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Studying Insects for Conservation in Forests

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Forests and Insect Conservation in Australia

Abstract

The massive diversity of insects in forests reflects the elaborate structure of the environment, the persistence and complexity of these botanically diverse systems, and long histories of evolutionary associations. Quantifying that diversity and the patterns of its variation, series of surveys in several parts of the world have confirmed both high insect species richness and the difficulties of ecological interpretation, not least because of taxonomic inadequacy with many species undescribed. The roles of locally trained parataxonomists for inventory surveys of forest insects (Basset et al. 2004) may be important contributions to increasing understanding of diversity and its trajectories in relation to forest condition and management. Those surveys have progressively enabled extrapolations from limited samples to incorporate the full range of host tree species present, as the template that could in due course lead to estimations of impacts from forest changes. Comparisons between intact forest and forests modified in various ways provide evidence of impacts of imposed changes, as bases for conservation concern and possible reaction by changed management or level of protection.

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  1. Department of Ecology, Environment & Evolution, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Tim R. New

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New, T.R. (2018). Studying Insects for Conservation in Forests. In: Forests and Insect Conservation in Australia. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92222-5_5

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