Influence of fine woody debris on spider diversity and community structure in forest leaf litter

Abstract

Exploitation of forests for biofuel results in variable amounts of fine woody debris (FWD) being left on the forest floor. Such practices have the potential to affect the diversity and taxonomic composition of litter-dwelling organisms. The ability to predict the consequences of harvesting biofuel will be strengthened by knowledge of how variation in FWD affects litter organisms in non-harvested forests. A field experiment with three treatments [Control (no manipulation), FWD Removal, and FWD Addition] was carried out in replicated open plots in an unexploited forest in order to determine how the amount of fallen FWD affects the abundance, diversity and community composition of spiders, selected because of their importance as predators in the leaf-litter food web. Manipulation of FWD started in August, and by the following July total spider density in the FWD Addition treatment was 1.6× that of FWD Removal plots. Spider density in FWD Removal plots was 30% lower than the Control treatment, with no statistically significant difference between Control and FWD Addition. Manipulating FWD had no statistically significant effects on standard indices of spider diversity. However, multivariate community-level analyses revealed statistically significant differences in spider community structure between the FWD Removal and FWD Addition treatments. Two dominant genera of web builders contributed the most to this effect of manipulating FWD. Our results, and the findings of studies of woody debris in younger forests, suggest that the relatively small effects of FWD in our field experiment may reflect the age of the forest, with effects on the fauna likely being larger in forests younger than the one we studied.