Ingle Kapilkumar, Kaur Hardeep, Gallé-Szpisjak Nikolett, Bürgés József, Szabó Áron, Gallé Róbert
Department of Ecology, University of Szeged, Közép fasor 52, Szeged, Hungary.
Doctoral School of Environmental Sciences, University of Szeged, Rerrich Béla tér 1, Szeged, Hungary.
Environ Entomol. 2020 Jun 13;49(3):601-606. doi: 10.1093/ee/nvaa025.
Plantations of non-native trees for commercial use are common practice in Europe. They are known to have severe ecological impacts on arthropod fauna by altering microclimatic conditions and reducing microhabitat diversity. However, the effect of plantation tree species on winter-active fauna is relatively unknown. Spiders are a diverse predatory arthropod taxon with strong effect on their prey populations. The composition of spider communities sensitively indicates changes in habitat structure. We established 40 sampling sites in five non-native pine and five native poplar plantations and collected spiders with pitfall traps for two winters in the Southern part of Hungary. We assessed the average height of vegetation and percentage cover of leaf litter, mosses, herbaceous vegetation, and shrubs to characterize habitat structure. We found species richness and activity density of spiders in the non-native compared to the native plantations, presumably due to the more temperate microclimate in pine than in poplar plantations. However, there was no significant effect of habitat structure and its interaction with forest type on species richness and activity density of spiders. Species composition of non-native and native plantation forests differed significantly. Furthermore, we identified six characteristic spider species of non-native plantations with preference for relatively moist habitat conditions. The single characteristic species, (Agroeca cuprea Menge, 1873) for the native plantations preferred dry and partly shaded habitats. We conclude that the effect of microclimatic differences and prey availability presumably overrides the effect of habitat structure on winter-active spiders.
种植非本地树木用于商业用途在欧洲是常见做法。众所周知，它们会通过改变微气候条件和减少微生境多样性，对节肢动物区系产生严重的生态影响。然而，人工林树种对冬季活动的动物群的影响相对未知。蜘蛛是一类多样的捕食性节肢动物，对其猎物种群有很大影响。蜘蛛群落的组成能敏感地指示栖息地结构的变化。我们在匈牙利南部的五个非本地松树林和五个本地杨树林中设立了40个采样点，用陷阱诱捕器收集蜘蛛，为期两个冬季。我们评估了植被的平均高度以及落叶层、苔藓、草本植被和灌木的覆盖百分比，以表征栖息地结构。我们发现，与本地人工林相比，非本地人工林中蜘蛛的物种丰富度和活动密度更高，这可能是因为松树林的微气候比杨树林更温和。然而，栖息地结构及其与森林类型的相互作用对蜘蛛的物种丰富度和活动密度没有显著影响。非本地和本地人工林的物种组成有显著差异。此外，我们确定了六种非本地人工林的特征蜘蛛物种，它们偏好相对潮湿的栖息地条件。本地人工林的单一特征物种（Agroeca cuprea Menge，1873）偏好干燥且部分遮荫的栖息地。我们得出结论，微气候差异和猎物可利用性的影响可能超过了栖息地结构对冬季活动蜘蛛的影响。
