☆ 4.7 Article

Influence of forest riparian vegetation on abundance and biomass of nocturnal flying insects

FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT (2008)

Journal

FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT

Volume 256, Issue 5, Pages 1124-1132

Publisher

ELSEVIER

DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2008.06.010

Keywords

forest management; insects; Pacific Northwest; riparian; vegetation composition

Funding

Cooperative Forest Ecosystem Research (CFER)
USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center (FRESC)
the US Forest Service
Simpson Timber Company
Weyerhaeuser Company

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Abstract

Despite widespread recognition of linkages between vegetation and insects, understanding of the ecological mechanisms underlying these relationships is limited. Better comprehension of relationships linking abundance and biomass of insects to vegetation would increase accuracy of predictions of the effects of forest management activities on insect communities. This knowledge could also be pivotal to understanding predator-prey dynamics linked to insect populations. We sampled nocturnal flying insects and measured vegetation characteristics in 34 stream reaches in conifer-dominated forests of the Oregon Coast Range in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. We considered five a priori hypotheses (resource quality, resource diversity, resource abundance, resource concentration, and stream cover hypotheses) that could explain mechanisms underlying associations between riparian vegetation and nocturnal flying insects, and used an information-theoretic approach to determine the relative strength of evidence for each. The resource quality hypothesis, which predicts that abundance and biomass of insects increases with cover of deciduous vegetation, explained substantial variation for nearly every order of insect investigated, whereas the remaining hypotheses explained relatively little. Abundance and biomass of insects had stronger associations with characteristics of canopy trees than with characteristics of shrub or understory trees, suggesting that deciduous trees are an important habitat element for nocturnal flying insects in these areas. Resource managers planning riparian vegetation management in conifer-dominated forests should be aware that manipulation of the cover of deciduous trees in riparian areas could have a large impact on these insects and their vertebrate predators. By providing information on forest canopy composition, remote sensing may offer a low-cost tool for identifying areas with high abundance and biomass of insects during conservation planning. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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An evidence-based review of the effectiveness of riparian buffers to maintain stream temperature and stream-associated amphibian populations in the Pacific Northwest of Canada and the United States

Douglas J. Martin, Andrew J. Kroll, Jenny L. Knoth

Summary: The systematic evidence review found substantial variability in temperature response to streamside buffers, with positive association between wider buffers and lower maximum temperature. However, there was overlap in effect sizes among different buffer types, and variation in temperature response may be influenced by multiple factors. The relationship between amphibian population responses and stream buffers was mixed, with uncertainty about which environmental factors explain population variation.

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