Trophic position determines functional and phylogenetic recovery after disturbance within a community

1. The roles that functional traits and/or evolutionary history of species from co-occuring trophic groups have in determining community recovery following disturbance are poorly understood. Functional traits help determine how species interact with their environment, thus functional traits are likely to change with time since logging. However, traits of species may also be phylogenetically constrained depending on their evolutionary history. Because beetles are trophically diverse, the effects of phylogenetic and functional aspects of community recovery can be compared between co-occuring trophic groups. 2. Using a chronosequence of forest ages following logging, we applied a novel combination of functional trait and phylogenetic approaches to assess the extent to which taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic composition recovered after logging, and if these dimensions of composition approached those characteristic of mature forests, for both predators and decomposers/primary consumers....