Species interactions, local resource availability, emigration and immigration can determine species composition within communities. The degree to which these factors contribute to community regeneration is reflected in post-disturbance recolonization and successional patterns. We sampled arthropods after a fire in southern California coastal sage scrub to investigate whether local processes, such as species interactions and resource availability, or landscape processes, such as immigration from surrounding undisturbed habitat, predicted community structure. Arthropods were sampled with pitfall, vacuum, and malaise traps in burned and unburned habitat for two years beginning 2 ½ years following a wildfire. Vegetation composition and structure were measured, and landscape parameters were recorded using topographic and vegetation maps. Family richness of dominant arthropod orders did not differ in relation to burn history, but both species and guild composition did. Family assemblages of dominant orders were more strongly associated with landscape character than local vegetation. Results imply that intact vegetation at the landscape scale is crucial to arthropod recolonization of sites after large-scale disturbances such as wildfires.
Keywords: community ecology, succession
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA