Diversity of ground beetles and spiders as well as cynipid oak gall formation on irrigated and non-irrigated plots in a dry mixed Scots pine forest

In the dry Pfynwald forest a long-term experiment of WSL was initiated in 2003 with a set of irrigated and non-irrigated plots. Forest Entomologie WSL made several investigations, one of them on the effect of irrigation (or conversely of drought) on the biodiversity of epigaeic arthropods such as ground beetles and spiders. In addition, its effects were also assessed by counting galls formed by gall wasps on pubescent oak.

• WSL

• Wohlgemuth, T., Doublet, V., Nussbaumer, C., Feichtinger, L., & Rigling, A. (2018). Baumartenwechsel in den Walliser Waldföhrenwäldern verstärkt nach grossen Störungen. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen, 169(5), 260-268.
• Bose, A. K., A. Rigling, A. Gessler, F. Hagedorn, I. Brunner, L. Feichtinger, C. Bigler, S. Egli, S. Etzold, M. M. Gossner, C. Guidi, M. Lévesque, K. Meusburger, M. Peter, M. Saurer, D. Scherrer, P. Schleppi, L. Schönbeck, M. E. Vogel, G. von Arx, B. Wermelinger, T. Wohlgemuth, R. Zweifel, and M. Schaub. 2022. Lessons learned from a long-term irrigation experiment in a dry Scots pine forest: Impacts on traits and functioning. Ecol. Monogr. 92:e1507.