Canopy arthropod communities on Mexican oaks at sites with different disturbance regimes

We examined the effects of forest disturbance and fragmentation on diversity and composition of canopy arthropod fauna in six oak species in central Mexico. Canopy fogging of 54 trees during rainy and dry seasons was conducted on three temperate forests with different levels of disturbance and habitat fragmentation. In total, we found 831 morphospecies belonging to 20 arthropod orders. Diversity of arthropods was higher in the rainy season. Acari, Hymenoptera and Diptera orders dominated during the dry season, and Acari and Collembola during the rainy season. Oak species distributed in sites with lower disturbance had significantly higher arthropod diversity than those distributed in disturbed and fragmented sites. Mean density of arthropod fauna ranged from 47.0 individuals m2 in the dry season to 375.5 m2 in the rainy season. Forest disturbance and fragmentation reduced the number of arthropod morphospecies and modified the relative abundance of arthropods at order level