Abstract
Leaf litter arthropods are some of the most abundant and diverse communities in forests and provide myriad ecosystem services from decomposition and mineralization to pollination and predation. They are important to forest health and management and, in turn, are affected by how we manage our forests. Various forest management techniques such as clear cutting, burning, and chemical control of invasive species all have differing effects on ground dwelling arthropods and, despite their importance, a review of the literature on these effects does not currently exist. My objective with this paper is to review the effects of different types of forest management on arthropods in leaf litter systems.
Highlights
Contrary to some beliefs, plantation forestry does support leaf litter arthropod biodiversity [38,39], and arthropods are resilient to both site preparation [40] and harvesting practices [41]
In intensively managed forests like oil palm plantations, abundance and diversity of leaf litter arthropods was significantly lower compared to untouched forests [53]
While some information is known on the impacts of forest management on leaf litter arthropods, little is known on how specific operations affects individual groups or their interactions
Summary
Leaf litter-dwelling arthropods (Table 1) are some of the most prominent components of ecosystems in terms of both biomass and diversity [1,2]. Arthropods in tropical systems tend to decline in relation to forest harvests and altered land use—for example, urbanization—while temperate systems see increases in arthropod diversity in these situations [33]. Contrary to some beliefs, plantation forestry does support leaf litter arthropod biodiversity [38,39], and arthropods are resilient to both site preparation [40] and harvesting practices [41] Many of these interactions are taxa dependent, with mobile species being affected differently than sessile species [42]. Articles that investigated the impacts of arthropods on forest productivity, as well as articles evaluating soil arthropods, were not included in this review
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