Monitoring the short-term effects of prescribed fire on an endemic mollusk in the dry forests of the eastern Cascades, Washington, USA

Gaines, William L.; Lyons, Andrea L.; Weaver, Kathleen; Sprague, A. L.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2011.01.034

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Thus far, burn experiments on soil invertebrates have found that invertebrates located deeper in the soil (Wikars & Schimmel, 2001;Gongalsky et al, 2012) or in more moist soil (Gongalsky et al, 2012) suffer lower burn mortality. The only published experiment with land snails that we are aware of showed no difference in snail abundance between spring and autumn burning in a dry pine and fir forest (Gaines et al, 2011). We could find no snail or soil invertebrate studies aimed specifically at survival in early post-fire habitats.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Burn refuges are implicated in post-fire colonization and can be divided into two groups based on post-fire conditions; namely, intact habitats and burned habitats. Burns are typically patchy and patches of various sizes may survive intact (unburned) within the burn mosaic (Schullery, 1989;Gaines et al, 2011). Similarly, extensive rock outcrops (Bradstock, 2008) and moist habitats (Coles & Nekola, 2007;Gongalsky et al, 2012) may not support fire and can also be little-altered refuges.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…low rainfall or during a drought) can be especially detrimental to soil-dwelling invertebrates because of high post-fire mortality. In addition to targeting patchy burns and using multiyear burn return times to allow recovery of land snails and leaf litter (Nekola, 2002;Gaines et al, 2011), conservation-directed burns should be avoided during drought to reduce post-fire mortality of snails and other drought-susceptible invertebrates. Our study focused on woodlands; additional studies are needed to determine whether snails in grasslands and other habitats are also susceptible to post-burn mortality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Land snails are strongly impacted by fires and these impacts have been documented in a variety of ecosystems (tallgrass prairie: Nekola, 2002; groves and forests: Beetle, 1997;Burke, 1999;Gaines et al, 2011;Hylander, 2011;wetlands: Severns, 2005; Mediterranean climate ecosystems: Kiss & Magnin, 2003Santos, Bros & Ros, 2012 and monsoon vine thickets: Braby et al, 2011). Because surveys occur at post-fire intervals of a year or more (with one exception: Gaines et al, 2011), direct loss of snails from fire, indirect loss of survivors in fire-altered habitats and the possibility of snail recruitment co-occur.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because surveys occur at post-fire intervals of a year or more (with one exception: Gaines et al, 2011), direct loss of snails from fire, indirect loss of survivors in fire-altered habitats and the possibility of snail recruitment co-occur.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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After the burn: factors affecting land snail survival in post-prescribed-burn woodlands

Ray

Bergey

2014

Journal of Molluscan Studies

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Prescribed burning is commonly used for vegetation management. Whereas effects on vegetation are apparent, effects of these burns on ground-dwelling invertebrates are not. Land snails are especially susceptible to burns. Snail loss occurs directly from burns, but may also occur post-burn because of altered habitat conditions, although post-burn loss has not previously been tested. We used a field experiment to investigate snail survival and factors affecting survival in post-burn habitats. We exposed snails (Discidae: Anguispira alternata) to combinations of intact leaf litter, wood shelters, burned leaf litter, charred wood and ash added to leaf litter, to simulate a variety of post-burn conditions. Half of the replicates were watered every 3 d, which allowed detection of desiccation effects in comparison to ambient water conditions. The on-going drought resulted in high snail mortality. Watering increased survival and, as a consequence, growth. Snail mortality was higher in habitats with burned leaves and/or wood than in unburned habitats. Higher temperatures and rapid initial mortality in burned habitats, and increased survival with watering, indicated that the major cause of post-fire mortality was desiccation, rather than starvation. Contrary to expectations, snails in burned-leaf habitats grew more than snails in unburned habitats, and this greater growth was associated with higher soil pH. Snails surviving fires in burned woodland areas likely have high post-burn mortality. Our experiment highlights the negative impacts of burned woodland habitats on some nontarget organisms and indicates that prescribed burns should be avoided during exceptionally dry conditions.

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