Response of the surface-active beetle community (Coleoptera) to mixed-conifer forest restoration thinning and burning treatments in northern New Mexico, USA
Robert R Parmenter, Richard J Buss, Benjamin P Stout, Sarah M Hall, Orrin B Myers, Nathan Haan · 2026
Read Response of the surface-active beetle community (Coleoptera) to mixed-conifer forest restoration thinning and burning treatments in northern New Mexico, USA by Robert R Parmenter, Richard J Buss, Benjamin P Stout, Sarah M Hall, Orrin B Myers, Nathan Haan (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13585400.txt.
Description
Robert Parmenter and co-authors track how ground beetles answer forest thinning and prescribed burning in northern New Mexico. Their 2026 six-year case study uses a before-after design with control sites, the gold standard for field work of this kind. Western forests face hotter fires, insect outbreaks, and drought, and fuel treatments are spreading fast with little data on insects.
Pitfall-style sampling found 289 beetle taxa in the mixed-conifer stands. After thinning and burning, the community shifted clearly: 21 common species rose and 35 fell in the more open canopy. Only three common species vanished from treated sites, and two new ones moved in. Dead-wood species slipped against controls. Groups that eat fungi, debris, or mixed diets grew in numbers. The authors judge the treatment gentler than severe wildfire.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Robert R Parmenter, Richard J Buss, Benjamin P Stout, Sarah M Hall, Orrin B Myers, Nathan Haan |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 70 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |