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Harvard Forest REU Symposium Abstract 2007
- Title: Investigating the effects of clear-cutting on both ant and beetle abundance/diversity within plantation plots and surrounding areas
- Author: Kyle G Chen (Harvard University)
- Abstract:
The effects of converting a habitat into a plantation has been shown to actively change the diversity of the stand by replacing understory as well as the life associated with it. In this experiment, both ants and beetles were investigated to possibly uncover a species that could be used as indicator for change in habitat within the plantations. In addition, the effects of plantations on surrounding areas were analyzed. Plots of 20 by 20 meters were constructed in varying plantation plots, with pitfall traps spaced 5 meters apart within the plot. At the end of the experiment, EcoSim was used to rarefy the final data. Due to this experiment being the pilot experiment of an ongoing project, there was no significant data collected on the possible predicting power of an insect on habitat type. What I found was that increases in vegetation such as Rubus, Sambucus pubescens, and Mitchella repens, that were signs of early successional habitat and disturbed forests, correlated with subsequent loss of canopy and basal area within the plantation and increased beetle diversity within the plantations by almost 3 fold. As a result, these data show that clear-cutting plantations into early successional habitats should increase beetle diversity. In addition, there was evidence that areas between plantation and non-plantation sites in spruce stands developed a unique habitat based on the absence of specialist species that remained in the plots and an increase of generalist species like Pterostichus rostratus within the transition zone. Although more data and an application of variables are needed to test the hypothesis, the cutting of plantations will no doubt have an affect on insect life, increasing vegetation and thus beetle diversity, as well as possibly eliminating transition zone habitats existing between plantation areas and non-plantation areas.
- Research Category: Biodiversity Studies; Large Experiments and Permanent Plot Studies
