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Member Symposium

Downed Logs as a Bridge: Connecting Subdisciplines and Geographic Regions with Saproxylic Insects

Lightning damage facilitates insect and fungal colonization of trees in a neotropical forest

Wednesday, November 8, 2023
2:15 PM – 2:35 PM ET
Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor 12
In-Person
Lightning is a major cause of large tree mortality in tropical forests. Lightning-caused canopy gaps consist of abundant dead standing wood which likely is a predictable resource for saproxylic organisms. The goal of this study was to determine how the local distributions of four arboreal organisms, which occupy multiple trophic levels (primary consumers–beetles, secondary consumers–Azteca ants, and detritivores–termites, fungi), are affected by lightning damage. We surveyed known lightning strikes on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama to determine if these groups were more frequently observed in dead or living trees of varying sizes in lightning strike locations. We then compared these colonization patterns to undamaged trees of the same species and size class in adjacent, undamaged (control) forest. We also surveyed beetle assemblages in both settings with flight-intercept traps. Beetles, termites, and fungi colonized dead trees more frequently than living trees in strike sites. Beetles and fungi respectively were 3.8 and 12.2 times more likely to be observed in lightning-killed trees vs. living control trees, whereas the frequencies of Azteca ants and termites were similar between control and strike sites. Beetles were 10 times more abundant in strike sites, and assemblages were compositionally distinct from those collected in control sites. These results indicate that lightning-caused disturbance plays a key role in structuring local arthropod communities. Thus, predicted increases in tropical lightning frequency are likely to have ecosystem-level consequences.