Ground-dwelling Arthropod Communities Research Articles

Mining exploration infrastructure affects biophysical habitat characteristics and ground-dwelling arthropod communities

Mining exploration infrastructure affects biophysical habitat characteristics and ground-dwelling arthropod communities

An exploratory study of the immediate and medium-term effects of bench terrace construction on the ground-dwelling arthropod communities in eucalypt plantations

An exploratory study of the immediate and medium-term effects of bench terrace construction on the ground-dwelling arthropod communities in eucalypt plantations

Assessing the drivers of grassland ground-dwelling arthropod community composition: Integrating landscape-scale farming intensity and local environmental conditions

Grasslands are essential habitats for preserving arthropod communities in agricultural landscapes. The environmental state of grassland, their farming practices, and land cover heterogeneity in landscape around grassland are three factors that influence ground-dwelling grassland arthropod communities. However, the impact of the intensity of farming practices at the landscape scale has not yet been fully explored. In this study, (i) we studied complex relationships between environmental variables that describe the local conditions (i.e., grassland environmental state and farming practices) and land cover heterogeneity (i.e., land cover and landscape-wide intensity) of our study area in north-east France; and (ii) estimated the relative effect weight of landscape-wide intensity compared to other local and landscape variables on arthropod communities. We identified 14 taxonomic families, with Lycosidae, Carabidae and Staphylinidae as the families most represented in communities. We have highlighted a positive correlation between the different variables of landscape-wide intensity, as well as a positive correlation between sampled grassland intensity and the quantity of grassland in the landscape. Using Partial Least Squares Path Modelling (PLS-PM) analysis, we observed a positive effect of landscape-wide intensity on arthropod abundance-activity in grassland, indicating a potential concentration effect in the grasslands surrounded by an intensive landscape. Also, we have shown that the effect of landscape-wide intensity was at least as strong as that of other local and landscape variables. Our study is one of the first to consider land cover and farming practices simultaneously at the landscape scale. We demonstrate the importance of considering farming practices at the landscape scale to explain the state of ground-dwelling arthropod communities, and the need to take them into account when designing landscapes that are favourable to biodiversity. We argue that further studies are needed to explain the mechanisms involved in the relationship between arthropod communities and farming practices at the landscape scale.

Variation in ground-dwelling arthropod communities across differently managed infiltration basins

Abstract As urbanisation continues to increase, terrestrial arthropod diversity declines. Urban green spaces represent unique opportunities to preserve arthropod diversity in urban environments. We quantify how ground-dwelling arthropod communities vary both seasonally and across three differently maintained stormwater infiltration basins in Ellisville, Missouri, United States of America. One basin was routinely mowed, a second was mowed only seasonally, and a third was intentionally planted to attract pollinators and was not mowed during this study. We expected higher plant diversity to correlate with higher arthropod diversity. Therefore, we expected the unmowed basin to have the highest levels of arthropod diversity and abundance and the mowed basin to have the lowest. Four collection periods spanned spring, early summer, late summer, and fall. During each collection period, five pitfall traps were placed throughout each basin for 48 hours. In total, 5686 specimens were collected and identified, representing 59 families. Arthropod communities did not vary across basins or collection dates, largely contrasting with existing literature. The results of this study do not indicate that different mowing regiments in infiltration basins will affect the ground-dwelling arthropod communities at a family level, although the effect on species-level diversity remains to be investigated.

Response of foliage- and ground-dwelling arthropods to insecticide application: Early step for cotton IPM in the Brazilian semiarid

Foliage- and ground-dwelling arthropods provide ecosystem services, including decomposition and biological control of agricultural pests. Despite this, there is little information on the ground-dwelling arthropod community associated with cotton crops and about their role under pest control practices. Identifying these communities and their preservation would assist smallholder cotton growers in considering an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach to pest control. In this context, the strategy of using selective- or broad-spectrum insecticides (both applied only once the pests reached an economic threshold) was assessed using field plots set up within non-Bt cotton structured refuge of a grower field measuring the response of both foliage- and ground-dwelling arthropods and yield. The abundance, species richness, dominance indices, and foliage-dwelling predators and pest species and ground-dwelling predators and decomposers were compared between untreated and insecticide treatments, as was the crop yield. In response to pest monitoring, insecticides were applied 5 and 3 times during the 2018 and 2020 growing seasons, respectively. In 2018 and 2020, 16 and 12 foliage-dwelling predator arthropods and 43 and 47 ground-dwelling predator and decomposer arthropods were collected, respectively. During the 2018 season, broad-spectrum insecticide applications reduced the abundance of foliage-dwelling predators, but had no significant impact on the ground-dwelling community. Principal response curves (PRC) indicated a negative impact of broad-spectrum insecticides only on the foliage-dwelling community, particularly among the Formicidae and Araneae species. Insecticide applications in the 2020 season were only required at the end of the crop season and did not significantly influence the foliage- or ground-dwelling communities. The selective insecticide regime yielded as well as the broad-spectrum insecticide regimes higher yielded than untreated plots. These results demonstrated to the small landholders engaging conservation biological control for the first time, the advantages of an IPM approach to pest management.

How are arthropod communities structured in a modified wetland under different productive activities?

Wetlands are among the most threatened ecosystems around the world due to changes in land use. Particularly, in the Lower Parana River Delta the main productive activities with economic impact in the region are planted forest and silvopastoral systems. To carry out these productive activities, natural hydrology of this wetland has been deeply modified and different management practices are implemented. Ground-dwelling arthropods are among the most sensitive taxa to environmental changes, so they are good bioindicators of the effect of these changes on biodiversity. In this context, we compare the structure and composition of ground-dwelling arthropod communities and their seasonal variations in the planted forest and silvopastoral systems of the Lower Parana River Delta, to characterize these land use associated with different management practices. We recorded a total of 73 families using pitfall traps (N = 1728). We observed that communities in intensive-managed planted forests were less rich and more evenness, while communities in less-managed planted forests were richer and less evenness. Also, we observed that warm seasons presented more arthropod family richness than cold seasons. The intensity of management practices, the presence of cattle and seasonality are factors that significantly decrease ground-dwelling arthropod richness. So, Silvopastoral systems negatively affect ground-dwelling arthropod communities compared to planted forest. A decrease in the intensity of management practices favors the understory growth, offering more resources for the arthropod families already established and facilitating the establishment of new ones. This increase in arthropod diversity promotes the presence of benefic species and the conservation of biodiversity in this modified wetland ecosystem.

Transgenic Maize Has Insignificant Effects on the Diversity of Arthropods: A 3-Year Study.

In order to provide more evidence for the evaluation of the ecological risks of transgenic maize, arthropod population dynamics and biodiversity in fields planted with two kinds of transgenic maize (DBN9868, expressing the PAT and EPSPS genes, and DBN9936, expressing the Cry1Ab and EPSPS gene) were investigated by direct observation and trapping for three years. The recorded arthropod species belonged to 19 orders and 87 families, including Aphidoidea, Chrysomelidae, Coccinellidae, Chrysopidae and Araneae. The species richness, Shannon–Wiener diversity index, Pielou evenness index, dominance index and community similarity index of arthropod communities in maize fields were statistically analyzed, and the results showed that (1) the biodiversity difference of arthropod communities between transgenic maize and non-transgenic maize was smaller than that between different conventional cultivars; (2) the differences between ground-dwelling arthropod communities were less obvious than those between plant-inhabiting arthropod communities; and (3) Lepidoptera, the target pests of Bt maize, were not the dominant population in maize fields, and the dominant arthropod population in maize fields varied greatly between years and months. Combining those results, we concluded that the transgenic maize DBN9868 and DBN9936 had no significant effect on the arthropod communities in the field.

Habitat Type Affects Elevational Patterns in Ground-dwelling Arthropod Communities.

Understanding factors that drive biodiversity distributions is central in ecology and critical to conservation. Elevational gradients are useful for studying the effects of climate on biodiversity but it can be difficult to disentangle climate effects from resource differences among habitat types. Here we compare elevational patterns and influences of environmental variables on ground-dwelling arthropods in open- and forested-habitats. We examine these comparisons in three arthropod functional groups (detritivores, predators, and herbivores) and two taxonomic groups (beetles and arachnids). We sampled twelve sites spanning 1,132 m elevation and four life zones, collecting 4,834 individual ground arthropods identified to 123 taxa. Elevation was a strong predicator for arthropod composition, however, patterns differed among functional and taxonomic groups and individual species between open- and forested-habitats. Beetles, arachnids, and predators decreased with elevation in open habitats but increased in forests showing a significant interaction between habitat type and elevation. Detritivores and herbivores showed no elevational patterns. We found 11 arthropod taxa with linear elevational patterns, seven that peaked in abundance at high elevations, and four taxa at low elevations. We also found eight taxa with parabolic elevational patterns that peaked in abundance at mid-elevations. We found that vegetation composition and productivity had stronger explanatory power for arthropod composition in forested habitats, while ground cover was a stronger predictor in open habitats. Temperature and precipitation were important in both habitats. Our findings demonstrate that relationships between animal diversity and elevation can be mediated by habitat type, suggesting that physiological restraints and resource limitations work differently between habitat types.

A fence-line contrast reveals effects of grazing on communities of plants and ground-dwelling arthropods in a Mongolian grassland

Livestock grazing is the main land use in grasslands and a major driver of change in grassland ecosystems. Previous studies have examined the effects of grazing on plant communities; however, grazing effects on ground-dwelling arthropod communities remain unclear. In this study, we examined the effects of livestock grazing on plant communities (plant species richness, functional diversity, and functional trait composition) and ground-dwelling arthropods (total abundance, order-level abundance, and feeding guild-level abundance) using a fence-line contrast in a Mongolian grassland. The grazing effects on plant communities were observed in plant height, leaf area, and leaf dry matter content, which may be due to the variation of grazing resistance among plant species and livestock preferences. The effects of grazing on arthropod communities were different among orders and feeding guilds. Our findings complement and reinforce previous findings that utilized fence-line contrasts.

Functional roles of ants in a temperate grassland.

Ants in temperate grasslands are consumers and ecosystem engineers, influencing biodiversity and potentially grassland productivity. However, the effects of ant exclusion or suppression on resource removal and the biological community in temperate grasslands have yet to be fully explored. We conducted ant-suppression experiments and evaluated the effects of ants on ground-dwelling arthropod communities in the field by using pitfall and bait traps. In the laboratory, we evaluated the effects of ants on the ant-attended aphid Aphis rumicis, which is a honeydew resource for ants, and the slug (Deroceras laeve), an aphid predator. Aboveground arthropod communities were not affected by the ant-suppression treatment. However, slugs (D. laeve and Ambigolimax valentianus) visited bait resources more frequently in the ant-suppression treatment area. In the ant-absence condition in the laboratory experiment, there were fewer aphids on the plants compared to the ant-presence condition owing to predation by D. laeve. Our results suggest that ant abundance in temperate grasslands influences the predation activity of slugs toward honeydew sources such as aphids.

Influence of Forest Fragment Composition and Structure on Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Communities

Habitat fragmentation is the process of reducing habitat area while increasing the number and isolation of habitat patches. Although much of Indiana's land area was historically covered with contiguous forests, remaining forests are now heavily fragmented. This is especially true in northeastern Indiana where agriculture is the dominant land use cover type. Loss of functional forests in northeast Indiana could lead to a loss of biodiversity at a regional scale. Ground-dwelling arthropods have been used frequently as biological indicator taxa of forest health. We characterized 10 typical northeast Indiana forest plant communities and inventoried ground-dwelling arthropod communities within those forests. Plant community and environmental heterogeneity within forests were used to assess forest complexity, and ground-dwelling arthropod communities were compared to forest environmental characteristics. Our forest comparisons revealed plant community and structural heterogeneity differences. While overstory and understory diversity, compositional heterogeneity, and litter depth did have influence on arthropod communities' relative dissimilarities in nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination plots, those communities were similar across all forest patches. However, those same environmental variables did not have direct influence on overall arthropod abundance, richness, or diversity. Even though differences did occur in forest structure and composition, arthropod communities had high similarity values, especially in August. As the forests in the region are similar in type and structure, between-forest comparisons of arthropod communities showed corresponding similarities in composition, abundance, richness, and diversity.

Structure of canopy and ground-dwelling arthropod communities in olive orchards is determined by the type of soil cover

The intensification of agriculture in olive groves, especially the modification or elimination of spontaneous vegetation, alters the relationships in arthropod communities and reduces their interactions and ecosystem services. This study was carried out in nine olive groves in which there was either a planted cover crop, spontaneous cover crop or bare ground. The interactions of ground-dwelling, canopy and flying arthropods in trophic webs were calculated for each olive grove soil management regime at the family level taking into consideration their different functional traits: feeding guilds, specific agricultural traits and trophic level. Olive groves with spontaneous cover had trophic webs with a higher number of plausible links between arthropod families and a more balanced distribution of specimens among trophic levels compared to those with planted cover and bare ground. There was a similar number of arthropod families consisting of both pests and their natural enemies in the planted cover regime, while olive groves with bare ground had simpler trophic webs. The complexity of plausible trophic links was greater in olive groves with spontaneous plant cover despite the similar values for family richness in the three-olive grove soil management regimes. Qualitative values (such as functional traits) were more diverse in agroecosystems with spontaneous plant cover in which there were more sources of food.

Legacy of pre-eruption vegetation affects ground-dwelling arthropod communities after different types of volcanic disturbance.

Volcanic eruptions are one of the largest natural disturbances and are followed by the establishment of novel plant and animal communities in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the role of pre‐eruption vegetation in the establishment of arthropod communities after volcanic disturbances is currently unknown. Here, we asked whether the legacy of pre‐eruption vegetation mediates the community structure of ground‐dwelling arthropods after volcanic disturbances. The 2015 eruption in Kuchinoerabu‐jima Island, southwest Japan, caused two types of disturbances [a pyroclastic flow and a lahar (i.e., mudflow)] in three types of forests (broad‐leaved, black pine, and cedar). We hypothesized that pre‐eruption vegetation would influence the community structure of ground‐dwelling arthropods after the disturbance, and we expected that these effects from vegetation would be more prevalent for the less severe disturbances. The total abundance of ground‐dwelling arthropods decreased more in the lahar than the pyroclastic flow, and arthropod species composition showed a greater change after the lahar. These findings suggest that the lahar disturbance was more severe than the pyroclastic disturbance. Contrary to expectations, the difference in the arthropod species composition among the vegetation types was greatest after the lahar. After the pyroclastic flow, leaf litter remained to some degree with all the vegetation types. After the lahar disturbance, however, although the litter in the cedar forests remained, the litter disappeared completely from broad‐leaved and black pine forests. The disappearance of litter from these two forest types after the lahar may be responsible for the greater difference in arthropod species composition among the vegetation types. This study shows that the legacy effects of pre‐eruption vegetation on terrestrial arthropod communities after volcanic disturbance were different depending on the type of disturbance. Focusing on the role of pre‐eruption biotic factors would contribute to a better understanding of the recovery processes of terrestrial ecosystems after large natural disturbances.

皖北石灰岩山地植被对地表节肢动物组成及多样性的影响

调查皖北石灰岩山地退化生态系统不同植被恢复类型地表节肢动物群落组成、类群多样性以及功能群组成，揭示退化生态系统植被恢复进程中土壤地表节肢动物群多样性变化规律及其影响因素，为石灰岩山地植被恢复成效评价提供科学依据。采用陷阱法对皖北石灰岩山地侧柏+构树混交林、酸枣+牡荆灌丛和荩草+牡荆草灌丛样地地表节肢动物群落组成、多样性以及功能群进行调查。共采节肢动物个体数11601，隶属8纲14目44科。酸枣+牡荆灌丛样地采集到节肢动物37科，占所有类群的84.1%，荩草+牡荆草灌丛和侧柏+构树混交林采集到土壤节肢动物类群为35和26科，分别占总科数的79.6%和59.1%。在目的分类单元下，直翅目、等足目和鞘翅目类群相对多度较高，而科的分类单元下，潮虫科、金龟甲科、蚁科和蟋蟀科为皖北石灰岩山地优势地表节肢动物类群。酸枣+牡荆灌丛节肢动物类群丰富度和荩草+牡荆草灌丛多样性指数最高，侧柏+构树混交林两者均最低。3个样地地表节肢动物营养功能群均以植食性为主。不同植被恢复类型间群落相似性也有变化，酸枣+牡荆灌丛和荩草+牡荆草灌丛间相似性较高，而侧柏+构树混交林与其他2种类型之间相似度均较低。研究结果表明石灰岩山地生境不同植被群落组成、数量和结构及其驱动形成的土壤理化特性、表层的凋落物数量、质量和微生境条件的变异，引起地表节肢动物群落组成、结构和多样性和营养功能群的不同。;Afforestation has been proposed as an effective method to restore the degraded limestone mountains, information on the biological succession and mechanisms of ground-dwelling arthropod assemblage is important for enhancing biodiversity conservation after the establishment of ecological afforestation. In this study, the vegetation community composition structure, species diversity and functional group structure were investigated on a typical rocky mountain area in the North of Anhui Province China, in order to reveal variation of diversity of ground-dwelling arthropod communities during the vegetation recovery of degraded ecosystem, which will provide scientific references for evaluating the benefit of vegetation restoration. We used pitfall traps to capture of ground-dwelling arthropods within three vegetation restoration measures, i.e., the artificial mixed forest of Platycladus orientalis and Broussonetia papyrifera possess (MFPB), the shrub of Ziziphus jujuba var. spinosa and V. negundo var. cannabifolia (SZV) and the grass-shrub of Arthraxon hispidus (Thunb.) Makino and V. negundo var. cannabifolia (GSAV). A total of 11 601 individuals of ground-dwelling arthropod were collected, belonging to 8 insecta, 14 orders and 44 families. There were 37, 35 and 26 families under SZV, GSAV and MFPB, accounting for 84.1%, 79.6% and 59.1% of the total fauna, respectively. The relative abundance of Orthoptera, Isopoda and Coleoptera was the highest in the taxonomy of the order, and Oniscidae, Scarabacidae, Formicidae and Gryllidae were the dominant group in the taxonomy of the family in the three vegetation restoration measures in the typical rocky mountain area in Northern of Anhui province. The largest values of richness and diversity were found under SZV and GSAV, respectively, while MFPB have the lowest value of richness and diversity. Phytophagous was the main functional group in three vegetation communities. The similarities of ground-dwelling arthropod fauna differed among different vegetation types, with the highest similarity between SZV and GSAV and the lowest similarity between MFPB and other 2 vegetation types. The results of this study indicated that heterogeneity of soil physical-chemical properties, amount and quality of ground litter, and micro-environment condition, which were derived by different vegetation composition and structure of vegetation community, affected the variation of community composition, structure and functional group of arthropods. The long-term changes in ground-dwelling arthropod assemblage were comprehensive responses to the variations of soil physical-chemical properties and vegetation characteristic after the establishment of afforestation.

Ground-dwelling arthropods of pinyon-juniper woodlands: Arthropod community patterns are driven by climate and overall plant productivity, not host tree species.

Pinyon-juniper (PJ) woodlands have drastically changed over the last century with juniper encroaching into adjacent habitats and pinyon experiencing large-scale mortality events from drought. Changes in climate and forest composition may pose challenges for animal communities found in PJ woodlands, especially if animals specialize on tree species sensitive to drought. Here we test habitat specialization of ground-dwelling arthropod (GDA) communities underneath pinyon and juniper trees. We also investigate the role of climate and productivity gradients in structuring GDAs within PJ woodlands using two elevational gradients. We sampled 12,365 individuals comprising 115 taxa over two years. We found no evidence that GDAs differ under pinyon or juniper trees, save for a single species of beetle which preferred junipers. Climate and productivity, however, were strongly associated with GDA communities and appeared to drive differences between sites. Precipitation was strongly associated with arthropod richness, while differences in GDA composition were associated with environmental variables (precipitation, temperature, vapor pressure, and normalized difference vegetation index). These relationships varied among different arthropod taxa (e.g. ants and beetles) and community metrics (e.g. richness, abundance, and composition), with individual taxa also responding differently. Overall, our results suggest that GDAs are not dependent on tree type, but are strongly linked to primary productivity and climate, especially precipitation in PJ woodlands. This implies GDAs in PJ woodlands are more susceptible to changes in climate, especially at lower elevations where it is hot and dry, than changes in dominant vegetation. We discuss management implications and compare our findings to GDA relationships with vegetation in other systems.

Change in ground-dwelling arthropod communities in agroecosystems in Wang Nam Khiao, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand

Change in ground-dwelling arthropod communities in agroecosystems in Wang Nam Khiao, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand

Multiple floods affect composition and community structure of the ground-dwelling arthropods in the riparian zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir

Abstract Operation of a large water reservoir would lead to profound impacts on the riparian ecosystem, especially on the local flora and fauna. As the greatest key water-control project in China, the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) attracted a lot of attention regarding its influences on the riparian ecosystem, but few studies looked at the ground-dwelling arthropods which play an important role as an ecological link between the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, we looked at the diversity, composition, and structure of ground-dwelling arthropod communities in the riparian zone near the estuary of Baijia Stream, a secondary tributary of the Three Gorges reservoir. Our results indicated that (i) the littoral zone provided important habitats for ground-dwelling arthropods, especially hygrophilous arthropods with good dispersal ability, including springtails, beetles, crickets, and wolf spiders; (ii) obviously temporal variations existed in the diversity, composition, and structure of arthropod communities, which is mainly affected by the migration ability of arthropods and the available habitat resources at a low water stage; (iii) due to the multiple floods, distinct spatial variations of arthropod communities were characterized by diverse indicator taxa zonal distributions of diversity values along the altitude gradient; (iv) the clustering distribution of dissimilarities varied between the sampling sites because of resources endowment. We concluded that there are abundant arthropod species in littoral zone of the TGR, and that they are characterized by spatial-temporal variations in their diversities and community structures, which is dominantly affected by the multiple water level fluctuations. Therefore, arthropods are important indicators for the littoral zone ecosystem health providing a great value for evaluating the TGR ecosystem evolution under artificial flow regulations.

Change in ground-dwelling arthropod communities in different agroecosystems in Wang Nam Khiao, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand

Change in ground-dwelling arthropod communities in different agroecosystems in Wang Nam Khiao, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand

Dynamics of ground-dwelling arthropod metacommunities in intermittent streams: The key role of dry riverbeds

Intermittent streams are subject to high levels of environmental variation. However, little is known about how biota responds to river drying across the channel-to-upland habitat gradient. This is an important shortcoming because assumes that intermittent river habitats and metacommunities are static. Here we studied how river drying affects the spatial and temporal variation in ground-dwelling arthropod communities (spiders, beetles, and ants) across the lateral habitat gradient. We asked whether particular habitats, moments, or species contribute disproportionally to beta diversity. To this end, we monitored two perennial-intermittent reach pairs during an entire drying cycle, and applied beta-diversity partitioning methods to highly-resolved taxonomy data. We predicted that: (i) intermittent reaches would accumulate higher levels of diversity (alpha and beta) than perennial reaches; (ii) dry riverbeds would harbor more species and more unique species; (iii) alpha and beta diversity would be temporally more variable in intermittent than in permanent reaches; and (iv) species dispersal limitation would explain variation in contributions to beta diversity. Intermittent reaches presented higher alpha and beta diversity, with dry channels harboring more unique species and more species than any other habitat. Arthropod metacommunities were more variable across space than over time, and temporal turnover was significant—with species dispersal limitation being positively associated with contributions to beta diversity. Our results elevate the role of dry channels in intermittent river ecology, and show that previous research has likely underestimated their contributions to river-wide biodiversity. Our findings call for the need to integrate the dry phase of intermittent streams into monitoring and conservation programs.

Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Community Responses to Recent and Repeated Wildfires in Conifer Forests of Northern New Mexico, USA

The increasing frequency and severity of wildfires in semi-arid conifer forests as a result of global change pressures has raised concern over potential impacts on biodiversity. Ground-dwelling arthropod communities represent a substantial portion of diversity in conifer forests, and could be particularly impacted by wildfires. In addition to direct mortality, wildfires can affect ground-dwelling arthropods by altering understory characteristics and associated deterministic community assembly processes (e.g., environmental sorting). Alternatively, disturbances have been reported to increase the importance of stochastic community assembly processes (e.g., probabilistic dispersal and colonization rates). Utilizing pitfall traps to capture ground-dwelling arthropods within forest stands that were burned by one or two wildfires since 1996 in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico, United States (USA), we examined the potential influences of deterministic versus stochastic processes on the assembly of these diverse understory communities. Based on family-level and genera-level arthropod identifications, we found that the multivariate community structures differed among the four fire groups surveyed, and were significantly influenced by the quantities of duff, litter, and coarse woody debris, in addition to tree basal area and graminoid cover. Taxon diversity was positively related to duff quantities, while taxon turnover was positively linked to exposed-rock cover and the number of logs on the ground. Despite the significant effects of these understory properties on the arthropod community structure, a combination of null modeling and metacommunity analysis revealed that both deterministic and stochastic processes shape the ground-dwelling arthropod communities in this system. However, the relative influence of these processes as a function of time since the wildfires or the number of recent wildfires was not generalizable across the fire groups. Given that different assembly processes shaped arthropod communities among locations that had experienced similar disturbances over time, increased efforts to understand the processes governing arthropod community assembly following disturbance is required in this wildfire-prone landscape.