Post-fire beetle succession in a biodiversity hotspot: Białowieża Primeval Forest

Abstract

Fires can heavily impact forest ecosystems but fire consequences for animal communities at burned and control sites are rarely investigated in natural forests. Here we present a 10-year study of post-fire beetle succession in natural ecosystem of Białowieża Primeval Forest, Poland, being a hotspot for beetle fauna. We sampled beetles at burned and unburned (control) sites and compared local alpha and regional gamma diversity between treatments and over time. In total, 27,958 individuals belonging to 630 beetle species were recorded. Average species richness (alpha diversity) and density per sample was higher in burned forest than in control sites, and this difference was especially strong in case of all species pooled and pyrophilous species, but a reverse tendency was observed in case of rare beetles. These differences between treatments, however, were disappearing over time since fire. Similarly, beetle communities occurring in burned and control sites were becoming more similar over time elapsed since fire. Gamma diversity (i.e. pooled regional species richness) was distinctly higher at burned sites compared to unburned, and the pattern was confirmed for all species, rare species and pyrophilous species. We conclude, that fire increases both alpha and gamma diversity of beetle community in natural forest and burned temperate forests left without intervention may host a rich beetle community. We propose, therefore, post-fire management should take these findings into account and consider prescribed burning as a conservation measure in Central European forests.