Short term effects of wild fire on invertebrates in coastal heathland in southeastern Australia

Abstract

Differences in the assemblages of terrestrial arthropod communities in burnt and adjacent unburnt areas of coastal heathland are reported. The burnt site experienced a wildfire 20 months prior to sampling. Collections of invertebrates from pitfall traps in winter indicated that there was no difference in total species richness or total numbers of individuals trapped between burnt and unburnt plots. However, at species level, 60 percent of the taxa showed a strong preference for either burnt areas or unburnt areas with only a few species trapped in around equal numbers in both areas. Twenty percent of species were only found on the unburnt plots. The implications of these results for fire management are discussed.