Effects of fire on a prairie arthropod community

x, 97 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.In this study, I addressed how a large-scale wildfire affected a prairie arthropod community in southern Alberta, Canada. First, I looked at the general effects of disturbance on the arthropod community. Second, I addressed how processes such as competition and secondary succession may have affected diversity in this arthropod community. Third, I determined how the arthropod community trophic structure was regulated. Results showed that the effect of disturbance on arthropods varies greatly by taxa. Factors, such as site, year, distance from disturbance edge, as well as the disturbance itself, were important in determing the abudance, biomass, richness, and diversity of the arthropod community. There were strong year-to-year differences hat exceeded the disturbance effects. Results showed that the processess behind the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, succession and competition are not detectable in this arthropod community. This arthropod community was likely regulated in a bottom-up manner, in which herbivores ultimately control the abundance of predators and parasitoids