Bark‐beetle disturbance severity only moderately alters forest affinity of arthropod communities

Abstract

Abstract Forest ecosystems are facing increasing challenges like natural disturbances. Despite positive disturbance impacts on the diversity of several taxonomic groups, there are still concerns, whether the drastic canopy opening can lead to a turnover from forest to open habitat species. We sampled arthropods along a disturbance gradient in Norway spruce (Picea abies)‐dominated protected areas across Central Europe using Malaise traps and metabarcoding. To analyse changes in arthropod communities in terms of forest affinities along the disturbance gradient, we explored the potential of a list of forest affinities (LFA) that provides information about species affinities from closed forest to open habitats. Our results show that the mean forest affinity decreased with increasing disturbance severity. This trend was accompanied by a decrease in forest‐associated species as well as community shifts for open and mixed habitat species. Responses varied between taxa and were most apparent in Coleoptera. Overall, the changes did not come with a complete replacement of forest specialists by species with higher affinities for mixed and open landscapes nor a drastic loss of forest species. Furthermore, we observed severely disturbed plots with a high mean forest affinity and vice versa, which calls for further studies using these kinds of species classifications. The LFA can provide additional information how species associated with forests habitats can react to environmental changes beyond increasing amounts of deadwood resources. Using additional trapping methods and determination techniques might increase the explanatory power of such analyses along ecological gradients.