Use of charred vertebrate carcasses by carrion beetles: Implications of controlled burns and wildfires for the American burying beetle, <i>Nicrophorus americanus</i>

Abstract The frequency and intensity of fires, including controlled burns and wildfires, in temperate environments will change future conservation practices for endangered and threatened species. Populations of the threatened American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus Olivier, remain concentrated in fire‐prone grassland areas of Nebraska and mixed grassland–forest habitats in Oklahoma. To better understand the response of N. americanus to fire events, field surveys and laboratory tests were conducted to determine if Nicrophorus spp. would utilise varying levels of charred rats (slight, moderate, or severe) compared to unburned carcasses for food and reproductive purposes, and survival of buried adult Nicrophorus spp. was measured when exposed to surface burning on a fire table. Field surveys captured seven species of burying beetles (Staphylinidae: Silphinae: Nicrophorini) and four species of carrion beetles (Staphylinidae: Silphinae: Silphini) using burned carrion at all levels with severity of burn score, month, and the interaction effect predicting differences in beetle community composition ( p = 0.001). Nicrophorus spp. were able to reproduce with moderately and severely burned carcasses, but produced significantly fewer offspring; when buried in soil, 96% of Nicrophorus spp. survived hot fires burning on the surface. Continued use of prescribed burns and incidental wildfires within the extant and reintroduced ranges of N . americanus are unlikely to directly harm adult beetles and may benefit Nicrophorus spp. by providing vertebrate carrion for food and reproduction. These data are useful to document the importance of fire to ecological processes, including carrion food webs, and potential benefits to an endangered insect.