Wildfires: its influence on the diversity parameters of predatory-insect communities in a Mediterranean agroecosystem of European interest

Abstract

A “space-for-time substitution” was used to analyse how the communities of Spheciformes wasps varied in different diversity parameters for a period of 15 years after a summer wildfire in a Mediterranean agroecosystem (Arribes del Duero, western Spain), employing Malaise traps and yellow pan traps to sample the communities. Both the habitat and the particular environmental conditions marking the interannual population variations in Spheciformes communities exert an important influence on the resultant assemblage, although the time after the wildfire was the most important factor in the recovery of species H′ diversity and evenness after the disturbance. Fire caused a drop of diversity and evenness values. Nevertheless, evenness recovered continuously, while H′ diversity continued to decrease until experiencing a recovery as from the fourth-fifth year post-fire. The effect of the time after the wildfire on abundance (N) or richness (S) values was not significant.