Investigating the effects of elevated Carbon dioxide on forest arthropods: One year of data from BIFoR FACE.

@Liam_M_Crowley@BIFoRUoB

Liam M. Crowley1, Jeremy Pritchard1, Jon P. Sadler2 and Scott A. L. Hayward1.

1 - School of Biosciences, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK.2 – School of Geography, Earth and Environmental sciences, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK.

Insects and CO2

Insects are key players in ecosystem functioning.

Unclear how insects will respond to eCO2.

Insect responses could feedback and completely change forest performance – (Pugh et al., 2017).

Likely to be first responders.

Are insects key drivers of change in woodland systems under climate change?

SamplingCharacterisation of abundance, diversity and phenology

Spatial and temporal replication

Comprehensive, sensitive and robust

Minimising impact

Opportunity to compare and contrast method efficacy

Pitfalltrapping

Malaisetrapping

Pan trapping

Understory beating

Canopy beating

Layer Ground layer Field layer Field layer Understory Canopy

Sampling period 1 week 24 hours 24 hours 30 seconds 30 second

Sampling interval

1 month 1 month 1 month 1 month 1 month

Number per array

2 1 1 x 3 1 1

The sampling programme

Meteorological data

Sampling method Start time End time Window length

Pitfall 00:00 Day 1 23:59 Day 7 168 hours

Pan and malaise 00:00 Day 1 23:59 Day 2 48 hours

Beating 00:00 Day 1 23:59 Day 1 24 hours

Results

Total arthropods sampled: 22,568.

24 Orders in Phylum: Arthropoda. 10869

2795

2643

1627

1020

847

737

574

488 291 290 135 78 49 29 16 9

Pitfall 7 day

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

Tota

l nu

mb

er o

f ar

thro

po

ds

sam

ple

d

Month

0.00

2.00

4.00

6.00

8.00

10.00

12.00

14.00

16.00

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

Thro

ugh

fall

(mm

)

Tem

per

atu

re (

oC

)Month

*Mean temp -> p=0.0031

Malaise and pan trap 48 hour

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Tota

l nu

mb

er o

f ar

thro

po

ds

sam

ple

d

Month

Pan Malaise

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

Thro

ugh

fall

(mm

)

Tem

per

atu

re (

oC

)Month

*Mean temp -> p=0.000745

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

April May June July August September October

Tota

l nu

mb

er o

f ar

thro

po

ds

sam

ple

d

Month

Canopy Understory

Beating

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

April May June July August September October

Thro

ugh

fall

(mm

)

Tem

per

atu

re (

oC

)Month

Sample composition

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

Diptera

Hymenoptera

Collembola

Lepidoptera

Hemiptera

Coleoptera

Araneae

Pscoptera

Opiliones

Other

Total individuals sampled

Malaise

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

Araneae

Hemiptera

Hymenoptera

Pscoptera

Diptera

Opiliones

Collembola

Coleoptera

Lepidoptera

Other

Total individuals sampled

Beating

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

Diptera

Coleoptera

Acari

Collembola

Opiliones

Diplopoda

Araneae

Isopoda

Hymenoptera

Other

Total individuals sampled

Pitfall

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600

DipteraHymenoptera

HempiteraCollembolaColeoptera

AraneaeLepidoptera

OpilionesThysanoptera

Other

Total individuals sampled

Pan

Treatment vs control (Malaise)

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

April June July August September October November December January

Mea

n n

um

ber

of

arth

rop

od

sTreatment Control

Layer comparison

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

April May June July August September October

Mea

n n

um

ber

of

arth

rop

od

s

Month

Canopy vs Understory Canopy Understory

t = 3.87, p = 0.0083

Layer comparison

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

April May June July August September October

Sim

pso

ns

ind

ex

Month

Simpson's index

Canopy Understory

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

April May June July August September October

Shan

no

n-W

ien

er in

dex

Month

Shannon-Wiener index

Canopy Understory-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

t = 1.8494, p = 0.1139 t = -2.2157, p = 0.0686

Phenology is key

Temp>rain

Certain Orders dominate.

Mature forest takes time to change.

Canopy is important!

Conclusions

Thanks for listening!

Any questions?

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

March April May June July August September October November December January

Mea

n n

um

ber

of

arth

rop

od

s

Month

Kruskal Wallis -> χ2 = 6.3765, p = 0.04124

Dunn post hoc test -> Blue-White – p = 0.2970

Pan trap colour