Varying responses of arthropod assemblages to clear-cutting and aggregated retention harvestings

Local environmental conditions shape forest biodiversity, while silvicultural practices like clear-cutting and retention harvesting can rapidly alter forest structure and microclimate, affecting ecosystem services. This study investigated the short-term impacts of logging practices, specifically clear-cutting and aggregated retention, on arthropod diversity and community structure in the Japanese larch forest in South Korea. Responses of arthropods to logging varied among taxa: Hemiptera and Coleoptera were abundant in logged areas, whereas Araneae and Formicidae in Hymenoptera were more abundant in unlogged areas than in logged areas. This variation underscores the challenge of assessing logging impacts using specific taxa alone. Multivariate analyses clearly distinguished the differences in arthropod communities between logged and unlogged areas. Our findings show that arthropod responses to logging vary among taxa, resulting in distinct community structures in logged and unlogged stands of Japanese larch forests. These short-term changes emphasize the importance of retention-based management for conserving arthropod communities.