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© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Fire is one of the main drivers of anthropogenic disturbances in temperate forest ecosystems worldwide, with multiple effects spread across ecological networks. Nevertheless, the biodiversity effects of fire are poorly known for species-diverse groups such as arthropods. In this research, we used a burn gradient generated two and three years after a large fire event to assess how different levels of fire severity affect arthropod diversity in the forest with the main forest forming long-living tree species Araucaria araucana, in southern Chile. The species richness and abundance of arthropods among trophic guilds was estimated annually in four fire-severity levels. We found that arthropods responded differently to fire severity levels, depending on their trophic guilds and years after fire (two and three years after fire). During the second year after fire, zoophages, phytophages, and parasitoids were more diverse in areas with high fire severity within the second year after fire, as compared to those in areas with low severity or unburned stands. In the third year after fire, a change in this trend was observed, where the abundance of all groups dropped significantly, with positive changes in the diversity in zoophages, phytophages, polyphages and saprophages, which is more noticeable in sites with high severity. These results indicate that annual variation in environmental conditions triggers bottom-up cascading effects for arthropods. Forests stands severely impacted by fires support highly fluctuating and possibly unstable arthropod assemblages. Hence, restoration efforts should be focused on recovering microhabitat conditions in these stands to allow the persistence of arthropods.

Details

Title
Fire Severity Causes Temporal Changes in Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Assemblages of Patagonian Araucaria–Nothofagus Forests
Author
Zúñiga, Alfredo H 1 ; Rau, Jaime R 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Fierro, Andrés 3 ; Vergara, Pablo M 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Encina-Montoya, Francisco 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Fuentes-Ramírez, Andrés 5 ; Jaksic, Fabian M 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Departamento de Ciencias Agronómicas y Recursos Naturales, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4810296, Chile; Laboratorio de Ecología, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas y Biodiversidad, Universidad de Los Lagos, Osorno 5310000, Chile; Programa de Doctorado en ciencias mención conservación y manejo de Recursos Naturales, Universidad de Los Lagos, Puerto Montt 5480000, Chile; Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES), Santiago 8331150, Chile 
 Laboratorio de Ecología, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas y Biodiversidad, Universidad de Los Lagos, Osorno 5310000, Chile 
 Departamento de Gestión Agraria, Facultad Tecnológica, Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH), Santiago 9170022, Chile 
 Núcleo de Estudios Ambientales, Departamento de Cs. Ambientales, Universidad Católica de Temuco, Temuco 4810296, Chile 
 Laboratorio de Biometría, Departamento de Ciencias Forestales, Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Medioambiente, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4810296, Chile; Centro Nacional de Excelencia para la Industria de la Madera (CENAMAD), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 8331150, Chile 
 Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES), Santiago 8331150, Chile 
First page
168
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
25716255
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2728462053
Copyright
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.