirements and effects of forest management on insects belonging to higher trophic levels are relatively unknown in forest ecosystems. We tested the effect of forest successional stage and dead wood characteristics on the saproxylic parasitoid (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonoidea) assemblage in boreal spruce-dominated forests in northern Sweden. Within each of nine areas, we selected three sites with different management histories: (1) a clear-cut (2) a mature managed forest and (3) an old-growth forest. Parasitoids were collected in 2003 using eclector traps mounted on fresh logs, which were either untreated (control), burned, inoculated with fungi, or naturally shaded, and on artificially-created snags. Both forest type and dead wood characteristics had a significant effect on parasitoid assemblages. Grouped idiobionts and some species, such as Bracon obscurator and Ontsira antica, preferred clear-cuts, while others, such as Cosmophorus regius (Hym., Braconidae) and other koinobionts, were associated with older successional forest stages. No single dead wood substrate was sufficient to support the entire community of parasitoids in any forest type, even when the regular host was present. In particular, snags hosted a different assemblage of species from other types of dead wood, with parasitoids of Tetropium spp. such as Rhimphoctona spp. (Hym., Ichneumonidae) and Helconidea dentator (Hym., Braconidae) being abundant. These results indicate that a diversity of dead wood habitats is necessary to support complete assemblages of beetle-associated parasitoids from early successional stages of dead wood and that parasitoids may be more sensitive to habitat change than their hosts. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords

parasitoids; saproxylic Ichneumonoidea; boreal spruce forest; habitat requirements; forest management; dead wood characteristics

Published in

Biological Conservation
2005, volume: 126, number: 4, pages: 456-464

SLU Authors

  • Hilszczanski, Jacek

    • Department of Animal Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

  • Gibb, Heloise

    • Department of Animal Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

  • Hjältén, Joakim

    • Department of Animal Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

  • Alinvi, Ola

    • Department of Animal Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

  • Löfroth, Therese

    • Department of Animal Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

  • Ball, John

    • Department of Animal Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

  • Danell, Kjell

    • Department of Animal Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences and Nature Conservation

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2005.06.026

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/6118