Immediate Impacts of Wildfires on Ground-dwelling macroinvertebrate Communities under Stones in Mediterranean Oak Forests.

ABSTRACT: Wildfires are considered a major disturbance to forest ecosystems in the Mediterranean countries of Southern Europe. Although ground-dwelling macroinvertebrates are crucial to many soil functions, there is a fundamental lack of understanding of how wildfires impact this community in the immediate term and of the role of stones in their survival. Hence, in the present study we assessed the immediate effects of wildfires in the ground-dwelling macroinvertebrate community found under stones by comparing communities in burnt and non-burnt Mediterranean oak forests. Our results revealed that stones allowed the survival of many taxa in the burnt area. However, abundance, richness, diversity, and equitability per stone were significantly lower at the burnt than unburnt sites. Furthermore, the res

SUBMITTER: Puga JRL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11392986 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature