Aspen Bibliography

The carabid fauna (Coleoptera: Carabidae) during postfire regeneration of boreal forest: properties and dynamics of species assemblages

N.J. Holliday

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Canadian Journal of Zoology

Volume

70

Issue

3

First Page

440

Last Page

452

Publication Date

1992

Abstract

Following an intense forest fire, carabid beetles were sampled by pitfall trapping in a burned site that had been dominated before the fire by aspen, Populus tremuloides, in a second burned site that had been dominated by conifers (Picea spp.), and in matching unburned sites. In principal-components ordination, carabid species assemblages in burned sites were initially distinct, but at the end of the study were similar to those in the unburned aspen site. The assemblage in the burned aspen site approached its final position more rapidly than that in the burned conifer site. There were fewer individuals and fewer species in burned sites, but the logarithmic series α and the evenness were unaffected by burning. Species gain and species loss were used as indices of colonization rate and extinction rate, respectively. Species loss did not differ significantly between burned and unburned sites. In unburned sites, species gain was related to previous numbers of species caught in the way expected if gain was limited by the pool of potential colonist species. In burned sites, species gain was initially similar to that in unburned sites, but later gain was less than expected. Low species gain, coupled with ongoing species loss, was responsible for the small number of species caught in burned sites. It is suggested that domination of the burned sites by aspen saplings limited the establishment of arriving colonist species and so depressed species gain in the later stages of the study.

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