Effects of modern forestry on northwestern European forest invertebrates: a synthesis.

Abstract

The direct influence of different practices including clear-cutting, thinning, burning-over, ploughing, changes in tree species composition of stands, fertilization, insecticides, pheromones and biological control are discussed from a forest zoological point of view, as are the indirect effects of general changes in boreal forest dynamics, loss of primevals, cessation of natural fires and the dominance of young stands. The direct effects of different silvicultural practices on the composition and diversity of forest invertebrates are usually striking but transient, but when large areas are treated, the species associated with primevals, especially with the wood composition system in them, as well as the species associated with fires, seem to have drastically declined.-from Authors