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Fire and collembolans communities: Catastrophe or not
Forest Ecology and Management 234S (2006) S193
Abstract
Fire and collembolans communities: Catastrophe or not Izabella Olejniczak a, Olga Grabczyn´ska b, Anna Pre˛decka c, Stefan Russel b a
Centre for Ecological Research PAS, Dziekanow Lesny,05-092Lomainki, Poland Warsaw Agricultural University Faculty of agriculture and Biology, Department of Soil Environmental Science, Nowoursynowska Street 166, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland c The Main Scool of Fire Service, Civil Safety Engineering Faculty, Department of Safety Analyses and Prognosis, Slowackiego Street 52/54, 01-629 Warsaw, Poland b
Keywords: Collembola; Burnt plots; Communities
Soil invertebrates, including microarthropods such as springtails (Collembola) may control soil processes and ecosystem function. Impact of fire on microarthropods became one of the crucial problems in ecology. The effects of fire on microarthropods are still controversial and the knowledge about this phenomena is still scarce, especially in case of forest ecosystems. Our study was carried out in fresh pine mixed forest, Biala Forest, near Warsaw (218100 , 528300 N, Eastern Poland) in 2005. The sampling plots were chosen at random and burnt. We had burnt three plots in June. The plots, that we burnt, were 1 m2 in size. Material was collected three times – in June – just after burning and 60 days (in August), and 90 days (in September) after burning. Every time soil samples were taken with a steel corer of an area of 10 cm2 to the depth of 5 cm. On every sampling occasion 10 soil samples of an area of 10 cm2 and a depth of 5 cm were taken in each sampling plots: burnt plots, in border of burnt plots and in surroundings of burnt plots.
DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2006.08.312 E-mail addresses: [email protected] (I. Olejniczak), [email protected] (A. Pre˛decka), [email protected] (S. Russel).
We did not find significant differences between densities of collembolan communities in burnt plots, border of burnt plots and surroundings of burnt plots (Kruskall-Wallis test, Chi2 = 4.74; d.f. = 2; p = 0.09). In burnt plots dominating species was Mesaphorura macrochaeta (43% of total number of individuals), that belonged to euedaphic group, living in the soil, even to the depth of 20 cm. Contrary to the burnt plots, in border of burnt plots dominating species were Entomobrya arborea and Isotoma notabilis (both of them 24% of total number of individuals), that respectively, belonged to epigeic and hemiedaphic groups. Proprtion of epigeic, hemiedaphic and euedaphic species in collembolan communities of burnt plots could point to different defence strategies of these invertebrates. Immature individuals of Collembola were dominating in burnt plots and border of burnt plots and this probably is crucial for reconstruction of collembolan communities after fire.
Abstract
Fire and collembolans communities: Catastrophe or not Izabella Olejniczak a, Olga Grabczyn´ska b, Anna Pre˛decka c, Stefan Russel b a
Centre for Ecological Research PAS, Dziekanow Lesny,05-092Lomainki, Poland Warsaw Agricultural University Faculty of agriculture and Biology, Department of Soil Environmental Science, Nowoursynowska Street 166, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland c The Main Scool of Fire Service, Civil Safety Engineering Faculty, Department of Safety Analyses and Prognosis, Slowackiego Street 52/54, 01-629 Warsaw, Poland b
Keywords: Collembola; Burnt plots; Communities
Soil invertebrates, including microarthropods such as springtails (Collembola) may control soil processes and ecosystem function. Impact of fire on microarthropods became one of the crucial problems in ecology. The effects of fire on microarthropods are still controversial and the knowledge about this phenomena is still scarce, especially in case of forest ecosystems. Our study was carried out in fresh pine mixed forest, Biala Forest, near Warsaw (218100 , 528300 N, Eastern Poland) in 2005. The sampling plots were chosen at random and burnt. We had burnt three plots in June. The plots, that we burnt, were 1 m2 in size. Material was collected three times – in June – just after burning and 60 days (in August), and 90 days (in September) after burning. Every time soil samples were taken with a steel corer of an area of 10 cm2 to the depth of 5 cm. On every sampling occasion 10 soil samples of an area of 10 cm2 and a depth of 5 cm were taken in each sampling plots: burnt plots, in border of burnt plots and in surroundings of burnt plots.
DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2006.08.312 E-mail addresses: [email protected] (I. Olejniczak), [email protected] (A. Pre˛decka), [email protected] (S. Russel).
We did not find significant differences between densities of collembolan communities in burnt plots, border of burnt plots and surroundings of burnt plots (Kruskall-Wallis test, Chi2 = 4.74; d.f. = 2; p = 0.09). In burnt plots dominating species was Mesaphorura macrochaeta (43% of total number of individuals), that belonged to euedaphic group, living in the soil, even to the depth of 20 cm. Contrary to the burnt plots, in border of burnt plots dominating species were Entomobrya arborea and Isotoma notabilis (both of them 24% of total number of individuals), that respectively, belonged to epigeic and hemiedaphic groups. Proprtion of epigeic, hemiedaphic and euedaphic species in collembolan communities of burnt plots could point to different defence strategies of these invertebrates. Immature individuals of Collembola were dominating in burnt plots and border of burnt plots and this probably is crucial for reconstruction of collembolan communities after fire.