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Long-term priority effects among insects and fungi colonizing decaying wood
Article first published online: 13 MAY 2011
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2011.01860.x
© 2011 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2011 British Ecological Society
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How to Cite
Weslien, J., Djupström, L. B., Schroeder, M. and Widenfalk, O. (2011), Long-term priority effects among insects and fungi colonizing decaying wood. Journal of Animal Ecology, 80: 1155–1162. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2011.01860.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 10 OCT 2011
- Article first published online: 13 MAY 2011
- Received 24 August 2010; accepted 12 April 2011 Handling Editor: Karl Cottenie
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Keywords:
- biodiversity;
- competition;
- coarse woody debris;
- facilitation;
- saproxylic;
- stochastic;
- succession
Summary
1. Priority effects have been hypothesized to have long-lasting impact on community structure in natural ecosystems. Long-term studies of priority effects in natural ecosystems are however sparse, especially in terrestrial ecosystems.
2. Wood decay is a slow process involving a high diversity of insect and fungus species. Species interactions that drive change in communities of insects and fungi during wood decay are poorly understood because of a lack of sufficient long-term studies.
3. In this paper, we followed the colonization and succession of wood-living insects and fungi on cut trees during 15 years, from tree death and onwards, in a boreal forest landscape. We test the long-term priority effects hypothesis that the identity and abundance of species that colonize first affect the colonization success of later-arriving species. We also hypothesize that species interact in both facilitative and inhibitory ways, which ultimately affect habitat quality for a red-listed late-succession beetle species.
4. Possible causal associations between species were explored by path analysis. The results indicate that one bark beetle species, Hylurgops palliatus, and one wood-borer species, Monochamus sutor, which colonized the wood during the first year after cutting, influenced the occurrence of a rare, wood-living beetle, Peltis grossa, that started to emerge from the stumps about 10 years later. The positive effects of Hylurgops palliatus and negative effects of M. sutor were largely mediated through the wood-decaying fungus species Fomitopsis pinicola.
5. The study shows that variable priority effects may have long-lasting impact on community assembly in decaying wood. The study also exemplifies new possibilities for managing populations of threatened species by exploring links between early, well-understood species guilds and late, more poorly understood species guilds.