Canopy invertebrate community response to disturbance and consequences of herbivory in temperate and tropical forests

Arboreal invertebrates represent a diverse and functionally important component of forestecosystems. Many invertebrates respond rapidly and dramatically to changes in environmental conditions,making these organisms potentially useful indicators of forest condition. Canopy arthropods also signifi-cantly affect canopy structure and ecosystem processes such as primary productivity, nutrient cycling andhydrology.
Few canopy studies have been designed to address environmental issues such as how changes in landuse affect biodiversity or how changes in canopy biodiversity affect functional integration of forest ecosys-tems. Assessment of canopy invertebrate responses to environmental change and their consequences forecosystem processes requires manipulative experimental approaches with random replication of indepen-dent treatment plots to meet requirements of statistical analyses. This paper describes experimental ap-proaches for evaluating effects of environmental change on canopy arthropod diversity and species abun-dances and effects of herbivores on ecosystem processes. These studies have indicated similar functionalinteractions in taxonomically distinct temperate and tropical forest canopies.