Faunal community consequence of interspecific bark trait dissimilarity in early-stage decomposing logs

Dead tree trunks have significant ecosystem functions related to biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles. When lying on the soil surface, they are colonized by an array of invertebrate fauna, but what determines their community composition is still unclear. We apply community assembly theory to colonization of tree logs by invertebrates. During early decomposition, the attached bark is critically important as an environment filter for community assembly through habitat provision. Specifically, we hypothesized that the more dissimilar bark traits were between tree species, the more their faunal community compositions would differ. We tested this hypothesis by investigating the effects of bark traits on the invertebrate communities in the early-decomposing logs of 11 common, temperate tree species placed in the ‘common garden’ experiment LOGLIFE. Bark traits included bark looseness, fissure index, outer bark thickness, ratio of inner to outer bark thickness, punch resistance, water stora...枯倒木具有与生物多样性及生物地球化学循环密切相关的重要生态系统功能。当其倒伏于土壤表面时，会被各类无脊椎动物定殖，但目前仍未明确哪些因素决定了这些无脊椎动物的群落组成。 我们将群落构建理论（community assembly theory）应用于无脊椎动物在枯倒木上的定殖过程研究。在分解早期，附着于枯倒木的树皮通过提供生境，作为群落构建的环境过滤因子发挥关键作用。具体而言，我们提出假说：不同树种的树皮性状差异越大，其附着的无脊椎动物群落组成差异也将越大。 我们通过分析11种温带常见树种的早期分解枯倒木的树皮性状对无脊椎动物群落的影响，对该假说进行了验证，相关实验设置于名为LOGLIFE的同质园（common garden）实验平台中。树皮性状包括树皮疏松度、开裂指数、外树皮厚度、内外树皮厚度比、抗穿刺性、持水能力……