Prescribed fall burning is commonly used worldwide on rangeland sites to enhance vegetation resources and restore disturbed ecosystems, but little is known about how it may alter microbial communities and insect activities. We used two site treatments (low- to moderate-burn severity plots and unburned control plots) at a high-elevation (2 100 m above sea level) shrub-steppe rangeland site. Four yr after the prescribed burn, captured insects primarily consisted of Coleoptera (beetles), Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps), and Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets) species with similar or greater numbers captured on burned plots as compared with unburned plots. We used wood stakes to assess microbial population changes. Aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) and pine (Pinus taeda L.) wood stakes were placed horizontally on the soil surface and vertically into the mineral to determine microbially altered wood decay rates. In mineral soil, mass loss (wood decay) of both aspen and pine increased significantly in the burned plots after 5 yr. Surface aspen also had increased decay in the burned plots, but pine surface stakes were unaffected. Surprisingly, at this high-elevation site we also found subterranean termites (Reticulitermes tibialis Banks) feeding on both stake species, with greater numbers on aspen stakes in burned plots leading to greater wood mass loss and organic matter turnover rates. Our results suggest that that fall prescribed burning can enhance insect numbers and microbial decay in sagebrush-steppe ecosystems. Understanding these changes can help land managers predict the influence of fall prescribed burning operations on soil biological properties and insect communities.

规定的秋季燃烧在世界范围内的牧场上普遍使用，以增强植被资源并恢复受干扰的生态系统，但人们对其如何改变微生物群落和昆虫活动知之甚少。我们在高海拔（海拔 2 100 m）灌木草原牧场地点使用了两种场地处理（低至中度烧伤程度的地块和未烧毁的对照地块）。规定烧毁四年后，捕获的昆虫主要包括鞘翅目（甲虫）、膜翅目（蚂蚁、蜜蜂和黄蜂）和直翅目（蚱蜢和蟋蟀）物种，与未烧毁的地块相比，在烧毁的地块上捕获的昆虫数量相似或更多。我们使用木桩来评估微生物种群的变化。白杨 ( Populus tremuloides Michx.) 和松树 (将火炬松(Pinus taeda L.) 木桩水平放置在土壤表面并垂直放置在矿物中，以确定微生物改变的木材腐烂率。在矿质土壤中，5年后，烧毁地块中白杨和松树的质量损失（木材腐烂）显着增加。被烧毁的地块中，表面白杨的腐烂程度也有所增加，但松树表面的木桩并未受到影响。令人惊讶的是，在这个高海拔地点我们还发现了地下​​白蚁（Reticulitermes tibialis）银行）以这两种木桩物种为食，烧毁地块中白杨木桩的数量较多，导致木材质量损失和有机物质周转率更大。我们的结果表明，秋季规定的燃烧可以增加艾蒿草原生态系统中的昆虫数量和微生物腐烂。了解这些变化可以帮助土地管理者预测秋季规定的燃烧作业对土壤生物特性和昆虫群落的影响。