Date of Award
6-15-2024
Document Type
Masters Thesis
Degree Name
M.S. in Biological Sciences
Organizational Unit
College of Natural Science and Mathematics, Biological Sciences
First Advisor
Shannon M. Murphy
Second Advisor
Adrian L. Carper
Third Advisor
Julie A. Morris
Fourth Advisor
Anna Sher
Keywords
Bee, Floral, Nesting, Wasp, Wildfire
Abstract
While fire is a natural disturbance in many global ecosystems, anthropogenic changes are affecting fire frequency, severity, and seasonality. Disturbances like wildfire affect bee and wasp communities, but recent meta-analyses are conflicted about whether fire harms or benefits insect pollinators. We investigated the lasting effects of wildfire burn severity on wild bee communities and floral resource availability across different burn severities in two-mixed severity fires that burned >20 years ago. We found that high severity fire has positive effects on bee diversity that are associated with severity-mediated changes to the floral community. We also studied the effects of wildfire burn severity on cavity-nesting bee and wasp abundance and diversity, and nesting habitat across burn severities (high, low, unburned) in the same mixed-severity fires. We found that fire severity had no impact on cavity-nesters, but that high severity fire did increase the amount of coarse woody debris available for nesting.
Copyright Date
6-2024
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
Alaina K. Smith
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
English (eng)
Extent
80 pgs
File Size
1.4 MB
Recommended Citation
Smith, Alaina K., "The Effects of Wildfire Burn Severity on Bee and Wasp Communities Two Decades Post-Fire" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2430.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2430