Disturbance drives shifts in the dominance structure of forest longhorn beetles

We surveyed longhorned beetles at 36 arrays of traps as part of the Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment in southern Indiana. This long term (100 yr) and large scale (9 x 400 ha replicates) experiment is examining the response of forest biota to different forest harvest techniques and intensities using a full before-after-control experiment. I compare the dominance patterns of the treated sites with the untreated and with the pre-harvest data to test the prediction that disturbance will initially shift the dominance structure of the longhorned beetle assemblages towards fewer uncommon species and greater dominance by a few pest species. The outcome is yet unknown because it is only June and the field season is just beginning.