Abstract
Abstract Climate change models predict increased forest fire occurrence and severity in the near future. Forest fire disturbance affects multiple ecological interactions, but there is little evidence for how naturally-occurring fires affect plant quality and herbivore damage, which is important because plants and herbivorous insects comprise most of the diversity in natural ecosystems and are responsible for a variety of ecosystem services. We surveyed three fires in the Rocky Mountains to investigate the effects of fire severity on wax currant (Ribes cereum), an important source of food and cover for wildlife in Colorado. We measured plant quality and herbivore damage; we found that fire severity had a significant negative effect on both measures. Notably, high severity fires decreased herbivore damage by about 50%. Furthermore, we found that the effect of fire on insect herbivore damage is mostly direct, but that indirect effects mediated through changes in plant quality are also significant. Our results have important implications for the effects of climate-driven increases in fire severity on plant-insect interactions, illustrating strong direct and weaker indirect negative effects of fire severity in a forest ecosystem.
Highlights
Forest fires affect ecological interactions, population and community structure, as well as nutrient cycling, and thereby act as an important disturbance that shapes ecosystems (Veblen et al, 1994; Van Langevelde et al, 2003; Kay et al, 2008)
We found that increased fire severity decreased plant quality (Table 2)
Fire severity directly impacted host plant quality as well as herbivore damage, and the direct effect of fire severity on herbivore damage was stronger than the indirect effect via plant quality
Summary
Forest fires affect ecological interactions, population and community structure, as well as nutrient cycling, and thereby act as an important disturbance that shapes ecosystems (Veblen et al, 1994; Van Langevelde et al, 2003; Kay et al, 2008). It is important to understand how community interactions are affected by fire because fire activity is predicted to increase in the near future due to global climate change (Flannigan et al, 2000). As annual temperature increases due to climate change, more fires will occur, which will lead to changes in forest assembly (Flannigan et al, 2000; Dale et al, 2001; Clark et al, 2017). Changes in severity and frequency of forest fires may lead to more appreciable changes in an ecosystem. Few studies so far investigated how fire severity might affect insect-plant interactions, which are a key driver of forest ecosystem dynamics
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