Effects of fire-generated disturbance on insect abundance

Climate change models project an increase in fire severity and a 25–50% increase in the area burned in the United States through the year 2100, likely altering community structures and processes and generating heterogeneity across burned areas. Post-fire species recruitment is determined by species that can survive the fire in the burned patch and species that recolonize the burned patch from surrounding unburned patches. These two processes generate a spatial and temporal gradient of insect abundance and diversity within burn sites. Our study examines whether insect abundance varies across fire severities (high, low, unburned) and time since fire. We measured insect abundance in seven dominant orders across fire severity using four fires from four different years across the Colorado Front Range. We found that insect abundance varies across severity with a significant severity by order interaction. Our results help quantify the effects of disturbance on forests in the face of climate change. Assessing diversity is a metric of forest and ecosystem health, and our research will help land managers better manage fire severity to preserve biodiversity.