Wildfire Impacts on Subterranean Faunal Communities: Multi-Trophic Responses and Biodiversity Loss across a Heterogeneous Landscape of Muniya Conservation Reserve, Central India

Abstract

Wildfires are frequent disruptions of tropical dry deciduous forests and have a significant impact on belowground ecosystems that lead to soil functionality and ecological stability. The multi-trophic soil fauna communities are self-governing systems regulating decomposition and nutrient cycling and biological interactions, but their trophic-level wildfire responses are poorly characterized in systematically heterogeneous tropical landscapes. This report looks into the impact of wildfire on subterranean fauna, especially multi-trophic reactions and biodiversity reduction within differing landscape units of the Muniya Conservation reserve, central India. Soil sample field-based and controlled laboratory studies were carried out in burnt and unburnt sites in grasslands, scrub vegetation and thick forests. The fauna of the soil was categorised into major trophic groups, and the abundance, biomass, trophic structure, activity, and biodiversity measured with the split-plot experimental design, supplemented by additional statistical tests. Findings have shown that wildfire has a major effect on the organization of the subsurface food-web leading to disproportionate losses at upper trophic levels and simplification of the community structure. The most sensitive to fire disturbance were the predatory and functionally specialized groups with relative moderate persistence in lower trophic groups. The indexes of biodiversity decreased steadily in the burnt states indicating homogenization of communities and lack of functional redundancy. Despite the fact that the extent of impacts varied with the landscape heterogeneity, wildfire became the major cause of trophic imbalance and biodiversity loss, regardless of the habitat type. Such results indicate that wildfire transforms the complex soil faunal communities to simplified and functionally weak systems, and long-term impacts of wildfires on soil process and ecosystem resiliency may be severe.