PID2022-138420NB-I00 - Efectos ecosistémicos del fuego a corto

The general objective is to analyse the resilience of Mediterranean ecosystems after prescribed fires (used for fuel reduction and habitat managemente). We will study: first, the effects of fire on the different ecosystem components (soil, vegetation, fauna), using a short-term approach throughout shrubland prescribed fires; and second, we will compare these results with a medium-term approach throughout a wildfire forest chronosequence. We will test the hypothesis that the variability in resilience (changes in fauna composition and ecosystem functions) will determine the ecosystem recovery after fire (some groups will be more resilient to fire than others according with their dependence on soil or vegetation). We aim to study how prescribed fire affects the ecosystem environmental matrix, both the abiotic component (soil) and biotic component (vegetation), and how the changes on these two components affect the composition, abundance, and ecological roles of some fauna groups (ants, spiders, bees and mammals), their interactions within and between groups, and their relationships with soil and vegetation. This short-term response to fire will be compared to a medium-term response after wildfires to explore if there are temporal differences in the observed effects on some groups.