Abstract
We examined body length differences between the beetle fauna of Eucalyptus plantation forests and remnant Eucalyptus forest in the same region using aerial and arboreal sampling. Mean body length of plantation-using species was greater than for remnant forest species, and the same pattern was apparent in the mean of all individuals collected regardless of species. This pattern was true for both Malaise-trap-collected beetles (aerial) and canopy-collected (arboreal) beetles. The tendency for plantation-restricted species to have longer bodies is significant even if clade is treated as a random factor in the analysis. Greater body length among plantation-using species is consistent with a few other studies that have found body size of insect species in early successional environments is typically greater than in late successional environments. Some studies suggest that larger species are better dispersers, which can rapidly colonise early successional habitats. In this study, however, there was little relationship between body length and the number of sites occupied; suggesting dispersal was not a major determinant of community membership. Two different patterns in this study support the hypothesis that body size differences are linked to trophic structure of the communities. First, the body length shift comparing remnant users to plantation users was greater among phytophages than for predators or saprophages. Second, saprophages were typically smaller than phytophages, and constituted a larger fraction of the remnant forest using fauna, driving down the mean body length in the saprophage-rich remnant forest community.
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded in part by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation through the Joint Venture Agroforestry Program. Plantation companies (ITC, Sotico/Bunnings, Southcoast Sharefarms Great Southern Sharefarms) and landholders kindly provided access to plantations. Tom Weir and Rolf Oberprieler (CSIRO Entomology) provided beetle identifications and advice on trophic groups. Brad Murray and Nancy Schellhorn provided useful comments on an earlier draft. Michelle Michie, Joanna Hamilton, Rex Sutherland, John Dowse, Tara Simmul, Karl Brennan, John Ingram, Allan Reid and Andrew Loch helped collect and sort the insects.
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Communicated by Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter.
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Cunningham, S.A., Murray, W. Average body length of arboreal and aerial beetle (Coleoptera) assemblages from remnant and plantation Eucalyptus forests in southwestern Australia. Oecologia 151, 303–312 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0589-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0589-7