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Harvard Forest REU Symposium Abstract 2008

  • Title: Canopy Type Affects Habitat Preference in Web-Building and Hunting Spiders
  • Author: Samantha K Hilerio (Worcester Polytechnical Institute)
  • Abstract:

    Varying canopy structures supply a wide range of resources for forest arthropods, even those on the forest floor. In this experiment, habitat preference was investigated with observed differences in abundance between web-building and hunting spiders, using pitfall traps and hand collection to gather the specimens from four different canopy treatments (hemlock, hardwood, girdled, and logged) in the Hemlock Removal Experiment. Across all treatments there were more hunting spiders collected than web-building spiders (p<0.05), and in the logged plots (the thinnest canopies) hunting spiders tended to be more abundant (p=0.09). The hemlock and hardwood plots had a statistically equal relative abundance of both types of spiders, and the girdled plot showed a trend toward more hunting spiders. These results suggest that a thinner canopy may create an environment more favorable to hunting spiders. This may be because the sunlight of an open canopy creates, over time, more undergrowth to hunt in, unlike the barren floor of the hemlock forest. These results have interesting implications for competition dynamics between hunting and web-building spiders, particularly during a stand’s transition from open to closed canopy. More data is needed before we can thoroughly address questions of competition, but this study may serve as a basis for future studies as we gain more knowledge about how canopy structure affects the arachnids in central Massachusetts.

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