Impacts of silvicultural practices on soil and litter arthropod diversity in a Texas pine plantation

In this study we used the diversity of soil and litter arthropods as a metr ic for evaluating the ecological effects of silvicultural practices of vari ous intensities in a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) forest ecosystem. The t reatments included low and high intensity harvesting, soil bedding, chemica l herbicide application, and nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization. Soil an d litter cores were used to sample arthropods after harvesting. In the firs t year following removal of trees, species diversity was higher in hand-fel l, hole-only harvested plots than in mechanical, whole-tree harvested plots and higher in non-bedded plots than in bedded plots. However, these differ ences did not persist into the second year following harvesting. The recove ry of undergrowth vegetation in the second year and the development of a ru dimentary litter layer may have increased diversity in the more intensively treated plots. Arthropod species richness increased following nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization, but Shannon diversity did not. This indicates th at the arthropod community had responded to fertilization with a shift in c ommunity composition. The rapid recovery of arthropod diversity in the seco nd year following tree removal suggests that the silvicultural treatments u sed at this site did not put long-term productivity at risk. Comparisons wi th other similar studies suggest that when aiming for sustainable forest ma nagement, the particular silvicultural practices that allow for ecosystem r ecovery may depend on local and regional conditions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scie nce B.V. All rights reserved.