Anjos Diego, Campos Ricardo, Campos Renata, Ribeiro Sérvio
Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology of Canopy Insects and Natural Succession, Department of Biodiversity, Evolution and Environment, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto 35400-000, MG, Brazil.
Postgraduate Program in Entomology, Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto 14040-901, SP, Brazil.
Insects. 2017 Jun 23;8(3):64. doi: 10.3390/insects8030064.
Fire is one of the most relevant ecological disturbances in nature. Little is known about the effects of fire on biodiversity in ecosystems like rupestrian grasslands, which share characteristics with savanna and forest biomes. Brazilian rupestrian grasslands are part of an endangered ecosystem that has been modified by anthropogenic fire events that have become more intense in recent decades. In this study, we evaluated the effects of fire on ground and arboreal ant assemblages through a two-year monitoring program (24 monthly samplings). We found that fire does not change cumulative species richness after 24 months, and that fire does not affect mean ant richness, abundance, and species composition in arboreal ants. On the other hand, fire increased mean ground ant species richness and abundance, and caused a significant change in species composition. Our results indicate a weak and beneficial effect of fire only for ground ant communities, which generally agrees with results from other studies in Brazilian savannas. Taken together, results from these studies may be useful for improvement of fire suppression policy in fire-prone habitats in Brazil.
火灾是自然界中最相关的生态干扰之一。对于火灾对像岩质草原这样与稀树草原和森林生物群落具有共同特征的生态系统中生物多样性的影响，人们知之甚少。巴西岩质草原是一个濒危生态系统的一部分，该生态系统已因人为火灾事件而发生改变，且这些火灾事件在近几十年变得更加频繁。在本研究中，我们通过一项为期两年的监测计划（24次月度采样）评估了火灾对地面和树栖蚂蚁群落的影响。我们发现，24个月后火灾并未改变累积物种丰富度，并且火灾对树栖蚂蚁的平均物种丰富度、多度和物种组成没有影响。另一方面，火灾增加了地面蚂蚁的平均物种丰富度和多度，并导致物种组成发生显著变化。我们的结果表明火灾仅对地面蚂蚁群落有微弱的有益影响，这总体上与巴西稀树草原的其他研究结果一致。综上所述，这些研究结果可能有助于改进巴西易发生火灾栖息地的灭火政策。
