Full description
Upland swamps are ecologically important environments where unique assemblages of macroinvertebrates perform essential ecosystem functions. However, little is known about how environmental disturbance influences macroinvertebrate diversity following fire, which may reflect broader ecosystem health and recovery. The 2019-2020 summer bushfires in Australia impacted more than 50% of the Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone (THPSS) habitat in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales (NSW). Using mt16S DNA metabarcoding, we characterised the taxonomic assemblages of springtails (Order Collembola) within six swamps of the Blue Mountains in Australia. We tested the influence of fire from data collected before and after the 2019-2020 fires at four swamps and at two additional swamps (one burnt and one unburnt). Community composition varied between swamps, years, and as a response to fire. Our results suggest that the community attributes of springtails are negatively affected by fire, while highlighting the potential of eDNA metabarcoding as a tool for assessing the effects of fire on soil macroinvertebrates.
Data for the Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) are provided, including metadata on site info, relative abundances of filtered reads per taxon, phylogenetic distance (MEGA) and raw taxonomy tables.
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- DOI : 10.25949/32831330.V1
