Within shelterwood and multicohort stands, the effects of within-stand heterogeneity were observed as samples collected from machine corridors formed a terminal node and were separated from samples AG-014699 research buy collected in either the retention strip or uncut vegetation corridors in the fifth split (Fig. 4). Overall catch rates of species commonly associated with uncut forests (P. adstrictus, P. pensylvanicus, P. decentis and A. retractum) were greater in machine corridors than in either retention or uncut vegetation strips ( Fig. 5). While neither shelterwood

nor multicohort harvesting maintained overall catch rates similar to those found in uncut stands, partial cutting did maintain some of the compositional characteristics of beetle assemblages in uncut SB203580 chemical structure stands. The compositional shifts we observed in ground beetles between clear cuts and uncut stands are consistent with the well-documented pattern whereby reductions in standing retention also reduce the abundance of dominant forest species and at the same time promote species associated with more open habitats resulting in increased species richness in harvested stands (Niemelä et al., 1993, Niemelä et al., 2007 and Work et al., 2010). In our study, shelterwood and multicohort cutting had

similar impacts on beetle composition and created assemblages that fell between clear cuts and uncut stands in terms of both composition and species richness. This suggests Glutamate dehydrogenase that residual standing retention, at least initially, is providing some benefit over clear cutting for species commonly associated with closed-canopy forests and may also be limiting proliferation of open-habitat species in partial cut stands. It also suggests the shelterwood harvesting initially provides at least some de facto benefit for biodiversity. Other studies examining comparatively lower retention levels than tested in our study have also suggested that partial cutting maintains higher abundances of carabids associated with closed canopy forests relative to clear cuts ( Martikainen

et al., 2006, Halaj et al., 2008 and Work et al., 2010). In studies that examined responses of boreal carabid assemblages at retention levels higher than 66%, differences in carabid assemblages were observed even between uncut stand and stands retaining 75% of the pre-harvest basal area at least over the initial 1 and 2 year period sampled post-harvest ( Work et al., 2010). These differences were attributable in large part to pre-treatment recruitment by P. adstrictus, where individuals were oviposited prior to harvest but emerged post-harvest. Five years post-harvest, these authors were no longer able to distinguish assemblages in conifer dominated stands with 75% retention and uncut stands ( Work et al., 2010). In our study, we collected beetles 2 and 3-years post-harvest and did not observe a similar peak in post-treatment recruitment.