| 1. |
- De Smedt, Pallieter, et al.
(författare)
-
Desiccation resistance determines distribution of woodlice along forest edge-to-interior gradients
- 2018
-
Ingår i: European journal of soil biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1164-5563 .- 1778-3615. ; 85, s. 1-3
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Forest edges show strong abiotic and biotic gradients potentially altering community composition and ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling. While abiotic gradients are well studied, short-scale biotic gradients, like detritivore species composition and their associated trait distribution remains a poorly explored research-field. We sampled woodlice in 160 forest patches across Europe at varying distances from the forest edge and discovered that species desiccation resistance determines distribution along forest edge-to-interior gradients. Forest edges are warmer and dryer compared to interiors and favour drought-tolerant species, while abundance and activity of drought-sensitive species is reduced at the edge. Key ecological factors for litter-dwelling detritivores (i.e. humidity) act as environmental filter, because of species-specific differences in desiccation resistance. Future research should focus on quantifying the consequences of a changing detritivore community and their associated functional traits for nutrient cycling.
|
|
| 2. |
- De Smedt, Pallieter, et al.
(författare)
-
Forest edges reduce slug (but not snail) activity-density across Western Europe
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Pedobiologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 0031-4056 .- 1873-1511. ; 75, s. 34-37
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fragmentation strongly shapes the distribution of organisms within forest patches through contrasting environmental conditions between the edge and interior habitat. Edge-to-interior distribution patterns are, however, poorly studied for litter- and soil-dwelling fauna, such as terrestrial gastropods, despite their high densities and significant impact on ecosystem processes, as both herbivores and detritivores. Therefore, we investigated edge-to-interior abundance patterns of terrestrial gastropods in 224 fragmented forest patches across Western Europe. Catching over 15,000 gastropods, we found that slug abundance is reduced in forest edges, while snail abundance shows no response on the edge effect. We hypothesize that these patterns could be explained by higher drought tolerance of snails, since forest edges have reduced air and soil humidity and elevated temperatures compared to forest interiors. Reduced slug abundance in forest edges potentially has ecological consequences for herbivory in and outside forest patches and nutrient cycling.
|
|
| 3. |
- De Smedt, Pallieter, et al.
(författare)
-
Linking macrodetritivore distribution to desiccation resistance in small forest fragments embedded in agricultural landscapes in Europe
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Landscape Ecology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0921-2973 .- 1572-9761. ; 33:3, s. 407-421
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Most of the agricultural landscape in Europe, and elsewhere, consists of mosaics with scattered fragments of semi-natural habitat like small forest fragments. Mutual interactions between forest fragments and agricultural areas influence ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling, a process strongly mediated by the macrodetritivore community, which is however, poorly studied. We investigated macrodetritivore distribution patterns at local and landscape-level and used a key functional trait (desiccation resistance) to gain mechanistic insights of the putative drivers.
|
|
| 4. |
- De Smedt, Pallieter, et al.
(författare)
-
Strength of forest edge effects on litter-dwelling macro-arthropods across Europe is influenced by forest age and edge properties
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Diversity & distributions. - : Wiley. - 1366-9516 .- 1472-4642. ; 25:6, s. 963-974
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- AimForests are highly fragmented across Western Europe, making forest edges important features in many agricultural landscapes. Forest edges are subject to strong abiotic gradients altering the forest environment and resulting in strong biotic gradients. This has the potential to change the forest's capacity to provide multiple ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration and natural pest control. Soil organisms play a key role in this perspective; however, these taxa are rarely considered in forest edge research.LocationA latitudinal gradient of 2,000 km across Western Europe.MethodsWe sampled six dominant taxa of litter-dwelling macro-arthropods (carabid beetles, spiders, harvestmen, centipedes, millipedes and woodlice) in forest edges and interiors of 192 forest fragments in 12 agricultural landscapes. We related their abundance and community composition to distance from the edge and the interaction with forest age, edge orientation and edge contrast (contrast between land use types at either side of the edge).ResultsThree out of six macro-arthropod taxa have higher activity-density in forest edges compared to forest interiors. The abundance patterns along forest edge-to-interior gradients interacted with forest age. Forest age and edge orientation also influenced within-fragment compositional variation along the forest edge-to-interior gradient. Edge contrast influenced abundance gradients of generalist predators. In general, older forest fragments, south-oriented edges and edges along structurally more continuous land use (lower contrast between forest and adjacent land use) resulted in stronger edge-to-interior gradients while recent forests, north-oriented edges and sharp land use edges induced similarity between forest edge and interior along the forest edge-to-interior gradients in terms of species activity-density and composition.Main conclusionsEdge effects on litter-dwelling macro-arthropods are anticipated to feedback on important ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration and natural pest control from small forest fragments.
|
|
| 5. |
- Marrec, Ronan, et al.
(författare)
-
Multiscale drivers of carabid beetle (Coleoptera : Carabidae) assemblages in small European woodlands
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238. ; 30:1, s. 165-182
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim: The spatio-temporal connectivity of forest patches in lowland agricultural landscapes and their age matter to explain current biodiversity patterns across regional as well as biogeographical extents, to the point that their effect exceeds the one of macroclimate for plant diversity in the understorey of temperate forests. Whether this remains true for other taxonomic groups is still largely unknown. Yet, this relative influence has important consequences for ecosystem functioning and the delivery of ecosystem services. Focusing on carabid beetle assemblages, we assessed the relative importance of macroclimatic, landscape and patch attributes in driving local species richness (alpha-diversity) and species dissimilarity between patches (beta-diversity).Location: Deciduous forest patches in seven regions along a 2,100-km-long latitudinal gradient across the European temperate forest biome, from southern France to central Sweden.Methods: We sampled 221 forest patches in two 5-km x 5-km landscape windows with contrasting management intensities. Carabid beetles were classified into four habitat-preference guilds: forest-specialist, forest-generalist, eurytopic and open-habitat species. We quantified the multi-level environmental influence using mixed-effects models and variation partitioning analysis.Results: We found that both alpha- and beta-diversity were primarily determined by macroclimate, acting as a large-scale ecological filter on carabid assemblages among regions. Forest-patch conditions, including biotic and abiotic heterogeneity as well as patch age (but not patch size), increased alpha-diversity of forest species. Landscape management intensity weakly influenced alpha-diversity of forest species, but increased the number of non-forest species in forest patches. Beta diversity of non-forest species increased with patch heterogeneity and decreased with landscape management intensity. Main conclusions: Our results highlight the leading role of broad macroclimatic gradients over local and landscape factors in determining the composition of local carabid communities, thereby shedding light on macroecological patterns of arthropod assemblages. This study emphasizes the urgent need for preserving ancient forest patches embedded in agricultural landscapes, even the small and weakly connected ones.
|
|
| 6. |
- Valdés, Alicia, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
-
High ecosystem service delivery potential of small woodlands in agricultural landscapes
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Journal of Applied Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0021-8901 .- 1365-2664. ; 57:1, s. 4-16
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global forest loss and fragmentation have strongly increased the frequency of forest patches smaller than a few hectares. Little is known about the biodiversity and ecosystem service supply potential of such small woodlands in comparison to larger forests. As it is widely recognized that high biodiversity levels increase ecosystem functionality and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services, small, isolated woodlands are expected to have a lower potential for ecosystem service delivery than large forests hosting more species. We collected data on the diversity of six taxonomic groups covering invertebrates, plants and fungi, and on the supply potential of five ecosystem services and one disservice within 224 woodlands distributed across temperate Europe. We related their ability to simultaneously provide multiple ecosystem services (multiservice delivery potential) at different performance levels to biodiversity of all studied taxonomic groups (multidiversity), forest patch size and age, as well as habitat availability and connectivity within the landscape, while accounting for macroclimate, soil properties and forest structure. Unexpectedly, despite their lower multidiversity, smaller woodlands had the potential to deliver multiple services at higher performance levels per area than larger woodlands of similar age, probably due to positive edge effects on the supply potential of several ecosystem services. Biodiversity only affected multiservice delivery potential at a low performance level as well as some individual ecosystem services. The importance of other drivers of ecosystem service supply potential by small woodlands in agricultural landscapes also depended on the level of performance and varied with the individual ecosystem service considered. Synthesis and applications. Large, ancient woodlands host high levels of biodiversity and can therefore deliver a number of ecosystem services. In contrast, smaller woodlands in agricultural landscapes, especially ancient woodlands, have a higher potential to deliver multiple ecosystem services on a per area basis. Despite their important contribution to agricultural landscape multifunctionality, small woodlands are not currently considered by public policies. There is thus an urgent need for targeted policy instruments to ensure their adequate management and future conservation in order to either achieve multiservice delivery at high levels or to maximize the delivery of specific ecosystem services.
|
|
