Temporal dynamics in animal community assembly during post-logging succession in boreal forest

Species assemblages can result from deterministic processes, such as niche differentiation and interspecific interactions, and from stochastic processes, such as random colonisation and extinction events. Although changes in animal communities following disturbances have been widely examined, few studies have investigated the mechanisms structuring communities during ecological succession. We assessed the impact of logging on small mammal and beetle assemblages in landscapes dominated by old-growth boreal forests. Our objectives were to 1) characterize variations in communities during the first 66 years of post-harvest forest succession, 2) determine if there are non-random patterns of species co-occurrence (i.e., deterministic processes), and if there are, 3) establish whether non-random co-occurrences are best explained by habitat attributes or by interspecific interactions. We captured small mammals and beetles along a gradient of forest succession (5-66 years) and in old-growth fore...