Litter-dwelling beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) can survive in clear-cutting during subsequent soil ploughing

A 2-year study of litter dwelling beetles was conducted in different mature pine stands and clear-cuts in Lithuania using the litter sifting method. We hypothesized that clear-cutting and subsequent ploughing would increase species diversity and the abundance of beetles, and also would encourage the immediate appearance of early-successional beetle species replacing late successional species in the clear-cuts. We did not confirm a hypothesis regarding increase in the number of species and abundance of beetles in clear-cuts. Our hypothesis regarding the immediate appearance of early successional species and disappearance of late-successional species in clear-cuts was confirmed. We also revealed that subsequent soil ploughing in clear-cuts did not accelerate this process, which was linked to the possibility of late successional species surviving in the undisturbed spaces between the strips of ploughed soil. The present study shows that late-successional forest litter-dwelling coleopteran species of old pine forests have a better chance of survival in a ploughed clear-cut, at least in northern Europe, than has been reported in other studiesAgronomijos fakultetasVytauto Didžiojo universiteta