Woodland management history and its effect on the abundance and diversity of forest leaf-litter arthropods

The effects of land management history on the abundance and diversity of forest leaf-litter arthropods were investigated by sampling leaf litter arthropods from 30 one-hectare sites from forest preserves in four counties across the Chicago metropolitan area.  The sites, which are part of the Chicago Wilderness Land Management Research Program, range in management history from degraded (not managed), early management (0-5 years from the start of management), mature management (10+ years of active management) and restoration-goal. Management efforts focused primarily on removing European buckthorn and other invasive plants followed by application of techniques to restore native plant diversity. The sites were sampled twice a year for 2 years from 2009 to 2011. Six 0.05-m2 litter grabs where taken at each 1-ha site and arthropods were extracted by Berlese funnels over the course of four days with a gradual increase in light and heat intensity.  A total of 41,016 arthropods where sorted to order and several target taxa (spiders and Coleoptera, Collembola, ants) were identified further to family or genus level. Several statistical approaches, including multivariate techniques, were used to relate arthropod abundance and diversity to a range of environmental variables related to management history that vary across the sites. The knowledge gained through this study, by informing land managers of the impact of land management history on the litter arthropod community, may assist them in predicting impacts of land management approaches on a major subsystem of the forest ecosystem.