Arthropod biodiversity following massive disturbances in western Canadian forests

艾伯塔省和不列颠哥伦比亚省内陆的森林自然经历了频繁的非生物和生物干扰。这些干扰包括虫害、疾病、风向和火灾。人类对森林中纤维和其他产品的依赖也导致了砍伐、焚烧和道路建设等干扰。加拿大西部森林大规模骚乱的例子包括公元前和现在的艾伯塔省的山松甲虫疫情，近年来这两个省的大规模火灾，以及乔治王子附近日益增长的云杉甲虫侵扰。对不列颠哥伦比亚省山松甲虫侵袭影响的估计各不相同，但往往会受到约1800万公顷的影响。山松甲虫在有记录的历史上第一次逃离了落基山脉北部的界限，现在活跃在艾伯塔省的杉木松林、杰克松林和杂交松林中，并可能在未来几年内蔓延到加拿大北部地区。中部内陆的大规模山松甲虫肆虐，再加上气候变化导致的夏季更热、更干燥，可能加剧了这一纪录--2017年夏天，公元前120万公顷的森林大火。艾伯塔省最近还经历了大规模和危险的火灾(如奴隶湖和麦克默里堡)。这可能会被证明是对山松肆虐的类比，云杉甲虫已经开始在一个重要的陆地基地爆发，特别是在乔治王子的东北部。2017年，年度省级航空害虫调查显示，全省受云杉甲虫影响的面积为501873公顷，高于2016年的281497公顷。这些过去和正在进行的干扰，再加上人类的互动和干预，意味着加拿大西部未来的森林将是什么样子，现在有很大的不确定性-尽管它肯定会与过去的森林不同。节肢动物群落是任何健康生态系统的重要组成部分--生态系统服务的持续提供和长期林分水平的恢复取决于节肢动物群落的组成和演替。河岸生态系统的溪流栖息地取决于河岸地带存在的陆生节肢动物。然而，在当前大规模干扰的背景下，对加拿大西部森林节肢动物生物多样性和群落生态学的研究工作很少。在这些区域干扰背景下，几乎没有节肢动物物种的当代清单，因此基线信息也不够充分。我的总体目标是使用昆虫诱捕法以及形态和DNA条形码辅助的分类分析来检查受影响和未受影响的加拿大西部森林和河岸带在分类和功能多样性方面的差异，以了解干扰后生态服务的变化，并为管理者提供监测林分恢复的工具。

Forests in Alberta and the interior of BC naturally experience frequent abiotic and biotic disturbances. These disturbances include insect infestations, disease, windthrow, and fire. Human reliance on forests for fiber and other products also results in disturbances such as clearing, burning, and road building. Examples of large--scale disturbances in western Canadian forests include the mountain pine beetle outbreak in BC and now Alberta, massive fires in both provinces in recent years, and the growing spruce beetle infestation near Prince George. Estimates of the impact of the mountain pine beetle infestation in BC vary but tend towards about 18 million hectares affected. The mountain pine beetle escaped the confines of the northern Rocky Mountains for the first time in recorded history, and is now active in Alberta lodgepole pine, jack pine, and hybrid pine stands and may spread through Canada's boreal region in the coming years. The massive mountain pine beetle infestation in the central interior - combined with hotter, drier summers due to climate change - likely exacerbated the record--setting 1.2 million hectares of forest fires in BC during the summer of 2017. Alberta has also experienced recent massive and dangerous fires (e.g. Slave Lake and Fort McMurray). In what may turn out to be an analogy to the mountain pine infestation, the spruce beetle has begun to erupt over a substantial land base, particularly to the northeast of Prince George. In 2017, the annual provincial aerial pest survey showed 501873 ha affected across the province by the spruce beetle, up from 281497 ha in 2016. These past and ongoing disturbances, combined with human interactions and interventions, mean that there is now a great deal of uncertainty about what the future forest in western Canada will look like - although it will certainly be different from the forest of the past. The arthropod community is a vital component of any healthy ecosystem - the ongoing provision of ecosystem services and long term stand--level recovery depend on the composition and succession of arthropod assemblages. The in-stream habitat of riparian ecosystems depends on the terrestrial arthropods present in the riparian zone. However, very little work has been done on arthropod biodiversity and community ecology in western Canadian forests in the context of current massive disturbances. There are few contemporary checklists of arthropod species in these regional disturbance contexts, so baseline information is also less--than--adequate. My overall objective is to use insect trapping methods and morphological and DNA barcode-assisted taxonomic analyses to examine differences between affected and unaffected disturbed western Canadian forests and riparian zones in terms of both taxonomic and functional diversity in order to understand shifts in ecological services following disturbance and to provide managers with tools to monitor the recovery of stands.