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Edge contrast, is one of the main determinants of edge effects. This study examines the response of plant and pollinator diversity (bees and butterflies) to forest edge contrast, i.e. the difference between forests and adjacent open habitats with different disturbance regimes. We also investigated a potential cascading effect from plants to pollinators and whether edge structure and landscape composition mediate the relationship between edge contrast and beta diversity of pollinators. We sampled 51 low-contrast edges where forests were adjacent to habitats showing low levels of disturbance (i.e. grey dunes, mowed fire-breaks, orchards, grasslands) and 29 high-contrast edges where forests were adjacent to more intensively disturbed habitats (i.e. tilled firebreaks, oilseed rape) in three regions of France. We showed that plant diversities were higher in edges than in adjacent open habitat, whatever the edge contrast. However, plant beta diversity did not differ significantly between low and high-contrast edges. While we observed higher pollinator diversities in adjacent habitats than in low-contrast edges, there were no significant differences in pollinator beta diversity depending on edge contrast. We did not observe a cascading effect from plants to pollinators. Plant and bee beta diversities were mainly explained by local factors (edge structure and flower cover) while butterfly beta diversity was explained by surrounding landscape characteristics (proportion of land cover in grassland). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Little attention has been given to the relevance of habitat complementation concept to the population dynamics of insect herbivores. Late instar larvae of the pine processionary moth (PPM) Thaumetopoea pityocampa move in late winter from pine stands, their feeding habitat, to neighbouring habitats where they pupate until next summer. They search for sunny exposed soil which they can find in open areas. We investigated the effect of both forest cover and soil origin, with three matching types (pine stand, broadleaved stand and open area) on the survival of PPM pupae. The microclimatic soil variables which significantly differentiated cover types and soil origins were the maximum temperature and the mean relative humidity in spring, soon after pupation has occurred. A significant effect of the cover type, but not of the soil origin, was detected on the proportion of dead, emerged or diapausing pupae. Open areas were more suitable for pupae survival than forest covers (pine or broadleaved stands), due to warmer and more humid soil conditions. In this study, we provide one of the first examples of habitat complementation for an insect herbivore, as PPM population can benefit from the combination of pine habitats for the feeding of larvae with open habitats for pupation. The presence of broadleaved stands next to pine stands might also represent an ecological trap for PPM pupae, as broadleaved habitats may turn to be less suitable for pupae survival in spring when the apparition of leaves creates cooler conditions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The conservation of biodiversity has gained prominence in ecological research for the last decades. Conservation actions require a measure of biodiversity such as species richness, but its assessment is very difficult, even for small areas and therefore the search for surrogates (i.e. indicators) of biodiversity has emerged as an active research topic. We investigated the relationships between butterfly species richness and landscape structure and composition in two pine plantation sites in Southwest France. We assessed the correlation between butterfly species richness and a set of 15 landscape metrics computed for 18 land-uses at 10 different spatial scales. Spatial scales were accounted for by computing landscape metrics for circular buffers with radius ranging from 100 to 1000m. The joint use of the Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) and a stepwise regression procedure revealed strong correlations between butterfly species richness and various landscape metrics in both study sites. The selected landscape metrics differed from one site to another and mostly involved measures of landscape fragmentation. We found a very strong effect of the spatial scale of investigation upon the perception of the landscape–butterfly richness relationship. Our main conclusions are that (i) certain landscape attributes can potentially serve as indicators for butterfly species richness at the landscape scale; (ii) future indicators of biodiversity based on landscape features should consider various spatial scales. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Bark beetles are notorious pests of natural and planted forests causing extensive damage. These insects depend on dead or weakened trees but can switch to healthy trees during an outbreak as mass-attacks allow the beetle to overwhelm tree defences. Climatic events like windstorms are known to favour bark beetle outbreaks because they create a large number of breeding sites, i.e., weakened trees and for this reason, windthrown timber is generally preventively harvested and removed. In December 1999, the southwest of France was struck by a devastating windstorm that felled more that 27millionm3of timber. This event offered the opportunity to study large-scale spatial pattern of trees attacked by the bark beetle Ips sexdentatus and its relationship with the spatial location of pine logs that were temporally stored in piles along stand edges during the post-storm process of fallen tree removal. The study was undertaken in a pure maritime pine forest of 1300ha in 2001 and 2002. We developed a landscape approach based on a GIS and a complete inventory of attacked trees. During this study more than 70% of the investigated stands had at least one tree attacked by I. sexdentatus. Spatial aggregation prevailed in stands with attacked trees. Patches of attacked trees were identified using a kernel estimation procedure coupled with randomization tests. Attacked trees formed patches of 500–700m2 on average which displayed a clumped spatial distribution. Log piles stemming from the sanitation removals were mainly distributed along the large access roads and showed an aggregated spatial pattern as well. The spatial relationship between patches of attacked trees and log pile storage areas was analyzed by means of the Ripley’s statistic that revealed a strong association at the scale of the studied forest. Our results indicated that bark beetle attacks were facilitated in the vicinity of areas where pine logs were stored. The spatial extent of this relationship was >1000m. Similar results were obtained in 2001 and 2002 despite differences in the number and spatial distribution of attacked trees. The presence of a strong “facilitation effect” suggests that log piles should be removed quickly in order to prevent outbreaks of bark beetles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Bark beetle infestations are often scattered throughout the forest landscape and therefore difficult to accurately and rapidly assess. We tested a roadside sampling technique in a pure maritime pine forest (Pinus pinaster) of ca. 1300ha where bark beetle outbreak foci were observed following a windstorm. The sampling method relied on the count along stand edges of all dying or dead trees sighted within a fixed distance from the road. About 2300 trees attacked by Ips sexdentatus were recorded and located using colour-infrared aerial photography. Accuracy of the infestation map was verified by ground sampling. Piles of cut logs stored along the edge significantly increased the percentage of attacked trees in the neighbouring stand. However, the percentage of attacked trees within the stand edges did not differ with the percentage within the stand interior. It allowed us to use stand edges as sampling units to estimate the mean percentage of attacked trees per stand. At the stand scale, the use of a fixed 10m wide strip along stand edges maximized the detection of attacked trees and minimized the bias of estimated percent of attacked trees. Based on GIS data, various stratified roadside sampling plans with increasing numbers of edges per stand and increasing numbers of stands per forest were simulated by bootstrap resampling. In a forest without any storage of cut logs, systematic roadside surveys underestimated the level of damage. The sampling accuracy increased with the kilometers of edges surveyed. In a forest with piles of cut logs on which bark beetles can breed, the best option was an adaptive sampling plan where at least two additional consecutive edges were observed in stands close to the pile. As compared to systematic sampling plans, adaptive plans were three times less expensive in terms of sampling effort for the same accuracy. Overall, adaptive sampling plans were also more robust as they provided less biased estimates as the proportion of stands with nearby piles increased in simulated forests. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]