Prescribed burning plays a critical role in maintaining fire-dependent communities. Variations in the extent, return interval, season, and severity can impact how a given community responds. Given these changes, it is important to understand how different fires impact the organisms of a given habitat. The purpose of this project was understand how different fire attributes (i.e., mean fire return interval (MFRI), time since burn, burn season, and fire severity) impact the flower-visiting insect community within the sandhill community of Ordway-Swisher Biological Station in Melrose, Florida. Flower-visiting insects were surveyed using bowl traps and hand netting so that relative abundance, richness, diversity, and community composition could be determined.
Results/Conclusions
A total of 22,371 insects were collected over the course of this study. This included 8,923 flower-visitors. In total, sixty-one species of bees (excluding Lasioglossum) from 26 genera and five families were documented within the sandhill plant community. Different fire attributes had a significant impact on the flower-visiting insect abundance, richness, and overall community composition. In terms of managing for sandhill habitats of north-central Florida, this research has shown insects have the highest abundance and richness within the first two years after a burn. While no significant results were found indicating differences on what season to burn, it is recommended to not burn during peak blooming periods. Lower severity fires lead to higher richness and abundance as well as more variation in the composition of the different insect groups. The combination of these factors, in conjunction with what was discussed regarding ideal MFRI for longleaf pine growth, suggests a MFRI of three to five years is a reasonable balance to maintain and promote a diverse flower-visitor community.