1. Animal ecology and evolution are shaped by environmental perturbations, which are undergoing unprecedented alterations due to climate change. Fire is one such perturbation that causes significant disruption by causing mortality and altering habitats and resources for animals. Fire regimes are changing on a global scale, but the effects of these changes on animal communities are poorly understood. Arthropods are one of the most ubiquitous and diverse animal taxa on the planet and their populations are sensitive to environmental change. Given their wide-ranging impacts on ecosystem functioning, a better understanding of arthropod responses to changing fire regimes is critical and may also provide more general insights into how other groups might respond to fire.

2. Here, we provide a comprehensive meta-analytical assessment of how fire influences the arthropod community across habitats and functional groups. Using data from 130 peer-reviewed papers across the globe, we tested how a variety of fire characteristics, including management regime, severity, and time-since-fire affect arthropod populations and communities across habitats.

3. Our results show that arthropod communities display substantial variation in response to fire and that community-level responses are most likely to be detected within the first year. Responses also vary depending on fire characteristics and habitat. Specifically, while community metrics such as diversity were increased by low severity fires, they were reduced by high severity fires. Likewise, evenness increased after prescribed burns but was reduced after wildfire. Measures of arthropod community structure decreased following fires in deserts and forests.

4. Across the entire arthropod community, fire also had variable effects on community diversity. Fire tended to have a negative effect size on arthropods across life stages, but responses did vary among groups. Nearly all functional groups exhibited a negative response to fire with the exception of herbivores, for which abundance, diversity, and richness increased after fire.

5. Our results suggest that the increasing prevalence of high-severity wildfires are changing the structure of arthropod communities. Given their ubiquitous presence and diverse roles in terrestrial ecosystems, these community changes are likely to affect ecosystem functioning in various ways, including through increased herbivory.