Wildfire induced changes in aquatic invertebrate communities and mercury bioaccumulation in the Okefenokee Swamp

Beganyi, Sarah R.; Batzer, Darold P.

doi:10.1007/s10750-011-0694-4

Cited by 19 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Moreover, indirect impacts linked to habitat and trophic alterations of the community were also detected, similar to other lentic systems affected by wildfire (Beganyi & Batzer, 2011;de Szalay & Resh, 1997;Lewis et al, 2014). Moreover, indirect impacts linked to habitat and trophic alterations of the community were also detected, similar to other lentic systems affected by wildfire (Beganyi & Batzer, 2011;de Szalay & Resh, 1997;Lewis et al, 2014).…”

Section: Seasonal Trends and Community Recoverysupporting

confidence: 61%

“…As predicted, in Mediterranean temporary ponds, the direct effects of wildfire played a major role compared to perennial aquatic ecosystems. Moreover, indirect impacts linked to habitat and trophic alterations of the community were also detected, similar to other lentic systems affected by wildfire (Beganyi & Batzer, 2011;de Szalay & Resh, 1997;Lewis et al, 2014). Therefore, intermittency adds a new path of disturbance for the aquatic community: a decrease in the abundance of organisms resting in sediments during the dry phase, probably directly burned by the wildfire.…”

Section: Seasonal Trends and Community Recoverysupporting

confidence: 61%

“…Piercers and scrapers increased their abundance at the end of the hydroperiod in all ponds, but their increase was higher in burned ponds. It is most likely that tolerance to burned conditions and freshly grown vegetation facilitated the increase of piercers and scrapers in the affected ponds (Beganyi & Batzer, 2011).…”

Section: Community Composition and Functional Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Direct and indirect impacts of wildfire on faunal communities of Mediterranean temporary ponds

et al. 2018

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The Mediterranean region has historically been affected by wildfires. However, studies addressing wildfire impacts have traditionally focused first on terrestrial systems and second on lotic systems. This bias has left a gap in knowledge related to wildfire effects on some of the emblematic habitats of the Mediterranean region such as temporary ponds. We hypothesise that temporary ponds will experience indirect consequences of wildfires like those of other aquatic systems (e.g. nutrient increases or trophic alterations). However, the fact that temporary ponds are dry during the summer, when most wildfires occur, could add a new path of disturbance such as an impact on organisms aestivating in the pond sediment due to their direct burning. Based on these hypotheses, the present study analyses wildfire impacts on faunal communities adapted to temporality, focusing on species traits related to expected indirect and direct impacts (i.e. dispersal ability, life history or feeding habits). We took advantage of a wildfire (summer 2012) that partially affected a Mediterranean temporary pond network, comparing the environmental and the faunal community responses from before and after the wildfire, and between the burned and unburned ponds during the subsequent hydroperiod. As hypothesised, our results indicated different wildfire effects. First, changes in abundances of some trophic groups from before and after the wildfire but also strong fluctuations at the beginning of the hydroperiod between burned and unburned ponds. Second, a decrease in abundance of organisms that remain in the pond sediment during drought in burned ponds, being probably affected directly by the wildfire. Only one hydroperiod appears to be sufficient for burned ponds to recover their similarity to unburned ponds, which highlights the high resilience of these communities. Despite their resilience, these communities could become compromised in the future since global change scenarios predict increase wildfire frequency and intensity in the Mediterranean region.

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Section: Seasonal Trends and Community Recoverysupporting

confidence: 61%

Section: Seasonal Trends and Community Recoverysupporting

confidence: 61%

Section: Community Composition and Functional Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Direct and indirect impacts of wildfire on faunal communities of Mediterranean temporary ponds

et al. 2018

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“…have addressed how river catchments respond to prescribed vegetation burning (e.g., Britton 1991, Bêche et al 2005, Arkle and Pilliod 2010 in comparison to wildfires, which have received much more attention (e.g., Dwire and Kauffman 2003, Minshall 2003, Beganyi and Batzer 2011, Verkaik et al 2013.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of fire on the hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecology of peatland river systems

Brown¹,

Holden²,

Palmer³

et al. 2015

Freshwater Science

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Peatlands are found around the world and cover ∼3.4% of the Earth's surface. In the UK, peatlands cover 17.2% or ∼1.58 Mha of the land surface and occur mainly in upland areas covering the headwaters of most major British rivers. However, large areas are now subject to prescribed vegetation burning despite policy guidance that recommends a strong presumption against burning on deep blanket peat. Wildfires occur sporadically but are forecast to increase in frequency in the future. This paper provides a synthesis of current knowledge about how UK peatland-dominated river catchments respond to fires caused by prescribed vegetation burning and uncontrolled wildfire. We provide insight into the effects of fire on the hydrology, biogeochemistry, and biota of peatland river ecosystems, and the peatland-soil-driven controls on these effects at the catchment scale. Burning increases the depth to water table and water-table variability, although some small-scale studies indicate shallower water table in some places. More work is needed on fire effects on peatland river flow, but recent results suggest a complex response with smaller flow peaks for burned systems associated with most rainfall events, but enhanced peaks compared to unburned systems for the top quintile of rainfall events with the largest total rain. Evidence from biogeochemical studies suggests that fire leads to increased dissolved organic C concentrations in rivers. River biota responses primarily include significant reductions in the density of grazing mayflies but increases among detritivores including Chironomidae and Baetis mayflies. We provide a conceptual synthesis that links the main responses of terrestrial and aquatic systems to fire, and we summarize some major research gaps that should be prioritized to inform future policy around peatland management.

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“…Minshall (2003) suggested that intense fires will have larger effects on stream fauna, which has been corroborated by findings following an intense fire in California (Oliver et al 2012) and another in central Victoria, Australia (Verkaik et al 2014). In contrast, some authors suggest that wetland invertebrates cope well with a variety of stresses (Beganyi and Batzer 2011) and may show little response to fire compared to stream communities (Minshall 2003). Our findings support this conclusion for G. falcata, which typically occurs in seasonal wetland and flooded vegetation habitats and appeared to be least affected by fire.…”

Section: Wildfire and Droughtmentioning

confidence: 92%

Impacts of extreme events on southeastern Australian freshwater crayfish

Johnston

Matthews

Robson

et al. 2014

Freshwater Crayfish

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Extreme events like wildfire, flooding and drought, and activities related to managing these events (fire dam, bridge and road construction and water regulation) potentially impact freshwater crayfish populations, although limited information exists. Our study analysed abundance data for four freshwater crayfish species across an 11-year period, including pre-and post-wildfire and post-flooding data, and describes the impacts of human actions on their populations in the Grampians National Park in Victoria, Australia. Wildfire and flooding were generally associated with reduced crayfish abundances for Euastacus bispinosus, Cherax destructor, Geocharax falcata and Gramastacus insolitus, but in some habitats, C. destructor, G. falcata and G. insolitus did not decline. A general trend of decreasing abundances for all species was evident over the study period, likely due to the landscape-scale impacts of wildfire, flooding and the shrinking of available habitat during drought. Southeastern Australia is a crayfish biodiversity hot-spot and increased frequencies of wildfire, flooding and drought are forecast for this region as climate change progresses, threatening crayfish populations. Therefore, it is important that disaster recovery management seeks to minimise additional damage to crayfish habitat availability and connectivity. Copyright © 2014 by The Author(s). Published by the International Association of Astacology.This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. A R T I C L E I N F O Freshwater CrayfishVolume 20, Number 1 altering habitat, which in turn may alter species distributions and the size and structure of populations through the frequency and severity of these events.

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Wildfire induced changes in aquatic invertebrate communities and mercury bioaccumulation in the Okefenokee Swamp

Cited by 19 publications

References 34 publications

Direct and indirect impacts of wildfire on faunal communities of Mediterranean temporary ponds

Direct and indirect impacts of wildfire on faunal communities of Mediterranean temporary ponds

Effects of fire on the hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecology of peatland river systems

Impacts of extreme events on southeastern Australian freshwater crayfish

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