COMPARING BUMBLEBEES AND FLORAL RESOURCES FOLLOWING LARGE-SCALE WILDFIRES

Kirstie Kandaris; National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, Inc.; kirstkan@gmail.com; Claire Massaro, Jesse Fan Brown, Lincoln Best, Laura Six, Lauren Ponisio, Katie Moriarty

Recent large-scale wildfires in the Pacific Northwest have highlighted the need for research to understand its influence on forest biodiversity. Forest pollinator communities are understudied, with particular and growing interest in Bombus species due to their potential candidacy under state and federal laws that regulate threatened and endangered species. Although small-scale fires may benefit pollinator communities by creating openings in the forest canopy and associated floral abundance, large-scale and high intensity fires may not result in greater richness and diversity of plants. Also, insects may be unable to recolonize fast enough to take advantage of increases in floral abundance. To better understand the relationship between forest pollinators and wildfires, we sampled 169 forest stands affected by five large fires over the first two years post-burn. We evaluate changes in flowering plant communities and Bombus species richness and diversity through repeated flowering plant surveys paired with passive bee collection using blue vane traps and hand-netting. Early observations suggest plant communities changed dramatically between 1 and 2 years post burn, and Bombus were trapped in much lower numbers in 2022 compared to 2021. This work can help inform how forest pollinator communities respond following wildfires and subsequent forest regeneration.

Poster Session  InPerson Presentation