RODENT SPECIES DIVERSITY IN PINE FORESTS RECOVERING FROM FIRE

ABSTRACT

Fire is a frequent disturbance in Mediterranean pine forests. The recovery of post-fire habitats occurs through a succession of plants and animals. The fire on Mount Carmel in 1989 provided us with an opportunity to study the recovery of the habitat in its early stages, and under three different management treatments, which included untreated plots, as well as plots from which the trees and the twigs were removed, and plots from which trees were removed, whereas twigs were gathered and left in the field. Rodent species-diversity values in these plots were compared with those from a similar forest that burned 22 years ago, as well as those from a control forest which, to our knowledge, has not had a fire in the last 100 years. Our results indicate that four and a half years after the fire, untreated post-fire plots had high species diversity levels. These plots included both species that invaded the habitat and recolonizers. Twenty years after a fire, species diversity is close to its original state.