Short-term resilience, seasonal variability, and reduced contemporary diversity in a central Texas moth fauna...

Moths are important environmental indicators and ecosystem service providers, yet they remain understudied and increasingly threatened by climate change, habitat loss, and disturbance. The Lost Pines region of central Texas is an isolated remnant of hardwood-pine forest within a post oak savannah ecoregion that has recently experienced several wildfires, making it vulnerable to environmental change and biodiversity loss. Moths in this region have received little study, especially regarding diversity, community composition variability, and fire. We surveyed moths in the Lost Pines to compare diversity metrics and community composition across (i) 1990s and present-day surveys, (ii) fall and spring seasons, and (iii) burned and unburned areas. Moths were collected using UV bucket traps at four burned and four unburned locations one year after the 2022 Pine Pond Fire at the Stengl Lost Pines Biological Station, with three sampling events in fall 2023 and three in spring 2024. Our results revealed lower diversity in the present-day compared to the 1990s, in fall relative to spring, and in unburned compared to burned areas. Based on species presence-absence data, moth community composition differed significantly between historical and present surveys. Abundance-based analyses showed little community composition overlap between seasons and near-complete overlap between burn treatments. These findings indicate a lower contemporary moth diversity with high assemblage turnover, strong seasonal variability, and short-term (∼1.5 yr) resilience after fire Our results highlight the value of historical baselines for detecting potential biodiversity change and emphasize the need for continued monitoring of moth communities in fragmented landscapes.