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The responses of leaf litter ant communities to wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon: a multi-region assessment

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Abstract

Fire is frequently used as tool for land management in the Amazon, but often escapes into surrounding forests, with potentially severe impacts for forest biodiversity. We investigated the effects of single wildfires on ant communities in four geographically distinct regions of the Brazilian Amazon (Roraima, Pará, Acre and Mato Grosso) where forests had burned between 8 months and 10 years before our sampling. We established 7–12 transects, 500 m each, in burned and unburned forests in each region to investigate the effects of fire on forest structure and leaf litter ant communities, which were sampled using Winkler sacks. Fire effects on forest structure were more drastic in the most recently burned forests in Acre and Mato Grosso, while the impacts of older burns in Roraima and Pará were more subtle. Ant species richness was not different between burnt and unburned areas, but community composition differed between burned and control forests in all regions except Mato Grosso. At the species level, indicator species analysis showed that a limited number of species were significant indicators of unburned control forests in all regions, except Acre. Forests structure variables and leaf litter volume were all important in shaping ant communities, but their relative importance varied between regions. Our results indicate that burned forest have different ant species communities from unburned forests, and those differences are still apparent 10 years after the disturbance, highlighting the importance of effective policies for fire management in Amazon.

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Acknowledgments

The lead author would like to acknowledge support from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG), who provided a post-doctoral fellowship. We are very thankful to the crew of the Instituto Chico Mendes de Biodiversidade (ICMBio) of Acre, Roraima and Pará, and also to Luiz Pirani in Mato Grosso for giving permission to our research. We are also thankful to Cleber Salimon, Foster Brown, Reinaldo Barbosa and Simar Nogueira for helping to search for suitable areas. Many thanks to Sr. Antonio and to the crew of ESEC Maracá for providing the field infrastructure in Roraima. We are very grateful to the communities of São José II, São José III in Pará, and to communities of RESEX Chico Mendes in Acre, for giving the permission and for helping the field work. A special thanks to Sr. Rui and family in Acre. The manuscript was improved by comments from Toby A. Gardner. This paper is part of the Biological Diversity Program of the Earth Science Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate (NNX07AF16G), the UK National Environment Research Council grant (NE/G000816/1) and the Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia-Biodiversidade e Uso da Terra na Amazônia (CNPq 574008/2008-0).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Federal de Lavras, UFLA, Caixa Postal 3037, Lavras, MG, 37200-000, Brazil

    Juliana M. Silveira, Júlio Louzada & Ronald Zanetti

  2. Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK

    Jos Barlow

  3. South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, 57007, USA

    Rafael B. Andrade, Luiz A. Mestre, Izaya Numata & Mark A. Cochrane

  4. Universidade Federal do Paraná, Palotina, PR, 85950-000, Brazil

    Luiz A. Mestre

  5. Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia, Itapetinga, BA, 45700-000, Brazil

    Sébastien Lacau

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  1. Juliana M. Silveira
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Correspondence to Juliana M. Silveira.

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Silveira, J.M., Barlow, J., Andrade, R.B. et al. The responses of leaf litter ant communities to wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon: a multi-region assessment. Biodivers Conserv 22, 513–529 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-012-0426-8

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