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Responses of litter arthropods to major natural or artificial ecological disturbances in mountain ash forest
Author(s) -
NEUMANN FREDERICK G.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
australian journal of ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1442-9993
pISSN - 0307-692X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-9993.1991.tb01478.x
Subject(s) - epigeal , ecology , pitfall trap , taxon , biology , clearcutting , litter , logging , ecosystem , forest ecology , habitat
Pitfall trapping was used in commercial Mountain Ash ( Eucalyptus regnans ) regrowth forest to study the effects on epigeal arthropods of high‐intensity wildfire plus salvage logging, and of harvesting by clearfelling plus slash burning, followed by fire‐induced natural or artificially established regeneration respectively. The study, the first of its kind in the Victorian Central Highlands, 60 km east of Melbourne, was based on 146 922 specimens of 30 ordinal or lower level taxa collected over a 3‐year period. The abrupt replacement of the ecologically complex regrowth forest by ecologically much simpler even‐aged regeneration caused appreciable instability among the litter‐frequenting arthropods. An immediate decline in diversity occurred due to short‐term boosts in activity of some common ‘major’ taxa (notably a species of seed‐harvesting ant) and the suppression of other taxa. A broad mix of functionally diverse taxa reappeared within two years of regeneration, and all but three rarely trapped ‘minor’ taxa present in undisturbed 43–46 year old regrowth (‘control’) forest had returned within 5 years. Epigeal arthropods therefore appeared to be affected only over a short period relative to the nominal 80–150 year rotation of the E. regnans ecosystem. Research is needed at the species level to achieve a more precise assessment of arthropod responses to major ecological disturbances.