Summer fire in steppe habitats: long-term effects on vegetation and autumnal assemblages of cursorial arthropods
Being an essential driving factor in dry grassland ecosystems, uncontrolled fires can cause damage to isolated natural areas. We investigated a case of a small-scale mid-summer fire in an abandoned steppe pasture in northeastern Ukraine and focused on the post-fire recovery of arthropod assemblages...
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doaj-149e61927aa145c7ba150f1edfeb7e702021-09-06T19:22:15ZengSciendoHacquetia1854-98292019-12-0118221323110.2478/hacq-2019-0006hacq-2019-0006Summer fire in steppe habitats: long-term effects on vegetation and autumnal assemblages of cursorial arthropodsPolchaninova Nina0Savchenko Galina1Ronkin Vladimir2Drogvalenko Aleksandr3Putchkov Alexandr4Department of Zoology and Animal Ecology, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, 4, Svobody Sq., Kharkiv, 61022, Ukraine.Department of Zoology and Animal Ecology, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, 4, Svobody Sq., Kharkiv, 61022, Ukraine.Department of Zoology and Animal Ecology, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, 4, Svobody Sq., Kharkiv, 61022, Ukraine.Department of Zoology and Animal Ecology, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, 4, Svobody Sq., Kharkiv, 61022, Ukraine.I.I. Schnmalhausen Institute of Zoology NAS of Ukraine, 15 B. Khmelnitskoho Str., 01601, Kyiv-30, Ukraine.Being an essential driving factor in dry grassland ecosystems, uncontrolled fires can cause damage to isolated natural areas. We investigated a case of a small-scale mid-summer fire in an abandoned steppe pasture in northeastern Ukraine and focused on the post-fire recovery of arthropod assemblages (mainly spiders and beetles) and vegetation pattern. The living cover of vascular plants recovered in a year, while the cover of mosses and litter remained sparse for four years. The burnt site was colonised by mobile arthropods occurring in surrounding grasslands. The fire had no significant impact on arthropod diversity or abundance, but changed their assemblage structure, namely dominant complexes and trophic guild ratio. The proportion of phytophages reduced, while that of omnivores increased. The fire destroyed the variety of the arthropod assemblages created by the patchiness of vegetation cover. In the post-fire stage they were more similar to each other than at the burnt plot in the pre- and post-fire period. Spider assemblages tended to recover their pre-fire state, while beetle assemblages retained significant differences during the entire study period.https://doi.org/10.2478/hacq-2019-0006assemblage structurebeetlesdry grasslandspost-fire recoveryspidersnortheast ukrainevegetation characteristics |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Polchaninova Nina Savchenko Galina Ronkin Vladimir Drogvalenko Aleksandr Putchkov Alexandr |
spellingShingle |
Polchaninova Nina Savchenko Galina Ronkin Vladimir Drogvalenko Aleksandr Putchkov Alexandr Summer fire in steppe habitats: long-term effects on vegetation and autumnal assemblages of cursorial arthropods Hacquetia assemblage structure beetles dry grasslands post-fire recovery spiders northeast ukraine vegetation characteristics |
author_facet |
Polchaninova Nina Savchenko Galina Ronkin Vladimir Drogvalenko Aleksandr Putchkov Alexandr |
author_sort |
Polchaninova Nina |
title |
Summer fire in steppe habitats: long-term effects on vegetation and autumnal assemblages of cursorial arthropods |
title_short |
Summer fire in steppe habitats: long-term effects on vegetation and autumnal assemblages of cursorial arthropods |
title_full |
Summer fire in steppe habitats: long-term effects on vegetation and autumnal assemblages of cursorial arthropods |
title_fullStr |
Summer fire in steppe habitats: long-term effects on vegetation and autumnal assemblages of cursorial arthropods |
title_full_unstemmed |
Summer fire in steppe habitats: long-term effects on vegetation and autumnal assemblages of cursorial arthropods |
title_sort |
summer fire in steppe habitats: long-term effects on vegetation and autumnal assemblages of cursorial arthropods |
publisher |
Sciendo |
series |
Hacquetia |
issn |
1854-9829 |
publishDate |
2019-12-01 |
description |
Being an essential driving factor in dry grassland ecosystems, uncontrolled fires can cause damage to isolated natural areas. We investigated a case of a small-scale mid-summer fire in an abandoned steppe pasture in northeastern Ukraine and focused on the post-fire recovery of arthropod assemblages (mainly spiders and beetles) and vegetation pattern. The living cover of vascular plants recovered in a year, while the cover of mosses and litter remained sparse for four years. The burnt site was colonised by mobile arthropods occurring in surrounding grasslands. The fire had no significant impact on arthropod diversity or abundance, but changed their assemblage structure, namely dominant complexes and trophic guild ratio. The proportion of phytophages reduced, while that of omnivores increased. The fire destroyed the variety of the arthropod assemblages created by the patchiness of vegetation cover. In the post-fire stage they were more similar to each other than at the burnt plot in the pre- and post-fire period. Spider assemblages tended to recover their pre-fire state, while beetle assemblages retained significant differences during the entire study period. |
topic |
assemblage structure beetles dry grasslands post-fire recovery spiders northeast ukraine vegetation characteristics |
url |
https://doi.org/10.2478/hacq-2019-0006 |
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