Search results for "Dead wood"
showing 10 items of 33 documents
Dead wood gathering among Neanderthal groups: Charcoal evidence from Abric del Pastor and El Salt (Eastern Iberia)
2017
International audience; We present here a new approach combining the microscopic characterization of fungal decay features and the fragmentation degree of the charcoal remains from Middle Palaeolithic combustion structures: features H4 and H11 from Abric del Pastor, unit IV (>75 ka BP) and features H50 and H57 from El Salt, unit Xb (ca. 52 ka BP), Eastern Iberia. The observation of wood degradation patterns that occurred prior to charring followed by their quantitative analysis according to previous experimental studies revealed differences between the alteration degrees of the firewood used in the hearths, highlighting the existence of firewood acquisition criteria based on dead wood gathe…
Woodland key habitats in preserving polypore diversity in boreal forests: Effects of patch size, stand structure and microclimate
2016
Abstract Woodland key-habitats (WKHs) are set-asides in managed forests that are conceived to maintain specific aspects of forest biodiversity and they are widely used in Northern European countries. WKHs are often quite small (from 0.1 to a few hectares) and thus it is unclear if they can maintain biodiversity. We studied the effects of WKH size, microclimate and forest structure on species richness and composition of polypores, a group of wood-decaying fungi that has become threatened due to clear-cut forestry. The WKHs studied varied in size between 0.05 and 3.6 ha, and the control forests from 6.5 to 44.7 ha. Patch size and the volumes of logs and standing dead trees significantly affec…
Methanotrophs are core members of the diazotroph community in decaying Norway spruce logs
2018
Dead wood is initially a nitrogen (N) poor substrate, where the N content increases with decay, partly due to biological N2 fixation, but the drivers of the N accumulation are poorly known. We quantified the rate of N2 fixation in decaying Norway spruce logs of different decay stages and studied the potential regulators of the N2-fixation activity. The average rate for acetylene reduction in the decaying wood was 7.5 nmol ethylene g−1d−1, which corresponds to 52.9 μg N kg−1d−1. The number of nifH copies (g−1 dry matter) was higher at the later decay stages, but no correlation between the copy number and the in vitro N2 fixation rate was found. All recovered nifH sequences were assigned to t…
Experimentally induced community assembly of polypores reveals the importance of both environmental filtering and assembly history
2019
The community assembly of wood-inhabiting fungi follows a successional pathway, with newly emerging resource patches being colonised by pioneer species, followed by those specialised on later stages of decay. The primary coloniser species have been suggested to strongly influence the assembly of the later-arriving community. We created an artificial resource pulse and studied the assembly of polypores over an 11yr period to ask how the identities of the colonising species depend on the environmental characteristics and the assembly history of the dead wood unit. Our results support the view that community assembly in fungi is a highly stochastic process, as even detailed description of the …
Traits mediate niches and co‐occurrences of forest beetles in ways that differ among bioclimatic regions
2021
Aim The aim of this study was to investigate the role of traits in beetle community assembly and test for consistency in these effects among several bioclimatic regions. We asked (1) whether traits predicted species’ responses to environmental gradients (i.e. their niches), (2) whether these same traits could predict co-occurrence patterns and (3) how consistent were niches and the role of traits among study regions. Location Boreal forests in Norway and Finland, temperate forests in Germany. Taxon Wood-living (saproxylic) beetles. Methods We compiled capture records of 468 wood-living beetle species from the three regions, along with nine morphological and ecological species traits. Eight …
Precision, Applicability, and Economic Implications: A Comparison of Alternative Biodiversity Offset Indexes
2021
AbstractThe rates of ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss are alarming and current conservation efforts are not sufficient to stop them. The need for new tools is urgent. One approach is biodiversity offsetting: a developer causing habitat degradation provides an improvement in biodiversity so that the lost ecological value is compensated for. Accurate and ecologically meaningful measurement of losses and estimation of gains are essential in reaching the no net loss goal or any other desired outcome of biodiversity offsetting. The chosen calculation method strongly influences biodiversity outcomes. We compare a multiplicative method, which is based on a habitat condition index develo…
Morphological traits predict host-tree specialization in wood-inhabiting fungal communities
2020
Tree species is one of the most important determinants of wood-inhabiting fungal community composition, yet its relationship with fungal reproductive and dispersal traits remains poorly understood. We studied fungal communities (total of 657 species) inhabiting broadleaved and coniferous dead wood (total of 192 logs) in 12 semi-natural boreal forests. We utilized a trait-based hierarchical joint species distribution model to examine how the relationship between dead wood quality and species occurrence correlates with reproductive and dispersal morphological traits. Broadleaved trees had higher species richness than conifers, due to discomycetoids and pyrenomycetoids specializing in them. Re…
Fruit body based inventories in wood-inhabiting fungi: Should we replicate in space or time?
2016
We assessed the effect of survey design on the results when conducting fruit body surveys of wood-inhabiting fungi. Our results demonstrate that the optimal design depends on the ecological question to be addressed, as well as the group of fungal species under research. If the aim is to record the total species richness in a dead wood unit or to estimate the population size of a species, repeating the survey over time is generally necessary. However, if the aim is to estimate the total species richness in the forest or to assess how environmental covariates influence species richness or community composition, it is generally more efficient to increase the number of dead wood units than to r…
Are small protected habitat patches within boreal production forests effective in conserving species richness, abundance and community composition? :…
2021
Abstract Background In boreal zone forest management is changing and degrading forest habitats, which has caused declines in biodiversity. To mitigate these harmful effects in production forests, small-scale habitats with high biodiversity values have been protected within them. These habitats include woodland key habitats, and other small habitat patches protected by voluntary conservation actions. In this systematic review we synthesize the evidence on the value of small protected habitat patches (SPHP) within production forest landscapes for biodiversity. Review question: Are small protected habitat patches within boreal production forests effective in conserving species richness, abunda…
Effects of local forest continuity on the diversity of fungi on standing dead pines
2018
Human-induced fragmentation affects forest continuity, i.e. availability of a suitable habitat for the target species over a time period. The dependence of wood-inhabiting fungi on landscape level continuity has been well demonstrated, but the importance of local continuity has remained controversial. In this study, we explored the effects of local forest continuity (microhabitat and stand level) on the diversity of wood-inhabiting fungi on standing dead trunks of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). We studied species richness and community composition of decomposers and Micarea lichens on 70 trunks in 14 forests in central Finland that differed in their state of continuity. We used dendrochr…