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BEETLE RESPONSE TO SEASONAL PRESCRIBED FIRE IN BLUE OAK (Quercus douglasii) WOODLANDS OF BIG CHICO CREEK ECOLOGICAL RESERVE

Year: 2011
Type: dissertation
Abstract: ABSTRACT \nBEETLE RESPONSE TO SEASONAL PRESCRIBED FIRE IN BLUE \nOAK (Quercus douglasii) WOODLANDS OF BIG CHICO CREEK \nECOLOGICAL RESERVE \nby \nMark Louis Lynch \nMaster of Science in Biological Sciences \nCalifornia State University, Chico \nSpring 2011 \nFire is an integral component of terrestrial ecosystem processes. The timing, \nintensity and frequency of fires influence ecosystem responses throughout the world. \nPrescription burns have been widely reintroduced into fire-adapted systems in order to \nrestore natural processes, control exotic species, and other unwanted vegetation. The \nmajority of studies examining the effects of prescribed fire have predominately focused \non vascular vegetation; largely ignoring species in higher trophic levels. Beetles occupy \nmultiple trophic levels as consumers, serving as decomposers, herbivores, predators, \nand scavengers. In order to improve our understanding of arthropod responses to \nseasonal variation in prescribed fire, I examined the effects of spring (late wet-season) \nand fall (early wet-season) prescribed fires on ground cover structure (bare ground, leaf \nlitter, plant stem density) and ground-dwelling beetle guilds in blue oak (Quercus \nDouglassii) woodlands of Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve (BCCER), Butte \nCounty, California. The study was conducted on twelve quarter hectare (50 m x 50 m) \nsites. Ground cover and beetles were sampled pre-treatment in April and early May \n2007, followed by burning four sites (spring treatment) in late May 2007. Four more \nsites were burned (fall treatment) in early November 2007, with the four remaining sites \nleft unburned (control). Post treatment sampling of ground cover and beetles occurred \nin April and early May 2008. Burn Severity was similar between spring and fall burn \ntreatments, but fall burns experienced the highest variability in burn severity between \nsties. Bare ground increased and leaf litter decreased significantly in both spring and \nfall burn sites. Plant stem density decreased in fall burns, but did not change in spring \nburns. Overall beetle density decreased in fall and spring burn sites, but the differences \nwere not significant between treatments. Beetle density in fall burn treatments tended to \nbe lower than spring sites, but the response may have been complicated by temporal \nrecovery between fall and spring treatments. With respect to guilds, seed eaters showed \na strong negative correlation to burn severity and bare ground but a positive correlation \nto leaf litter, suggesting bare ground was associated with vital resource losses. Fire \nprescription studies conducted in California most often implement fire treatments with \nthe support of professional private/government fire crews allowing burns to take place \nin drier conditions than allowed by burn permits issued to the public. The differences in \nprescription timing between public burn periods and that allowed by professional fire \ncrews may affect plant and animal species differently due to the phenology and activity \nof species present at the time of burn prescriptions. Although fires decreased beetle \ndensity, results of the study did not show wet-season burn timing (spring and fall burn \nprescriptions) to have a negative effect in ground-dwelling beetle assemblages. The \ndecrease in plant stem density in fall burns but not in spring burn sites suggests burn \ntiming influenced plant stem density response and could prove useful in land \nmanagement planning. Thus, burn timing appears to have significantly affected plant \nresponse, but had minimal influence on beetle response; suggesting spring and fall burn \nprescriptions can be utilized as a management tool without a dramatic impact on beetle \nguild assemblages present.
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2231130748
Cites: 57
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Related to: 10