Stump-harvesting for bioenergy probably has transient impacts on abundance, richness and community structure of beetle assemblages

Harvesting of tree stumps for bioenergy is popular and, although the environmental impact has been considered with respect to ecosystem processes, there have been fewer studies on the impact of stump-harvesting on biodiversity. We carried out pitfall-trap surveys of beetle communities at eight plots across four sites (four plots were clear-fells where stumps remained and four were clear-fells where stumps were harvested). Initially, we recovered 7743 beetles when stumps were extracted but still on site (Year 1). All beetles were identified to family level and ground beetles and wood-associated beetles to species level. One year after stumps were extracted, the survey was repeated. In this collection, 2898 individual beetles were recovered. In Year 1, stump-harvesting had a negative impact on beetle abundance and richness. However, 1year after stumps were removed, there were no significant differences in these variables at any site. At the community level, stump-harvesting weakly but significantly, affected carabid composition. Oneyear after stumps were removed, stump-harvesting had no effect on community composition. Stump-harvesting initially negatively affects beetle abundance, family-richness and carabid species richness, as well as community structure, although any effects are not large, are site-specific and are probably not persistent.