Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok VIII. - Natura Somogyiensis 23. (Kaposvár, 2013)
Farkas S. - Vlisics F. - Bálint L. - Bóka B. - Juhász N. - Otártics M. - Szabó E. - Szijártó Zs. - Üst N.: Isopod communities of Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) plantations in Transdanubia (Hungary)
Natura Somogyiensis 23 125-134 Kaposvár, 2013 Isopod communities of Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) plantations in Transdanubia (Hungary) Sándor Farkas1, Ferenc Vilisics2, Lászó Bálint3, Balázs Bóka4, Nikolett Juhász5, Máté Otártics6, Eszter Szabó7, Zsolt Szíjártó8 & Norbert Üst9 l,3,4,5,6,7,8,9Depa]rtment of Nature Protection, Faculty of Animal Science, Kaposvár University H-7400 Kaposvár, Guba S. u. 40, HUNGARY; farkas.sandor@ke.hu 2University of Helsinki, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Bio- and Environmental Sciences, 00014 Helsinki, Viikinkaari 2, FINLAND Farkas, S., Vilisics, F., Bálint, L., Bóka, B., Juhász, N., Otártics, M., Szabó, E., Szíjártó Zs., & Üst, N.: Isopod communities of Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) plantations in Transdanubia (Hungary). Abstract: Terrestrial isopod communities were studied in 27 Black locust forest in Transdanubia between 1995 and 2011 by hand sampling and pitfall trapping. The investigations yielded 17 species. The most common isopod species of Transdanubia (Porcdlium collicola, Armadillidium vulgare, Trachelipus rathkii, T. nodulo- sus and Hyloniscus riparius) proved to be frequent in the Black locust plantations, too. All of these species are generalists. The assemblages consisted of 4-5 species. Dominant species of the communities were A. vulgare or P. collicola, alternatively. Species diversity and evenness of the assemblages were low. Strong association was pointed out between A. vulgare, P. collicola and T. rathkii while negative association was calculated between T. nodulosus and H. riparius. Keywords: woodlice, soil fauna, forest plantation, diversity Introduction In 2002, 3% of the world's forests were plantations (FAO 1999). Forest plantations are established artificially in order to produce high volume of wood in a short period of time. Such plantations are usually large scale and characterized by a single tree species arranged in even-age blocks. The planted trees are often exotic and their monoculture stands provide a greatly altered environment in comparison to the indigenous vegetation. Contribution to the total forest area is uneven: it is 20% in New Zealand and over 90% in Great Britain (FAO 1999). In Hungary, this proportion is over 32% [1], It is commonly accepted that eradication of indigenous woods and establishment of forest plantations will have a negative effect on biodiversity (Freedman et al. 1996; Wagner et al. 1998). Despite a few cases (e.g Palik and Engstrom 1999) when forest plantations supported higher animal diversities relative to the native forests, we must bear in mind that species richness is a weak measure of habitat naturalness, as it does not tell anything about ecological functions of species, e.g. their role within the trophic networks.
