Natural disturbances are fundamental to forest ecosystem dynamics and have been used for two decades to improve forest management, notably in the boreal forest. Initially based on fire regimes, there is now a need to extend the concept to include other types of disturbances as they can greatly contribute to forest dynamics in some regions of the boreal zone. Here we review the main descriptors—that is, the severity, specificity, spatial and temporal descriptors and legacies, of windthrow and spruce bud worm outbreak disturbance regimes in boreal forests—in order to facilitate incorporating them into a natural disturbance-based forest management framework. We also describe the biological legacies that are generated by these disturbances. Temporal and spatial descriptors characterising both disturbance types are generally variable in time and space. This makes them difficult to reproduce in an ecosystem management framework. However, severity and specificity descriptors may provide a template upon which policies for maintaining post harvesting and salvage logging biological legacies can be based. In a context in which management mainly targets mature and old-growth stages, integrating insect and wind disturbances in a management framework is an important goal, as these disturbances contribute to creating heterogeneity in mature and old-growth forest characteristics.

The concept of functional trait-environment relationship posits that species in a local community should possess similar traits that match the selective environment. The present study examines species trait-habitat (using Fourth-corner and RLQ analyses) and habitat occupancy patterns (logistic regression models) of bird assemblages in boreal forest stands following disturbances by forest fire and salvage logging. The stands differed in the amount and composition of residual tree retention, salvage- and aquatic-edges, degree of burn severity (all measured at 100 and 500 m buffers), as well as landscape-level variables such as distance to previously burned forests. Tests of trait-habitat relationships showed that canopy-nesters and bark- and foliage- insectivores required high levels of residual trees of low burn severity, with the feeding guilds showing affinity for different stand composition. In contrast, ground-nesters and omnivores thrived in salvaged areas and associated edges. In addition, cavity-nesting and ground-foragers were associated with severely burned stands. The species’ habitat occupancy patterns were commensurate with trait requirements, which also appeared to be scale-dependent. For example, some fire-associated species had high occupancy probability in severely burned stands at small-scale (100 m buffer), which was consistent with their cavity-nesting trait. This pattern, however, was not evident at large-scale, where their feeding requirement (bark-insectivores) for low-severity burns dominated. Our study suggests that trait-habitat relationships can provide critical information to the complex ways species’ relate to key habitat factors following natural and anthropogenic disturbances.

A review of the rove beetle species of the genus Oxypoda Mannerheim from Canada and Alaska is presented. Thirty-seven species are treated, of which 4 have uncertain status, 6 are described as new to science, 8 (excluding new species) represent new distribution records for Canada, 17 (excluding new species) represent new province or territory records, 7 represent new state records, and 15 are newly synonymized. New species are Oxypoda canadensis Klimaszewski, sp. nov., O. chantali Klimaszewski, sp. nov., O. longicarinata Klimaszewski, sp. nov., O. smithi Klimaszewski, sp. nov., O. vockerothi Klimaszewski, sp. nov., and O. volkeri Klimaszewski, sp. nov. New country records are O. brachyptera (Stephens), O. gatosensis Bernhauer, O. gnara Casey, O. inimica Casey, O. orbicollis Casey, O. opaca (Gravenhorst), O. operta Sjo?berg, and O. perexilis Casey. New synonyms are O. amica Casey (= O. chillcotti Lohse syn. nov.), O. convergens Casey (= O. iowensis Casey syn. nov., O. profecta Casey syn. nov.), O. dubia Fenyes (= O. tenera Bernhauer syn. nov.), O. lucidula Casey (= O. parafunebris Lohse syn. nov.), O. manitobae Casey (= O. lata Lohse syn. nov.), O. mimetica Casey (= O. truncatella Casey, O. virginica Casey, O. canora Casey, O. latebricola Casey syn. nov.), O. perexilis Casey (= O. affecta Casey, O. croceola Casey, O. mollicula Casey, O. tenuicola Casey syn. nov.), and O. subpolaris Casey (= O. hemingi Lohse syn. nov.). The Canadian and Alaskan Oxypoda species are classified into 14 new species groups reflecting their presumed relationships. All treated species are illustrated, and distribution maps are included. New data on bionomics, distribution, and relationships are presented. Hylota ochracea Casey is removed from Oxypoda and reinstated to its original combination. © 2006 Entomological Society of Canada.

The host selection process of most phytophagous insects can be described as a sequence of behaviors leading from landscape-scale habitat location to host-plant scale, microsite selection. For the whitespotted sawyer, Monochamus scutellatus (Say), a fire-associated xylophagous cerambycid, host location and acceptance patterns have been relatively well described, whereas landscape-scale distribution patterns in recently disturbed areas have received virtually no attention. In a 5,097-ha recently burned black spruce forest of Quebec, Canada, we evaluated the variability of larval density of 569 trees in 114 plots, by using entry hole counts. This variability was then related to environmental variables ranging from tree- to landscape-scale. Both diameter at breast height (positive relationship) and fire severity (negative relationship) were significant at explaining larval density at tree scale. At larger scales, altitude had a negative effect on larval density, whereas plots having a higher percentage of unburned forest in a 500-m radius were more intensely colonized. The importance of the proximity of unburned stands could be linked to the feeding requirements of the adults, which should show preference for stands offering both egg-laying and feeding substrata, because several species of Monochamus have been shown to feed while being reproductively active. In our models, large-scale variables explained more variability in entry hole counts than did tree-scale variables. Thus, our results suggest that large-scale habitat location mechanisms may play an important role in the host selection process of the whitespotted sawyer.

Several insect groups have adapted to fire cycles in boreal forests, and can efficiently use new habitats created by fire. Our study aimed at producing a first characterization of post-fire Coleoptera assemblages of black spruce forests of eastern North America. For two years, we sampled Coleoptera using flight-interception traps in burned stands of contrasting age and structure in a 5097-ha wildfire and in neighbouring unburned mature stands. More than 40 species were exclusively captured in burned stands. Time elapsed since fire and proximity of unburned forests were the most significant parameters affecting Coleoptera assemblages. Stand age and structure had limited effects on assemblage structure; the Scolytid Polygraphus rufipennis Kirby was the only common species to clearly favor older stands. Fire-associated Coleoptera assemblages found in our study area were clearly distinct from those found in similar unburned stands; we should thus be conservative in our management approach concerning recently burned stands.