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Changes within collembolan communities in windthrown European montane spruce forests 2 years after disturbance by fire

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Abstract

• Context

In July 2005, a wildfire occurred in windthrown spruce forests in High Tatra Mountains and damaged roughly 229 ha of previously clear-cut area.

• Aims

The present study focuses on assessing the influence of fire disturbance upon collembolan communities and compares the subsequent development of the model communities at burnt and unburnt stands 2 years after fire disturbance.

• Methods

Three different treatments were selected for the study: REF stands—intact forest stands; EXT stands—clear-cut windthrown stands; and FIR stands—clear-cut windthrown stands subsequently damaged by wildfire. The study of soil microarthropods was carried out in three stands of each treatment, from soil samples taken in April and September of 2007. For statistical evaluation of results repeated measure analysis of variance and cluster analysis with indicator values were used.

• Results

Total material comprised of 3,632 specimens with 56 collembolan species identified. The highest Collembola abundance means were recorded in FIR stands, with the same parameter being significantly lower in REF and EXT stands. The mathematical methods demonstrated clear differences in the collembolan communities between the different treatments studied.

• Conclusion

The present study showed that natural wildfire may increase abundance and species richness of soil Collembola in mountain spruce forests previously damaged by windthrow.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported from the Slovak Scientific Grant Agency VEGA project no. 1/0019/08. The authors are very grateful to Dr. Karel Tajovský and prof. Dr. H. Šantrůčková (České Budějovice, Czech Republic) for their kind help with the soil–chemical analyses. Dr. Kieran Green (UK) is acknowledged for comments and linguistic correction of the manucript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, P. J. Šafárik University, Moyzesova 11, Košice, 04001, Slovak Republic

    Peter Čuchta & Ľubomír Kováč

  2. Parasitological Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Hlinkova 3, Košice, 04001, Slovak Republic

    Dana Miklisová

Authors
  1. Peter Čuchta
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  2. Dana Miklisová
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  3. Ľubomír Kováč
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Čuchta.

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Handling Editor: François Lieutier

Appendix

Appendix

Table 4 Mean abundance [ind.m−2] of soil collembolan species in study stands in April and September 2007 in High Tatra Mts.
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Čuchta, P., Miklisová, D. & Kováč, Ľ. Changes within collembolan communities in windthrown European montane spruce forests 2 years after disturbance by fire. Annals of Forest Science 69, 81–92 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-011-0114-y

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