Forest Arthropods

Forest habitats, especially northern ones, dominate life zones in the country, and knowing their associated fauna is basic to understanding the arthropod fauna of Canada. 

Goal: 
The primary goal of the Forest Arthropods Project is to coordinate research on the diversity, ecology and impacts of the arthropods of Canadian forests. The project will involve a large number of specialists with expertise on different taxa, in different geographic regions, and with different research interests. 

Objectives: 
The project will address three general objectives on the nature of arthropods associated with Canadian forests:

• What is the biodiversity of arthropods associated with Canadian forests? How diverse are these communities, how similar are they among forest types, and how different are they from arthropod communities in other habitats? This will all be couched in a spatial/temporal framework.

• What are the ecological interactions between arthropods, plants and other animal species in Canadian forests? What are the significant species assemblages in selected habitats and what are their ecological roles?

• What are the impacts of human activity and global climate change on forest arthropod communities; conversely, what are the impacts of forest arthropods on human activities?

Activities

Survey of Forest Arthropod Biodiversity Projects
The Biological Survey of Canada initiated a new survey of active forest arthropod biodiversity projects in Canada in 2004 to update the last survey (1996). The results of this survey are now available. This database is updated regularly as new information becomes available. If you wish to update a project currently listed or if you have a new project that you wish to be listed in this database, please forward information to the contact included below. Please consult the documents available here (as english and french pdf files) for more information concerning the survey rationale and scope and for a list of information required for each new project

Forest arthropod inventory survey (English)

Inventaire des projets relatifs aux arthropodes forestiers au Canada (français)

Please reply preferably by email (in English or French) to: 
Dr. David W. Langor
Research Scientist - Insect Management & Biodiversity
Natural Resources Canada - Canadian Forest Service
5320 - 122 Street NW
Edmonton, Alberta, T6H 3S5 CANADA
phone: 780-435-7330 FAX: 780-435-7359
Email: dlangor@nrcan.gc.ca

 

Forest Arthropods Newsletter
Arthropods of Canadian Forests was a product of a collaboration between Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service and the Biological Survey of Canada. The goal of the newsletter was to serve as a communication tool to encourage information exchange and collaboration among those in Canada who work on forest arthropod biodiversity issues, including faunistics, systematics, conservation, disturbance ecology, and adaptive forest management. It was published from 2005 to 2009.

The issues are available on the Newsletters section of this web site.

Symposium
A BSC-sponsored symposium, 'Maintaining Arthropods in Northern Forest Ecosystems', took place at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of Alberta and Entomological Society of Canada in Canmore, Alberta, on November 4, 2005. This symposium, organized by John Spence and David Langor was an opportunity to pull together and synthesize what is known about structure and dynamics of selected arthropod assemblages in managed northern forests (mainly boreal and north temperate). The symposium included the following papers:

Deciphering a complex web: the structure and dynamics of spider assemblages in disturbance-driven boreal forests. D.P. Shorthouse, C. Buddle

Using core species assemblages and rare carabid taxa to evaluate forest change in Canada. T. Work, J.R. Spence, D.W. Langor, M. Koivula, J. Sweeney

Rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) in northern forests. G. Pohl, D.W. Langor, J. Klimaszewski, T.T. Work

Maintaining saproxylic insects in managed forests. D.W. Langor, J.R. Spence, J.E.H. Hammond, J. Jacobs, T. Cobb

Structure and conservation of lepidopteran communities in managed forests of northeastern North America: a review. K. Summerville, T.O. Crist

Aquatic arthropods and large-scale land-use effects in temperate North America. J. Richardson

Unthreatening forest arthropods: simultaneous management of 'beezillions' of small and heterogenous risks. J. Spence, D.W. Langor, W.J.A. Volney, J. Jacobs 

Abstracts of these papers are posted here.

A set of papers stemming from this symposium was published in The Canadian Entomologist (2008) Volume 140, Number 4.

The Cerambycidae of Canada and Alaska
This research and synthesis project resulted from a partnership between the Canadian Forest Service, the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the University of Cape Breton, and the BSC. The goal is to produce and publish a series of handbooks to the Cerambycidae (Coleoptera) of Canada and Alaska. Most of the large collections in Canada and Alaska have now been examined, and specimens identified and entered into a database. Revisionary work is near completion for the genus Tetropium, and other taxonomic work is under way. Some keys have already been developed and photographs prepared.

Forest BioBlitz
The 2007 BioBlitz was held in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, Newfoundland, July 16-20, 2007.

The 2006 BSC BioBlitz took place in Gros Morne National Park (GMNP) in northwestern Newfoundland from 5-10 July.

Bio-Blitz 2005 in Waterton Lakes National Park (WLNP) was the fifth annual BioBlitz sponsored by the Biological Survey of Canada. The previous four Bio-Blitzes took place in predominantly grassland sites (Onefour, Alberta; Tall Grass Prairie Reserve, Manitoba; Peace River grasslands, Alberta; Aweme, Manitoba). The event in WLNP was, therefore, the first to include non-grassland ecosystems. 

See the BioBlitz page for a report for the above and all past BioBlitzes.

This page last updated 08/24/2009