Review of Effect of wood-stack structure on invertebrate abundance and diversity

The article Effect of wood-stack structure on invertebrate abundance and diversity posted by Richard sands on Bioscience Horizons, Oxford journals, examined the effect of number and type of wood stacks on saproxylic Invertebrates. This is following a decline in dead wood in managed forests, sadly causing many of these invertebrates to be red listed as endangered. How the Study was conducted This study used both sticky traps and pitfall traps to sample the invertebrate fauna of three types of sycamore woodstack. Woodstacks were made from 10 logs, 20 logs and 10 scorched logs plus a control woodstack made of unplasticised polyvinyl chloride (uPVC) plastic piping and observed over a 4-week period. This tested both the effects of abundance and type of wood on invertebrate numbers and diversity. With the uPVC piping enabling the comparison against the other samples as it mimics the effects of an unsuitable habitat to a saproxylic invertebrate and therefore helps aid the research in seeing what would happen if their habitats continued to be destroyed. Review of the Experiment However I do not believe this test is truly effective as the areas the wood stacks cover are not great enough, therefore invertebrates from other habitats would accidentally wonder into these stacks irrespective of how suitable it is to them, similar to a bug entering a house. Therefore it does not truly reflect the effect of habitat. However I do still believe it can be used as a guideline to which is the best environment for them, which is probably the goal of the research. The results

A total of 1446 invertebrates from 16 orders, including 127 Coleoptera, were caught during the sampling period. From the graph we can clearly see that scorched wood has a higher mean Shannon diversity index of invertebrates per trap and equal highest mean number of invertebrates per trap. Therefore the scorched wood is from this experiment the best wood for the invertabrates. However

this study did the not cater for the abundance of this type of wood and therefore should be repeated with a different number of scorched wood piles. Value of this study This study is vital in preserving and protecting saproxylic invertebrates numbers and diversity, in turn this will help support a larger bio diversity of animals throughout the food chain and help maintain the woodland environment, be that pollination, decomposing wood or through sustaining animals who in turn maintain the woodland.