Studies of Forest Arthropods

Arthropods represent a major component of forest communities where they play significant roles in processes of litter decomposition and nutrient cycling and serve as a food resource for wildlife species. Arthropods are also potentially valuable as indicators of environmental conditions and disturbance because they are highly sensitive to changes in habitat temperature and moisture regimes. The DEMO Study provides a unique opportunity (1) to evaluate arthropod responses to varying the amount or spatial distribution of green trees retained following harvest in Pacific Northwest forests and (2) to assess how changes in arthropod abundance and community composition affect other components of forest food webs.

Pre-treatment studies of arboreal arthropods	Effects of green-tree retention on the availability of arthropod prey to bark-gleaning birds: assessment from a large-scale field experiment

Canopy arthropod response to density and distribution of green trees retained after partial harvest	Responses of litter-dwelling arthropods to varying levels and patterns of green-tree retention

See Publications and Presentations for a list of references describing results of DEMO arthropod studies.