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Positive effects of ecological restoration on rare and threatened flat bugs (Heteroptera: Aradidae)

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Abstract

Intensive management of boreal forests has replaced natural disturbances, leading to losses of residual deadwood and saproxylic biodiversity. Declining population sizes have been well documented for insect groups such as bark and wood-boring beetles, whilst other groups such as flat bugs (Heteroptera: Aradidae) are less well-studied and little is known about their response to forest restoration. We conducted two restoration experiments addressing this lack of knowledge. We predicted the following responses to restoration: (1) artificial gap-creation and prescribed burning will attract more flat bugs than control stands, (2) increasing pre-burning fuel loads will have a positive influence on flat bug response to fire restoration. To test these predictions we conducted two field experiments; in Sweden we compared prescribed burning of standing forest with artificial gap-creation and in Finland we compared differing levels of fuel-load prior to burning. We found partial support for our first prediction, total numbers of flat bugs collected was higher in burned forest stands compared to controls in both countries. By contrast, gap-cutting only resulted in a marginal increase in the numbers and species of flat bugs collected. We found no support for our second hypothesis. The red-listed Aradus angularis and A. laeviusculus were primarily found in burned stands. Aradus betulae, A. betulinus and A. lugubris were more frequent in burned stands than gap-cuttings and untreated controls. Our study therefore suggests that ecological restoration, especially burning, is an efficient way of attracting flat bugs to suitable habitat, we therefore recommend ecological restoration to be incorporated in boreal forest management.

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Acknowledgments

The Finnish restoration measures were carried out as part of the Green Belt LIFE (LIFE04 NAT/FI/000078) project. Staff of the Finnish Forest Research Institute [presently Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)] and Metsähallitus carried out the restoration measures. Trainees in Finnish Forest Research Institute helped in flat bug collecting and sorting. Petri Martikainen identified the Finnish specimens of flat bugs. Maj & Tor Nessling foundation provided a personal scholarship for A.-M.H. The Swedish part of the study was financed by the Swedish research council Formas, Kempe stiftelserna. Holmen AB conducted the restoration measures as well as acted as land hosts. Field personnel at the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental studies, SLU helped out with sampling of flatbugs and measuring living and dead trees. Roger Pettersson helped out with the identification of the Swedish flatbugs and Timothy Work helped to improve the language in the text. We would also like to thank the two anonymous referees for their constructive critique and helpful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Fish, Wildlife and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skogsmarksgränd, 901 83, Umeå, Sweden

    Ruaridh Hägglund & Joakim Hjältén

  2. Thule Institute, University of Oulu, PO Box 7300, 90014, Oulu, Finland

    Anne-Maarit Hekkala & Anne Tolvanen

  3. Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), University of Oulu, PO Box 413, 90014, Oulu, Finland

    Anne-Maarit Hekkala & Anne Tolvanen

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  1. Ruaridh Hägglund
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  2. Anne-Maarit Hekkala
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  3. Joakim Hjältén
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Correspondence to Ruaridh Hägglund.

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Hägglund, R., Hekkala, AM., Hjältén, J. et al. Positive effects of ecological restoration on rare and threatened flat bugs (Heteroptera: Aradidae). J Insect Conserv 19, 1089–1099 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-015-9824-z

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