Prescribed fire affects arthropod occupancy of wood cavities in a temperate deciduous forest

Abstract Prescribed fire is an important management tool that affects the availability and quality of resources for arthropods in temperate deciduous forests. We quantified occupancy of wood cavities by arthropods within burned and unburned portions of a temperate deciduous forest in the eastern United States. We placed 400 wood blocks (4.0 × 4.5 × 25 cm) on the forest floor at each site. Each block had either one 10‐mm‐diameter cavity or two 5‐mm‐diameter cavities drilled 8 cm deep into its ends. We collected the contents of the cavities over a 5‐month period immediately following the controlled burn and again 2 years post‐burn. Arthropod occupancy was higher in the burned site (37% ± 4%) versus the unburned site (17% ± 3%) immediately following the prescribed fire, but converged on similar frequency after 2 years (26% ± 3% and 28% ± 3%, respectively). Ants, spiders and the cockroach Parcoblatta pennsylvanica (De Geer, 1773) were the most common cavity occupants. There was a tendency for ants and spiders to inhabit either small (5 mm) or large (10 mm) cavities, respectively; however, cavity diameter and body size were not correlated for these groups. Bees and wasps collectively occupied both diameters with similar frequency. The results suggest that prescribed fire increases arthropod occupancy of wood cavities in the short term—possibly by reducing the availability of natural cavities—but these effects disappear after 2 years of forest succession. Understanding the effects of prescribed fire on the ecology of forest arthropods is essential for biodiversity conservation.