Connectivity of litter islands remaining after a fire and unburnt forest determines the recovery of soil fauna |
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| Affiliation: | 1. A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky prospect, 33, Moscow 119071, Russian Federation;2. Institute of Animal Ecology, Justus-Liebig-University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26, 35392 Giessen, Germany;3. Biogeography Department, Faculty of Geography, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vorobyevy Gory 1, Moscow 119899, Russian Federation;4. Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), PO Box 7044, Uppsala SE-750 07, Sweden;1. Georg August University Göttingen, JFB Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Berliner Str. 28, 37073 Göttingen, Germany;2. Bavarian Forest National Park, Freyunger Str. 2, 94481 Grafenau, Germany;1. Faculté de Gestion, Economie & Sciences, Laboratoire Ecosystèmes et Responsabilités Sociales, Université Catholique de Lille, 56 rue du Port, 59016 Lille, Cedex, France;2. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS UMR 7179, 4 avenue du Petit Château, 91800 Brunoy, France;3. Université Lille 1, Laboratoire Génie Civil et Géo-Environnement, EA 4515, 59655 Villeneuve d''Ascq, France;4. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS UMR 7205, 55 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France;5. UDSL, Forensic Taphonomy Unit, EA 7367, F-59000 Lille, France;1. Science and Conservation Division, Department of Parks and Wildlife, Locked Bag 104, Bentley Delivery Centre, WA 6983, Australia;2. CSIRO Land and Water Flagship, Private Bag 5, Wembley, WA 6913, Australia;3. CSIRO Land and Water Flagship, PMB 44, Winnellie, NT 0822, Australia;1. Instituto de Biología Subtropical, Universidad Nacional de Misiones – CONICET, Bertoni 85 (3370), Puerto Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina;2. Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, Bertoni 124 (3380), Eldorado, Misiones, Argentina;3. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Argentina;1. A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky pr., 33, Moscow, 119071, Russia;2. Institute of Animal Ecology, Justus-Liebig-University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26, 35392 Giessen, Germany;1. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic;2. Institute of Soil Biology, Biology Centre AS CR, Na Sádkách 7, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic;3. Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Palacký University, Svobody 26, 77146 Olomouc, Czech Republic |
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| Abstract: | Forest wildfires can dramatically affect soil communities and reduce abundance and diversity of soil fauna. The recovery of soil animals after a fire depends both on immigration from the unburnt forest and on local survival in less-burnt spots, but the relative importance of these mechanisms is poorly known. Therefore, these factors were studied with regard to soil macrofauna and soil mites seven years after a wildfire occurring in a pine forest area with shallow soil in 2001 in central Sweden. Three replicate transects, each consisting of four plots were studied. The plots were located in (i) the unburnt forest close to the fire edge; (ii) slightly burnt patches directly attached to the unburnt forest; (iii) slightly burnt patches surrounded by bare rock but connected to the unburnt forest edge by a corridor with mostly unburnt litter and vegetation; and (iv) island patches not connected with a corridor to the unburnt forest edge. The hypothesis was that that soil animals would particularly disperse from the unburnt forest to moderately burnt plots inside a burnt area via the network of less-burnt corridors. Poor dispersers would be especially few in the island patches lacking connection to the “mainland”, whereas good dispersers would be independent of gaps in connectivity. As expected, the highest abundance of both macrofauna and oribatid mites was found in the unburnt forest. Resident soil macro- and mesofauna representatives had half the abundance in the edge and corridor plots as compared to the control, but their abundance was not lower in the island plots than in the corridor plots indicating on-site survival and recovery. Mobile mesostigmatid mites did not show any significant reduction of abundance in any of the plots. The abundance of soil-dwelling oribatid mites did not differ between islands and unburnt forest, but mobile aboveground oribatids had significantly lower abundance on the islands than in the unburnt forest. The opposite was observed for aboveground and belowground oribatid mite species richness. In conclusion, belowground animals showed mainly local survival and seemed to be independent of corridors presence, whereas most aboveground and mobile macro- and mesofauna seemed to be more responsive to isolation induced by forest fires. Soil and litter corridors connecting unburnt patches inside the burnt forests with the unburnt edges were important mainly for less mobile groups of soil macrofauna. This supports the idea that there is a relatively slow process of soil ecosystem recovery and that external colonization of the burnt areas dominates over the local survival and recovery from refuges. |
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| Keywords: | Forest wildfire Corridors Soil macrofauna Soil mites Oribatida Ecosystem recovery |
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