Influence of Soil Calcium and Stand Age on the Structure and Functional
Diversity of Arthropods:
A Case Study in Two Northern Hardwood Stands
Nathan Donato, Cheryl Bondi, Melissa Fierke and Colin Beier
State University of New York - College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Results
Calcium depletion in northern hardwood forests as
a result of decades of acidic deposition may have
impacts on the forest floor invertebrate community
1. Stand age can also influence the soil calcium
available for biological uptake by plants and
animals2. Forest floor macroarthropods are part of
the detrital food web, and calcium content of foliar
and organic soil horizons may influence diversity of
some groups with high calcium demands3,4.
Macroinvertebrate diversity plays an important role
in forest ecosystems through decomposition,
nutrient cycling, and detritus processing and are a
food available to higher order consumers.
Pseudoscorpiones Psocoptera Thysanoptera Opiliones
1%
0%
4%
6%
Annelids
Hemiptera
• A total of 3,773 individuals were identified
1%
3%
from the sample plots.
Hymenoptera
• The most abundant taxa across all groups
5%
Araneae
was Diplopoda (730 individuals) and Opilliones
Diptera
30%
5%
were the most rare with 3 individuals being
present in 3 plots (Fig. 4).
• Macroarthropod abundance is highest in low
soil calcium sites in mid-age stands (Fig. 5).
• Diversity was highest within old forest stands
with low soil calcium (Figs. 5 and 6).
Diplopoda
31%
Chilopoda
4%
Coleoptera
10%
(Millipedes 2014)
Introduction
Figure 4. Relative abundance of macroarthropods from all plots.
Mature
Objective
Investigate how stand age and soil calcium
availability affects macroarthropod community
structure in northern hardwood forests.
Figure 5. Interval plot of macroarthropod abundance at midage and old age forest stands at each site.
Methods
Figure 6. Interaction plot of macroarthropod richness at mid
age and old age forest stands within each site.
• Arthropods were collected from 2 sites: Jeffers
Brook (Moderate soil calcium) and Bartlett (Low
soil calcium; Fig. 1 and Table 1).
Moderate calcium old stand site
Low calcium mid age stand site
• Within each site we sampled 3 plots in both midage (~30 years) and mature hardwood stands
(>100 years).
Bartlett
Bartlett (Low Ca)
Jeffers Brook
(Moderate Ca)
Mid-Age Mature
Stands Stands
3
3
3
3
Figure 1. Sites in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
•
•
•
•
Moderate calcium mid age stand site
Table 1. Three plots per standage were sampled at each site.
Site
Jeffers Brook
Low calcium old stand site
Figure 8. NMS ordination of sites in taxa space.
Figure 7. Interaction Plot of Shannon-Weiner index values.
•
Table 2. Macroarthropod abundance interaction table
Source
Calcium
DF
1
F- statistic
6.05
P- value
0.039
Stand Age
1
0.61
0.457
NMS ordination revealed Chilopoda were
important drivers of taxa occurrence within high
calcium sites (Figure 8). Stress and stability
values for NMS were not generated as a majority
of the variation was explained in Axis 1.
R Squared
0.5 m2 of leaf litter were collected from each plot
(Fig. 2) and placed in Berlese funnels to extract
arthropods (Fig. 3).
Macroarthropods (>1 mm) were sorted from
samples and identified to the lowest taxonomic
resolution possible (usually Order).
Calcium*Stand age
1
4.05
0.079
Discussion
• Centipedes (Chilopoda) are generalist predators commonly
occurring in forest floor ecosystems.
Taxa richness, total abundance, and Shannon
Diversity were compared across treatments using
ANOVA tests.
• Psocoptera, pseudoscorpiones, coleoptera, formicidae,
and thysanoptera are all negatively correlated with the
presence of centipedes in site.
Non metric multidimensional scaling (NMS) was
used to ordinate macroarthropod groups and
overlay environmental variables using PC-ORD
statistical software. NMS was run in autopilot
mode using the Bray-Curtis Dissimilarity distance
measure.
• Centipedes (Chilopoda) have a positive relationship with
sites having moderate soil calcium within old growth
stands.
• Possible causes of the presence of centipedes dominating
these sites may be due to the greater presence of woody
debris that create suitable microclimates on the forest
floor3.
• Psocoptera, diptera, and formicidae are all close to being
completely orthogonal to each other indicating they have
no correlation with one another.
Figure 2. Leaf litter and the
entire Oa horizon were
collected and transported to
the lab in plastic bags.
Figure 3. Leaf liter was dried
under heat lamps for 5 days and
arthropods moved down through
funnels into collecting jars.
Axis
1
2
3
• Further analysis of site variables could reveal a more
distinct picture of the drivers of the macroarthropod
assemblage structure in northern hardwood forests.
Increment Cumulative
0.495
0.495
0.059
0.554
0.056
0.611
References
1 Yanai R., Blum J.D., Hamburg S.P., Arthur M.A, Nezat C.A.,
Siccamma T.G., (2005) New insights into calcium depletion in
northeastern forests. Journal of Forestry 103:14-20.
2 Hamburg, S.P., Yanai R.D., Arthur M.A., Blum J.D., Siccama
T.G. (2003) Biotic control of calcium cycling in northern hardwood
forests: acid rain and aging forests. Ecosystems 6: 399-404
3 Jabin M., Mohr D., Kappes H., Topp W. (2004) Influence of dead
wood on density of soil macroarthropods in a managed oak-beech
forest. Forest Ecology and Management 194:61-69.
4 Kalisz P.J., Powell J.E., (2003) Effect of calcareous road dust on
land snails (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) and millipedes (Diplopoda) in
acid forest soils of the Daniel Boone National Forest of Kentucky,
USA. Forest Ecology and Management 186:177-183.
http://www.esf.edu/melnhe/
Acknowledgments
Funding was provided by the USDA Northeastern States
Research Cooperative. Jamie Whals and Chelsea
Geyer provided field assistance. Soil chemistry and
vegetation data on the plots were provided by
researchers from the Multiple Element Limitation in
Northern Hardwood Ecosystems (MELNHE) project.
Additional information on stand characteristics and plot
design were provided by Dr. Ruth Yanai.