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Abstract: The Warra Silvicultural Systems Trial (SST) in Tasmania, Australia provides a framework for investigating the responses of beetles (Order: Coleoptera) to three alternative systems in lowland wet eucalypt forest: aggregated retention; dispersed retention; and understorey islands retained in clearfelled areas. Beetles from three families known to be sensitive to forest management, the families Carabidae (ground-beetles), Curculionidae (weevils) and Leiodidae (fungus-beetles), were collected with pitfall traps prior to harvest, and in the first and third years post-harvest. The retained aggregates in the aggregated retention system maintained beetle assemblages reasonably typical of mature forests, at least in these early years following harvesting. These aggregates appear to provide a stable habitat, with similar species composition in the first and third years post-harvest. In contrast, the harvested areas of the aggregated retention system contained low numbers of beetle species affiliated with mature forest, as did the understorey islands and the dispersed retention system. Relative to clearfelling, all alternative silvicultural systems appeared to be of some benefit to beetles affiliated with mature forest, but aggregated retention retained far greater numbers of these beetles compared to the other systems in Tasmanian wet eucalypt forest. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Land snails, millipedes, carabid beetles and velvet worms (Onychophora) were methodically hand-sampled at 46 localities on paired plots in conifer or eucalypt plantations and in nearby native forest in northwest Tasmania. Native land snails and millipedes were less diverse in plantations than in native forests, and introduced land snails were several times more abundant in plantations. Many taxa, however, including a velvet worm previously considered to be threatened by plantation development, and including almost half the taxa represented by 10 or more specimens, were found at least as commonly in plantations as in native forests. Invertebrate conservation may be assisted by specific forestry operations, including windrowing, mound ploughing, and leaving waste prunings and thinnings to rot. Plantation development on cleared farmland can allow invertebrates to re-invade from adjacent bush remnants, reducing the risk of local extinctions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]