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28 March 2024 Distinct communities under the snow: describing characteristics of subnivium arthropod communities
Christopher P. Ziadeh, Shayleigh B. Ziadeh, Breanne H. Aflague, Mark A. Townley, Matthew P. Ayres, Alexandra R. Contosta, Jeff R. Garnas
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Abstract

Arthropods are active during the winter in temperate regions. Many use the seasonal snowpack as a buffer against harsh ambient conditions and are active in a refugium known as the subnivium. While the use of the subnivium by arthropods is well established, far less is known about subnivium community composition, abundance, biomass, and diversity and how these characteristics compare with the community in the summer. Understanding subnivium communities is especially important given the observed and anticipated changes in snowpack depth and duration due to the changing climate. We compared subnivium arthropod communities with those active during the summer using pitfall trapping in northern New Hampshire. We found that compositions of ground-active arthropod communities in the subnivium differed from those in the summer. The subnivium arthropod community featured moderate levels of richness and other measures of diversity that tended to be lower than the summer community. More strikingly, the subnivium community was much lower in overall abundance and biomass. Interestingly, some arthropods were dominant in the subnivium but either rare or absent in summer collections. These putative “subnivium specialists” included the spider Cicurina brevis (Emerton 1890) (Araneae: Hahniidae) and 3 rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae): Arpedium cribratum Fauvel, 1878, Lesteva pallipes LeConte, 1863, and Porrhodites inflatus (Hatch, 1957). This study provides a detailed account of the subnivium arthropod community, establishes baseline information on arthropod communities in temperate forests of northeastern North America, and explores the idea of subnivium specialist taxa that are highly active in winter and might be especially vulnerable to climate change.

Graphical Abstract

img-AvVE_383.jpg

A temperate deciduous forest in winter and summer, including a cross-sectional view of the snowpack and leaf litter.The subnivium, a space between the snowpack and the soil surface that acts as a refuge for winter arthropods (and other taxa), is represented by the thin dark layer in the left panel.The arthropod community differs between seasons in composition, biomass, and abundance.The 5 arthropods presented on each side of the illustration, in winter (left) and in summer (right), are representative of groups commonly captured during their respective collection period. On the winter panel, from left to right, the arthropods shown here are a centipede (family Linotaeniidae), a spider (Cicurina brevis; family Hahniidae), a beetle larva (likely belonging to the family Cantharidae), a rove beetle (family Staphylinidae), and a wingless fly (genus Chionea). In the summer panel from left to right, the arthropods are a rove beetle (family Staphylinidae), a carrion beetle (family Silphidae), a cricket (family Rhaphidophoridae), a fly (family Phoridae), and a ground beetle (family Carabidae). The leaf litter layer and the arthropods depicted are magnified in this illustration for effect.

Christopher P. Ziadeh, Shayleigh B. Ziadeh, Breanne H. Aflague, Mark A. Townley, Matthew P. Ayres, Alexandra R. Contosta, and Jeff R. Garnas "Distinct communities under the snow: describing characteristics of subnivium arthropod communities," Environmental Entomology 53(3), 383-397, (28 March 2024). https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvae017
Received: 9 October 2023; Accepted: 13 March 2024; Published: 28 March 2024
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KEYWORDS
arthropod
climate change
pitfall trap
subnivium
winter
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