0000000001325480
AUTHOR
Josep M. Bas
Comparative spatial behaviour and longevity in cicadas in unburnt vs. burnt forest areas with different management
Recently burnt habitats are a challenge for the persistence of animal populations. Insects that survive the fire, for example belowground, may sometimes show behavioural plasticity and manage to find adequate resources. But the disturbed habitat is usually not favourable to their survival and reproduction, because of increased predation and limiting resources. Whether insects survive, die or emigrate from burnt areas depends on species-specific traits. Cicadas live belowground as nymphs for several years, appearing aboveground as adults for just a few days. They often emerge in severely burnt forests that may have been logged afterwards, where the habitat structure and composition is totall…
Helping society to mitigate logging impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services of burned forests
Over the last decades, an average of 213,000 ha of European forest has been affected by fire every year, with 90% of this area corresponding to Mediterranean countries. The timber of the burned forests is harvested by clearcutting over large areas. Whole trees are then chipped to be used as bioenergy, so that very little coarse woody debris remains in the ecosystem. In recent years, scientific evidence has shown the strong impact that these practices of “salvage logging” have on the soil, the ecosystem regeneration and the conservation of biodiversity. Academic debate is therefore centered in the convenience of harvesting burnt forests based on the trade-off between environmental impacts an…