Impact of Fire Disturbance on Arthropod Communities in Forests of Pinus yunnanensis and Pinus yunnanensis var. pygamaea

The effect of forest fire disturbance on arthropod communities in the forests of Pinus yunnanensis and forests of Pinus yunnanensis var. pygamaea was studied by means of plot sampling investigation method on the burned sites and the control plots in Anning, Yunnan. The results are as follows:Totally 853 arthropod specimens of 104 species were collected. Among which, 278 specimens of 48 species were collected in the burned P. yunnanensis forest, and 189 specimens of 55 species were collected in the normal forest of P. yunnanensis. 201 specimens of 26 species were found in the burned Pinus yunnanensis var. pygamaea forest, and 185 specimens of 34 species were collected in its normal forest. Compared to the normal forests of the two tree species, both the species and corresponding population of phytophagous and predatory groups of arthropod were less in the burned forest, while the species and population of omnivorous arthropods increased in the burned plots. It was also showed by the study that the biodiversity index and evenness index of the burned forests were reduced compared to the control; whereas the dominance index of the burned forests was higher than the control. Jaccard index which shows the similarity among the 4 burned forest plots was between 0.139 and 0.271, indicating that the arthropod communities were badly impacted by the fire, and the stability of the arthropod communities in the forests was reduced.