Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The responses of leaf litter ant communities to wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon
T2 - a multi-region assessment
AU - Silveira, Juliana M.
AU - Barlow, Jos
AU - Andrade, Rafael B.
AU - Louzada, Julio
AU - Mestre, Luiz A.
AU - Lacau, Sebastien
AU - Zanetti, Ronald
AU - Numata, Izaya
AU - Cochrane, Mark A.
PY - 2013/2
Y1 - 2013/2
N2 - Fire is frequently used as tool for land management in the Amazon, but often escapes into surrounding forests, with potentially severe impacts for forest biodiversity. We investigated the effects of single wildfires on ant communities in four geographically distinct regions of the Brazilian Amazon (Roraima, Para, Acre and Mato Grosso) where forests had burned between 8 months and 10 years before our sampling. We established 7-12 transects, 500 m each, in burned and unburned forests in each region to investigate the effects of fire on forest structure and leaf litter ant communities, which were sampled using Winkler sacks. Fire effects on forest structure were more drastic in the most recently burned forests in Acre and Mato Grosso, while the impacts of older burns in Roraima and Para were more subtle. Ant species richness was not different between burnt and unburned areas, but community composition differed between burned and control forests in all regions except Mato Grosso. At the species level, indicator species analysis showed that a limited number of species were significant indicators of unburned control forests in all regions, except Acre. Forests structure variables and leaf litter volume were all important in shaping ant communities, but their relative importance varied between regions. Our results indicate that burned forest have different ant species communities from unburned forests, and those differences are still apparent 10 years after the disturbance, highlighting the importance of effective policies for fire management in Amazon.
AB - Fire is frequently used as tool for land management in the Amazon, but often escapes into surrounding forests, with potentially severe impacts for forest biodiversity. We investigated the effects of single wildfires on ant communities in four geographically distinct regions of the Brazilian Amazon (Roraima, Para, Acre and Mato Grosso) where forests had burned between 8 months and 10 years before our sampling. We established 7-12 transects, 500 m each, in burned and unburned forests in each region to investigate the effects of fire on forest structure and leaf litter ant communities, which were sampled using Winkler sacks. Fire effects on forest structure were more drastic in the most recently burned forests in Acre and Mato Grosso, while the impacts of older burns in Roraima and Para were more subtle. Ant species richness was not different between burnt and unburned areas, but community composition differed between burned and control forests in all regions except Mato Grosso. At the species level, indicator species analysis showed that a limited number of species were significant indicators of unburned control forests in all regions, except Acre. Forests structure variables and leaf litter volume were all important in shaping ant communities, but their relative importance varied between regions. Our results indicate that burned forest have different ant species communities from unburned forests, and those differences are still apparent 10 years after the disturbance, highlighting the importance of effective policies for fire management in Amazon.
KW - Tropical forest
KW - DOMINANT ANTS
KW - EXPERIMENTAL FIRE REGIMES
KW - Winkler sack
KW - SAVANNA
KW - BIODIVERSITY
KW - NORMALIZED BURN RATIO
KW - NORTHERN AUSTRALIA
KW - SPECIES RICHNESS
KW - TROPICAL FORESTS
KW - Brazil
KW - Community ecology
KW - CLIMATE-CHANGE
KW - Disturbance
KW - VEGETATION
U2 - 10.1007/s10531-012-0426-8
DO - 10.1007/s10531-012-0426-8
M3 - Journal article
VL - 22
SP - 513
EP - 529
JO - Biodiversity and Conservation
JF - Biodiversity and Conservation
SN - 0960-3115
IS - 2
ER -