Predatory Hymenopteran assemblages in boreal Alaska: associations with forest composition and post-fire succession
Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018 Predatory Hymenoptera play key roles in terrestrial foodwebs and affect ecosystem processes, but their assemblage composition and distribution among forest habitats are poorly understood. Historically, the boreal forest of interior Alaska has been c...
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ftunivalaska:oai:scholarworks.alaska.edu:11122/8749 2023-05-15T18:31:03+02:00 Predatory Hymenopteran assemblages in boreal Alaska: associations with forest composition and post-fire succession Wenninger, Alexandria Wagner, Diane Hollingsworth, Teresa Skies, Derek 2018-05 http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8749 en_US eng http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8749 Department of Biology and Wildlife Hymenoptera Habitat Alaska Interior Alaska Host plants Phytophagous insects Parasitic wasps Ants Taigas Taiga ecology Populus tremuloides Diseases and pests Thesis ms 2018 ftunivalaska 2023-02-23T21:37:06Z Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018 Predatory Hymenoptera play key roles in terrestrial foodwebs and affect ecosystem processes, but their assemblage composition and distribution among forest habitats are poorly understood. Historically, the boreal forest of interior Alaska has been characterized by a fire disturbance regime that maintains vegetation composition dominated by black spruce forest. Climate-driven changes in the boreal fire regime have begun to increase the occurrence of hardwood species in the boreal forest, including trembling aspen and Alaska paper birch. Replacement of black spruce forests with aspen forests may influence predatory hymenopteran assemblages due to differences in prey availability and extrafloral nectar provisioning. Furthermore, changes in the frequency and extent of boreal forest fires increase the proportion of forests in earlier successional stages, altering habitat structure. The primary goal of this study was to characterize predatory hymenopteran assemblages in post-fire boreal forests of interior Alaska. To investigate this, the abundance, species richness, and composition of predatory hymenopteran assemblages were compared among forests at different stages of succession that were dominated by black spruce pre-fire, but that vary in their tree species composition post-fire. Predatory hymenopterans were separated into three groups: ants, macropterous wasps, and micropterous wasps. Ant species richness and abundance were not related to forest composition, but both were significantly higher in early-successional forests than in mid-late successional forests. In contrast, macropterous wasp morphospecies richness and abundance, as well as micropterous wasp abundance, were positively related to the basal area of aspen, suggesting that aspen forests benefit macropterous and micropterous wasps, perhaps due to extrafloral nectar provisioning and the availability of greater quality prey than is provided by black spruce. Wasp assemblages did not differ between ... Thesis taiga Alaska University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA Fairbanks |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA |
op_collection_id |
ftunivalaska |
language |
English |
topic |
Hymenoptera Habitat Alaska Interior Alaska Host plants Phytophagous insects Parasitic wasps Ants Taigas Taiga ecology Populus tremuloides Diseases and pests |
spellingShingle |
Hymenoptera Habitat Alaska Interior Alaska Host plants Phytophagous insects Parasitic wasps Ants Taigas Taiga ecology Populus tremuloides Diseases and pests Wenninger, Alexandria Predatory Hymenopteran assemblages in boreal Alaska: associations with forest composition and post-fire succession |
topic_facet |
Hymenoptera Habitat Alaska Interior Alaska Host plants Phytophagous insects Parasitic wasps Ants Taigas Taiga ecology Populus tremuloides Diseases and pests |
description |
Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018 Predatory Hymenoptera play key roles in terrestrial foodwebs and affect ecosystem processes, but their assemblage composition and distribution among forest habitats are poorly understood. Historically, the boreal forest of interior Alaska has been characterized by a fire disturbance regime that maintains vegetation composition dominated by black spruce forest. Climate-driven changes in the boreal fire regime have begun to increase the occurrence of hardwood species in the boreal forest, including trembling aspen and Alaska paper birch. Replacement of black spruce forests with aspen forests may influence predatory hymenopteran assemblages due to differences in prey availability and extrafloral nectar provisioning. Furthermore, changes in the frequency and extent of boreal forest fires increase the proportion of forests in earlier successional stages, altering habitat structure. The primary goal of this study was to characterize predatory hymenopteran assemblages in post-fire boreal forests of interior Alaska. To investigate this, the abundance, species richness, and composition of predatory hymenopteran assemblages were compared among forests at different stages of succession that were dominated by black spruce pre-fire, but that vary in their tree species composition post-fire. Predatory hymenopterans were separated into three groups: ants, macropterous wasps, and micropterous wasps. Ant species richness and abundance were not related to forest composition, but both were significantly higher in early-successional forests than in mid-late successional forests. In contrast, macropterous wasp morphospecies richness and abundance, as well as micropterous wasp abundance, were positively related to the basal area of aspen, suggesting that aspen forests benefit macropterous and micropterous wasps, perhaps due to extrafloral nectar provisioning and the availability of greater quality prey than is provided by black spruce. Wasp assemblages did not differ between ... |
author2 |
Wagner, Diane Hollingsworth, Teresa Skies, Derek |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Wenninger, Alexandria |
author_facet |
Wenninger, Alexandria |
author_sort |
Wenninger, Alexandria |
title |
Predatory Hymenopteran assemblages in boreal Alaska: associations with forest composition and post-fire succession |
title_short |
Predatory Hymenopteran assemblages in boreal Alaska: associations with forest composition and post-fire succession |
title_full |
Predatory Hymenopteran assemblages in boreal Alaska: associations with forest composition and post-fire succession |
title_fullStr |
Predatory Hymenopteran assemblages in boreal Alaska: associations with forest composition and post-fire succession |
title_full_unstemmed |
Predatory Hymenopteran assemblages in boreal Alaska: associations with forest composition and post-fire succession |
title_sort |
predatory hymenopteran assemblages in boreal alaska: associations with forest composition and post-fire succession |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8749 |
geographic |
Fairbanks |
geographic_facet |
Fairbanks |
genre |
taiga Alaska |
genre_facet |
taiga Alaska |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8749 Department of Biology and Wildlife |
_version_ |
1766214690997796864 |