Fire is a powerful tool for conservation management at a landscape scale, but a rigorous evidence base is often lacking for understanding its impacts on biodiversity in different biomes. Fire‐induced changes to habitat openness have been identified as an underlying driver of responses of faunal communities, including for ants. However, most studies of the impacts of fire on ant communities consider only epigeic (foraging on the soil surface) species, which may not reflect the responses of species inhabiting other vertical strata. Here, we examine how the responses of ant communities vary among vertical strata in a highly fire‐prone biome. We use a long‐term field experiment to quantify the effects of fire on the abundance, richness, and composition of ant assemblages of four vertical strata (subterranean, leaf litter, epigeic, and arboreal) in an Australian tropical savanna. We first document the extent to which each stratum harbors distinct assemblages. We then assess how the assemblage of each stratum responds to three fire‐related predictors: fire frequency, fire activity, and vegetation cover. Each stratum harbored a distinct ant assemblage and showed different responses to fire. Leaf litter and epigeic ants were most sensitive to fire because it directly affects their microhabitats, but they showed contrasting negative and positive responses, respectively. Subterranean ants were the least sensitive because of the insulating effects of soil. Our results show that co‐occurring species of the same taxonomic group differ in the strength and direction of their response to fire depending on the stratum they inhabit. As such, effective fire management for biodiversity conservation should consider species in all vertical strata.

中文翻译：

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火灾的影响因垂直地层而异：蚂蚁群落对长期实验性燃烧的响应


火灾是景观尺度保护管理的有力工具，但往往缺乏严格的证据基础来了解火灾对不同生物群落生物多样性的影响。火灾引起的栖息地开放度变化已被确定为动物群落（包括蚂蚁）反应的潜在驱动因素。然而，大多数关于火灾对蚂蚁群落影响的研究只考虑了表生（在土壤表面觅食）物种，这可能不能反映栖息在其他垂直地层中的物种的反应。在这里，我们研究了蚂蚁群落在高度易燃生物群落中垂直层中的响应如何变化。我们使用一项长期的野外实验来量化火灾对澳大利亚热带稀树草原中四个垂直地层（地下、落叶、表生和树栖）蚂蚁组合的丰度、丰富度和组成的影响。我们首先记录每个地层具有不同组合的程度。然后，我们评估每个地层的组合如何响应三个与火灾相关的预测因子：火灾频率、火灾活动和植被覆盖。每个地层都藏有不同的蚂蚁群落，对火表现出不同的反应。落叶蚁和表生蚁对火最敏感，因为它直接影响它们的微生境，但它们分别表现出相反的消极和积极反应。由于土壤的绝缘作用，地下蚂蚁最不敏感。我们的结果表明，同一分类群的共现物种对火的反应强度和方向不同，具体取决于它们所栖息的地层。因此，为保护生物多样性而进行的有效火灾管理应考虑所有垂直地层中的物种。