The effects of recreational footpaths on terrestrial invertebrate communities in a UK ancient woodland: a case study from Blean Woods, Kent, UK

Journal article


Kennett, S., Rintoul‐Hynes, N. and Sanders, C. 2024. The effects of recreational footpaths on terrestrial invertebrate communities in a UK ancient woodland: a case study from Blean Woods, Kent, UK. Biodiversity. https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2024.2333305
AuthorsKennett, S., Rintoul‐Hynes, N. and Sanders, C.
Abstract

Globally, terrestrial invertebrates are in decline, in part due to habitat fragmentation. Footpaths provide nature-based recreation to the public but can present small-scale spatially continuous changes in forest dynamics. However, their effects on terrestrial invertebrate communities are unknown. Pitfall trapping was undertaken to identify whether terrestrial invertebrate communities were disrupted by a popular recreational footpath in Blean Woods, an ancient UK woodland. The study identified 720 invertebrates across 36 taxa from 20 footpath edge and forest interior traps. It was found that footpaths did not significantly affect terrestrial invertebrate communities. There was no difference in the taxonomic abundance, richness, and diversity; invertebrate trait abundance and richness; or invertebrate community composition between the footpath edge and woodland interior traps. Thus, footpaths in Blean Woods do not disturb the terrestrial invertebrate community, and therefore present a sustainable mechanism for facilitating public engagement with conservation in a nationally important protected ancient woodland.

KeywordsConservation; Edge effects; Fragmentation; Terrestrial invertabrate; Pitfall trapping
Year2024
JournalBiodiversity
PublisherTaylor & Francis
ISSN1488-8386
2160-0651
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2024.2333305
Official URLhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14888386.2024.2333305
Publication dates
Online12 Apr 2024
Publication process dates
Accepted17 Mar 2024
Deposited22 Apr 2024
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Page range1-13
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