Sampling sites map and King Fire perimeter. We sampled 27 sites total in the Eldorado National Forest, California, three years afer the King Fire, nine in each burn category: Unburned, moderate severity, and high severity. Features not indicated in legend are typical of topological maps.
Sampling sites map and King Fire perimeter. We sampled 27 sites total in the Eldorado National Forest, California, three years afer the King Fire, nine in each burn category: Unburned, moderate severity, and high severity. Features not indicated in legend are typical of topological maps.

Abstract:

Wildfire dynamics are changing around the world and understanding their effects on ecological communities and landscapes is urgent and important. We report detailed food webs for unburned, low-to-moderate and high severity burned habitats three years post-fire in the Eldorado National Forest, California. The cumulative cross-habitat food web contains 3,084 ontogenetic stages (nodes) or plant parts comprising 849 species (including 107 primary producers, 634 invertebrates, 94 vertebrates). There were 178,655 trophic interactions between these nodes. We provide information on taxonomy, body size, biomass density and trophic interactions under each of the three burn conditions. We detail 19 sampling methods deployed across 27 sites (nine in each burn condition) used to estimate the richness, body size, abundance and biomass density estimates in the node lists. We provide the R code and raw data to estimate summarized node densities and assign trophic links.

 

Citation:

JP McLaughlinJW Schroeder, AM White, K Culhane, HE Mirts, GL Tarbill, L Sire, M Page, EJ Baker, M Moritz, J Brashares, HS Young & R Sollmann. Food webs for three burn severities after wildfire in the Eldorado National Forest, California. Sci Data 9, 384 (2022).

 

Link to Paper:

McLaughlin et al. 2022

Associated Researchers:

Postdoctoral Researcher
Master's Student
(she/her/hers)
Community Ecology, Freshwater Ecology
Associate Professor
Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
(she/her/hers)
Community Ecology, Infectious Disease Ecology, Global Change Ecology, Principle Investigator

 

Thumbnail Photo Credit: Cameron Strandberg