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Animal population decline and recovery after severe fire: Relating ecological and life history traits with expert estimates of population impacts from the Australian 2019-20 megafires

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Abstract

Catastrophic megafires can increase extinction risks; identifying species priorities for management and policy support is critical for preparing and responding to future fires. However, empirical data on population loss and recovery post-fire, especially megafire, are limited and taxonomically biased. These gaps could be bridged if species' morphological, behavioural, ecological and life history traits indicated their fire responses. Using expert elicitation that estimated population changes following the 2019–20 Australian megafires for 142 terrestrial and aquatic animal species (from every vertebrate class, one invertebrate group), we examined whether expert estimates of fire-related mortality, mortality in the year post-fire, and recovery trajectories over 10 years/three generations post-fire, were related to species traits. Expert estimates for fire-related mortality were lower for species that could potentially flee or shelter from fire, and that associated with fire-prone habitats. Post-fire mortality estimates were linked to diet, diet specialisation, home range size, and susceptibility to introduced herbivores that damage or compete for resources. Longer-term population recovery estimates were linked to diet/habitat specialisation, susceptibility to introduced species; species with slower life histories and shorter subadult dispersal distances also had lower recovery estimates. Across animal groups, experts estimated that recovery was poorest for species with pre-fire population decline and more threatened conservation status. Sustained management is likely needed to recover species with habitat and diet specialisations, slower life histories, pre-existing declines and threatened conservation statuses. This study shows that traits could help inform management priorities before and after future megafires, but further empirical data on animal fire response is essential.

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... On the Australian mainland, woodland communities have been devastated by clearing and other agricultural practices, and fires remove roosting, nesting and feeding resources (Ensbey et al. 2023). Cats (Felis catus) and European foxes (Vulpes vulpes) continue to wreak havoc on ground-nesting and ground-feeding species (Woinarski et al. 2017(Woinarski et al. , 2022. ...
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... For instance, in African savannas and grasslands, and other fire-prone ecosystems like Cerrado, the abundance of large herbivores was positively impacted by fires, www.nature.com/scientificreports/ although responses vary widely among taxa depending on species life-history traits, habitat requirements, and refuges provided by unburned habitats (e.g., 7,8,33 ). However, other species occurring in areas surrounding TES, namely Aotus azarae, Cuniculus paca, Tamandua tetradactyla, Euphractus sexcinctus, and Tolypeutes matacus (recorded by interviews 28 ), were not detected in our study. ...
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... Stephens et al., 2022) or habitat use by animals (Ensbey et al., 2023). ...
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... As yet, there is insufficient knowledge regarding the direct responses of forest species to megafires, with post-fire assessments tending to rely on expert opinion (Legge et al., 2022) or extrapolating the extent of fire coverage regardless of its severity/heat intensity (Ward et al., 2020). A forum of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW covered this theme with original contributions (Dickman et al., 2022;Ensbey et al., 2023). Continued research on the impact of megafire and the longer-term post-fire recovery is essential, given that cool, patchy burning may offer a tool for management in reducing severity in certain forests (Hislop et al., 2020;Lydersen et al., 2017). ...
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Aim Megafire events generate immediate concern for wildlife and human well‐being, but their broader ecological impacts likely extend beyond individual species and single fire events. In the first mechanistic study of fire effects focussed on ecosystems, we aimed to assess the sensitivity and exposure of ecosystems to multiple fire‐related threats, placing impacts in the context of changing fire regimes and their interactions with other threats. Location Southern and eastern Australia. Time period 2019–2020. Major species studied Australian ecosystems. Methods We defined 15 fire‐related threats to ecosystems based on mechanisms associated with: (a) direct effects of fire regime components; (b) interactions between fire and physical environmental processes; (c) effects of fire on biological interactions; and (d) interactions between fire and human activity. We estimated the sensitivity and exposure of a sample of 92 ecosystem types to each threat type based on published relationships and spatial analysis of the 2019–2020 fires. Results Twenty‐nine ecosystem types assessed had more than half of their distribution exposed to one or more threat types, and only three of those were listed as nationally threatened. Three fire‐related threat types posed the most severe threats to large numbers of ecosystem types: high frequency fire; pre‐fire drought; and post‐fire invasive predator activity. The ecosystem types most affected ranged from rain forests to peatlands, and included some, such as sclerophyllous eucalypt forests and heathlands, that are traditionally regarded as fire‐prone and fire‐adapted. Main conclusions Most impacts of the 2019–2020 fires on ecosystems became apparent only when they were placed in the context of the whole fire regime and its interactions with other threatening processes, and were not direct consequences of the megafire event itself. Our mechanistic approach enables ecosystem‐specific management responses for the most threatened ecosystem types to be targeted at underlying causes of degradation and decline.
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Both fire and predators have strong influences on the population dynamics and behaviour of animals, and the effects of predators may either be strengthened or weakened by fire. However, knowledge of how fire drives or mediates predator-prey interactions is fragmented and has not been synthesised. Here, we review and synthesise knowledge of how fire influences predator and prey behaviour and interactions. We develop a conceptual model based on predator-prey theory and empirical examples to address four key questions: (i) how and why do predators respond to fire; (ii) how and why does prey vulnerability change post-fire; (iii) what mechanisms do prey use to reduce predation risk post-fire; and (iv) what are the outcomes of predator-fire interactions for prey populations? We then discuss these findings in the context of wildlife conservation and ecosystem management before outlining priorities for future research. Fire-induced changes in vegetation structure, resource availability, and animal behaviour influence predator-prey encounter rates, the amount of time prey are vulnerable during an encounter, and the conditional probability of prey death given an encounter. How a predator responds to fire depends on fire characteristics (e.g. season, severity), their hunting behaviour (ambush or pursuit predator), movement behaviour, territoriality, and intra-guild dynamics. Prey species that rely on habitat structure for avoiding predation often experience increased predation rates and lower survival in recently burnt areas. By contrast, some prey species benefit from the opening up of habitat after fire because it makes it easier to detect predators and to modify their behaviour appropriately. Reduced prey body condition after fire can increase predation risk either through impaired ability to escape predators, or increased need to forage in risky areas due to being energetically stressed. To reduce risk of predation in the post-fire environment, prey may change their habitat use, increase sheltering behaviour, change their movement behaviour, or use camouflage through cryptic colouring and background matching. Field experiments and population viability modelling show instances where fire either amplifies or does not amplify the impacts of predators on prey populations, and vice versa. In some instances, intense and sustained post-fire predation may lead to local extinctions of prey populations. Human disruption of fire regimes is impacting faunal communities, with consequences for predator and prey behaviour and population dynamics. Key areas for future research include: capturing data continuously before, during and after fires; teasing out the relative importance of changes in visibility and shelter availability in different contexts; documenting changes in acoustic and olfactory cues for both predators and prey; addressing taxonomic and geographic biases in the literature; and predicting and testing how changes in fire-regime characteristics reshape predator-prey interactions. Understanding and managing the consequences for predator-prey communities will be critical for effective ecosystem management and species conservation in this era of global change.
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Aim After environmental disasters, species with large population losses may need urgent protection to prevent extinction and support recovery. Following the 2019–2020 Australian megafires, we estimated population losses and recovery in fire‐affected fauna, to inform conservation status assessments and management. Location Temperate and subtropical Australia. Time period 2019–2030 and beyond. Major taxa Australian terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates; one invertebrate group. Methods From > 1,050 fire‐affected taxa, we selected 173 whose distributions substantially overlapped the fire extent. We estimated the proportion of each taxon’s distribution affected by fires, using fire severity and aquatic impact mapping, and new distribution mapping. Using expert elicitation informed by evidence of responses to previous wildfires, we estimated local population responses to fires of varying severity. We combined the spatial and elicitation data to estimate overall population loss and recovery trajectories, and thus indicate potential eligibility for listing as threatened, or uplisting, under Australian legislation. Results We estimate that the 2019–2020 Australian megafires caused, or contributed to, population declines that make 70–82 taxa eligible for listing as threatened; and another 21–27 taxa eligible for uplisting. If so‐listed, this represents a 22–26% increase in Australian statutory lists of threatened terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates and spiny crayfish, and uplisting for 8–10% of threatened taxa. Such changes would cause an abrupt worsening of underlying trajectories in vertebrates, as measured by Red List Indices. We predict that 54–88% of 173 assessed taxa will not recover to pre‐fire population size within 10 years/three generations. Main conclusions We suggest the 2019–2020 Australian megafires have worsened the conservation prospects for many species. Of the 91 taxa recommended for listing/uplisting consideration, 84 are now under formal review through national processes. Improving predictions about taxon vulnerability with empirical data on population responses, reducing the likelihood of future catastrophic events and mitigating their impacts on biodiversity, are critical.
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Earth's rapidly warming climate is propelling us towards an increasingly fire-prone future. Currently, knowledge of the extent and characteristics of animal mortality rates during fire remains rudimentary, hindering our ability to predict how animal populations may be impacted in the future. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a global systematic review of the direct effects of fire on animal mortality rates, based on studies that unequivocally determined the fate of animals during fire. From 31 studies spanning 1984–2020, we extracted data on the direct impacts of fire on the mortality of 31 species from 23 families. From these studies, there were 43 instances where direct effects were measured by reporting animal survival from pre- to post-fire. Most studies were conducted in North America (52%) and Oceania (42%), focused largely on mammals (53%) and reptiles (30%), and reported mostly on animal survival in planned (82%) and/or low severity (70%) fires. We found no studies from Asia, Europe or South America. Although there were insufficient data to conduct a formal meta-analysis, we tested the effect of fire type, fire severity, fire regime, animal body mass, ecological attributes and class on survival. Only fire severity affected animal mortality, with a higher proportion of animals being killed by high than low severity fires. Recent catastrophic fires across the globe have drawn attention to the plight of animals exposed to wildfire. Yet, our systematic review suggests that a relatively low proportion of animals (mean predicted mortality [95% CI] = 3% [1%–9%]) are killed during fire. However, our review also underscores how little we currently know about the direct effects of fire on animal mortality, and highlights the critical need to understand the effects of high severity fire on animal populations.
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Aim The incidence of major fires is increasing globally, creating extraordinary challenges for governments, managers and conservation scientists. In 2019–2020, Australia experienced precedent‐setting fires that burned over several months, affecting seven states and territories and causing massive biodiversity loss. Whilst the fires were still burning, the Australian Government convened a biodiversity Expert Panel to guide its bushfire response. A pressing need was to target emergency investment and management to reduce the chance of extinctions and maximise the chances of longer‐term recovery. We describe the approach taken to rapidly prioritise fire‐affected animal species. We use the experience to consider the organisational and data requirements for evidence‐based responses to future ecological disasters. Location Forested biomes of subtropical and temperate Australia, with lessons for other regions. Methods We developed assessment frameworks to screen fire‐affected species based on their pre‐fire conservation status, the proportion of their distribution overlapping with fires, and their behavioural/ecological traits relating to fire vulnerability. Using formal and informal networks of scientists, government and non‐government staff and managers, we collated expert input and data from multiple sources, undertook the analyses, and completed the assessments in 3 weeks for vertebrates and 8 weeks for invertebrates. Results The assessments prioritised 92 vertebrate and 213 invertebrate species for urgent management response; another 147 invertebrate species were placed on a watchlist requiring further information. Conclusions The priority species lists helped focus government and non‐government investment, management and research effort, and communication to the public. Using multiple expert networks allowed the assessments to be completed rapidly using the best information available. However, the assessments highlighted substantial gaps in data availability and access, deficiencies in statutory threatened species listings, and the need for capacity‐building across the conservation science and management sectors. We outline a flexible template for using evidence effectively in emergency responses for future ecological disasters.
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Large and severe fires (‘mega-fires’) are increasing in frequency across the globe, often pushing into ecosystems that have previously had very long fire return intervals. The 2019–2020 Australian bushfire season was one of the most catastrophic fire events on record. Almost 19 million hectares were burnt across the continent displacing and killing unprecedented numbers of native fauna, including bird species. Some bird species are known to thrive in post-fire environments, while others may be absent for an extended period from the firegrounds until there is sufficient ecosystem recovery. To test for systematic patterns in species use of the post-fire environment, we combined citizen science data from eBird with data on sedentism, body size, range size and the specialisation of diet and habitat. Using generalised additive models, we modelled the responses of 76 bird species to the 2019–2020 Australian mega-fires. Twenty-two species decreased in occurrence after the fire; 30 species increased; and no significant effect was found for the remaining 24 species. Furthermore, diet specialists, and birds with smaller body sizes and range sizes were less likely to be found in burnt areas after the fire event compared to before, a result which generates testable hypotheses for recovery from other mega-fires across the globe. Being displaced from the firegrounds for an event of this geographic magnitude may have severe consequences for population dynamics and thus warrant considerable conservation attention in pre-fire planning and in the post-fire aftermath.
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Planet Earth is entering the age of megafire, pushing ecosystems to their limits and beyond. While fire causes mortality of animals across vast portions of the globe, scientists are only beginning to consider fire as an evolutionary force in animal ecology. Here, we generate a series of hypotheses regarding animal responses to fire by adopting insights from the predator‐prey literature. Fire is a lethal threat, thus there is likely strong selection for animals to recognise the olfactory, auditory, and visual cues of fire, and deploy fire avoidance behaviours that maximise survival probability. If fire defences are costly, it follows that intraspecific variation in fire avoidance behaviours should correspond with variation in fire behaviour and regimes. Species and populations inhabiting ecosystems that rarely experience fire may lack these traits, placing ‘fire naive’ populations and species at enhanced extinction risk as the distribution of fire extends into new ecosystem types. We outline a research agenda to understand behavioural responses to fire and to identify conservation interventions that could be used to overcome fire naivety.
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Conservation managers are under increasing pressure to make decisions about the allocation of finite resources to protect biodiversity under a changing climate. However, the impacts of climate and global change drivers on species are outpacing our capacity to collect the empirical data necessary to inform these decisions. This is particularly the case in the Australian Alps which has already undergone recent changes in climate and experienced more frequent large‐scale bushfires. In lieu of empirical data, we used a structured expert elicitation method (the IDEA protocol) to estimate the abundance and distribution of nine vegetation groups and 89 Australian alpine and subalpine species by the year 2050. Experts predicted that most alpine vegetation communities would decline in extent by 2050; only woodlands and heathlands are predicted to increase in extent. Predicted species‐level responses for alpine plants and animals were highly variable and uncertain. In general, alpine plants spanned the range of possible responses, with some expected to increase, decrease or not change in cover. By contrast, almost all animal species are predicted to decline or not change in abundance or elevation range; more species with water‐centric life‐cycles are expected to decline in abundance than other species. While long‐term ecological data will always be the gold‐standard in informing the future of biodiversity, the method and outcomes outlined here provide a pragmatic and coherent basis upon which to start informing conservation policy and management in the face of rapid change and paucity of data.
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When data are not normally distributed, researchers are often uncertain whether it is legitimate to use tests that assume Gaussian errors, or whether one has to either model a more specific error structure or use randomization techniques. Here we use Monte Carlo simulations to explore the pros and cons of fitting Gaussian models to non-normal data in terms of risk of type I error, power and utility for parameter estimation. We find that Gaussian models are robust to non-normality over a wide range of conditions, meaning that p values remain fairly reliable except for data with influential outliers judged at strict alpha levels. Gaussian models also performed well in terms of power across all simulated scenarios. Parameter estimates were mostly unbiased and precise except if sample sizes were small or the distribution of the predictor was highly skewed. Transformation of data before analysis is often advisable and visual inspection for outliers and heteroscedasticity is important for assessment. In strong contrast, some non-Gaussian models and randomization techniques bear a range of risks that are often insufficiently known. High rates of false-positive conclusions can arise for instance when overdispersion in count data is not controlled appropriately or when randomization procedures ignore existing non-independencies in the data. Hence, newly developed statistical methods not only bring new opportunities, but they can also pose new threats to reliability. We argue that violating the normality assumption bears risks that are limited and manageable, while several more sophisticated approaches are relatively error prone and particularly difficult to check during peer review. Scientists and reviewers who are not fully aware of the risks might benefit from preferentially trusting Gaussian mixed models in which random effects account for non-independencies in the data.
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Aim Megafires are increasing in intensity and frequency globally. The impacts of megafires on biodiversity can be severe, so conservation managers must be able to respond rapidly to quantify their impacts, initiate recovery efforts and consider conservation options within and beyond the burned extent. We outline a framework that can be used to guide conservation responses to megafires, using the 1.5 million hectare 2019/2020 megafires in Victoria, Australia, as a case study. Location Victoria, Australia. Methods Our framework uses a suite of decision support tools, including species attribute databases, ~4,200 species distribution models and a spatially explicit conservation action planning tool to quantify the potential effects of megafires on biodiversity, and identify species‐specific and landscape‐scale conservation actions that can assist recovery. Results Our approach identified 346 species in Victoria that had >40% of their modelled habitat affected by the megafire, including 45 threatened species, and 102 species with >40% of their modelled habitat affected by high severity fire. We then identified 21 candidate recovery actions that are expected to assist the recovery of biodiversity. For relevant landscape‐scale actions, we identified locations within and adjacent to the megafire extent that are expected to deliver cost‐effective conservation gains. Main conclusion The 2019/2020 megafires in south‐eastern Australia affected the habitat of many species and plant communities. Our framework identified a range of single‐species (e.g., supplementary feeding, translocation) and landscape‐scale actions (e.g., protection of refuges, invasive species management) that can help biodiversity recover from megafires. Conservation managers will be increasingly required to rapidly identify conservation actions that can help species recover from megafires, especially under a changing climate. Our approach brings together commonly used datasets (e.g., species distribution maps, trait databases, fire severity mapping) to help guide conservation responses and can be used to help biodiversity recover from future megafires across the world.
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Extreme wildfire events in recent years are shaking our established knowledge of how fire regimes respond to climate variables and how societies need to react to fire impacts. Albeit fires are stochastic and extreme in nature, the speed, intensity, and extension of new extreme fires that have occurred during the last years are unprecedented. Here, we identify common features of these emerging novel extreme wildfire events characterized by very high fire intensity and rapid rates of spread, and we review the major mechanisms behind their occurrence. We then point to the major challenges that extreme wildfire events pose to science and societies worldwide, both today and in the future. Climate change and other factors are contributing to more flammable landscapes and the promotion of unstable atmospheric conditions that ultimately promote wildfire development. Anticipating these novel conditions is a key scientific challenge with paramount implications for present and future fire management, ecosystems, and human well-being.
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Wildfires influence terrestrial carbon cycling and represent a safety risk, and yet a process-based understanding of their frequency and spatial distributions remains elusive. We combine satellite-based observations with an enhanced dynamic global vegetation model to make regionally resolved global assessments of burned area (BA) responses to changing climate, derived from 34 Earth system models and human demographics for 1860–2100. Limited by climate and socioeconomics, recent BA has decreased, especially in central South America and mesic African savannas. However, future simulations predict increasing BA due to changing climate, rapid population density growth, and urbanization. BA increases are especially notable at high latitudes, due to accelerated warming, and over the tropics and subtropics, due to drying and human ignitions. Conversely, rapid urbanization also limits BA via enhanced fire suppression in the immediate vicinity of settlements, offsetting the potential for dramatic future increases, depending on warming extent. Our analysis provides further insight into regional and global BA trends, highlighting the importance of including human demographic change in models for wildfire under changing climate.
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Aim To quantify the impact of the 2019–2020 megafires on Australian plant diversity by assessing burnt area across 26,062 species ranges and the effects of fire history on recovery potential. Further, to exemplify a strategic approach to prioritizing plant species affected by fire for recovery actions and conservation planning at a national scale. Location Australia. Methods We combine data on geographic range, fire extent, response traits and fire history to assess the proportion of species ranges burnt in both the 2019–2020 fires and the past. Results Across Australia, suitable habitat for 69% of all plant species was burnt (17,197 species) by the 2019–2020 fires and herbarium specimens confirm the presence of 9,092 of these species across the fire extent since 1950. Burnt ranges include those of 587 plants listed as threatened under national legislation (44% of Australia's threatened plants). A total of 3,998 of the 17,197 fire‐affected species are known to resprout after fire, but at least 2,928 must complete their entire life cycle—from germinant to reproducing adult—prior to subsequent fires, as they are killed by fire. Data on previous fires show that, for 257 species, the historical intervals between fire events across their range are likely too short to allow regeneration. For a further 411 species, future fires during recovery will increase extinction risk as current populations are dominated by immature individuals. Main conclusion Many Australian plant species have strategies to persist under certain fire regimes, and will recover given time, suitable conditions and low exposure to threats. However, short fire intervals both before and after the 2019–2020 fire season pose a serious risk to the recovery of at least 595 species. Persistent knowledge gaps about species fire response and post‐fire population persistence threaten the effective long‐term management of Australian vegetation in an increasingly pyric world.
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Fire drives animal population dynamics across many ecosystems. Yet, we still lack an understanding of how most species recover from fire and the effects of fire severity and patchiness on recovery processes. This information is crucial for fire‐mediated biodiversity conservation, particularly as fire regimes change globally. We conducted an experiment to test whether post‐fire recovery is driven by in situ survival or recolonisation, and to determine whether this varies with fires of increasing percentage area burnt (burn cover) and severity. We used the pale field rat Rattus tunneyi as a model, because it represents the extinction process for a suite of mammal species suffering population collapse across Australia's northern savannas. Our treatments spanned a gradient from patchy, low severity fires (simulating early dry season management burns) to thorough, high severity fires (simulating wildfires). We performed capture–mark–recapture, vegetation and aerial surveys before, 6 weeks after and 1 year after fire. Six weeks after fire, pale field rats were only captured in unburnt patches of vegetation, and capture rates were proportional to the amount of unburnt habitat. One year later, both vegetation and pale field rat populations recovered across all sites. However, population recovery after low severity fires was likely achieved through in situ survival and reproduction in unburnt micro‐refuges, compared to recolonisation driving recovery after high severity fires. Synthesis and applications. Pale field rat persistence is strongly dependent on the retention of unburnt habitat patches within fire‐affected areas. Management strategies that increase micro‐refugia within burnt areas may facilitate pale field rat population recovery. Globally, building recovery mechanisms into fire management will be vital for supporting the long‐term persistence of fire‐affected species.
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Fire's growing impacts on ecosystems Fire has played a prominent role in the evolution of biodiversity and is a natural factor shaping many ecological communities. However, the incidence of fire has been exacerbated by human activity, and this is now affecting ecosystems and habitats that have never been fire prone or fire adapted. Kelly et al. review how such changes are already threatening species with extinction and transforming terrestrial ecosystems and discuss the trends causing changes in fire regimes. They also consider actions that could be taken by conservationists and policy-makers to help sustain biodiversity in a time of changing fire activity. Science , this issue p. eabb0355
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Fires change ecosystem composition and influence species extinction risk, yet information on the impact of fire on biodiversity is scant. The bushfires in southeastern Australia during the summer of 2019/20 were unprecedented in their extent and intensity, and postfire management decisions have been hindered by a lack of knowledge of the impact of fires on biodiversity. We examine the short-term persistence of frog species across southeastern Australia after these fires using records of calling frogs from the national citizen science project FrogID. We demonstrate widespread short-term persistence of frog species. Sixty-six frog species were detected in the firegrounds before the fire, and within 125 days postfire, 45 of these were detected. All 33 frog species with more than five records that were detected in the months of December-March prefire were detected postfire. While the short-term postfire persistence of so many frog species is a positive result, the population-level and longer-term consequences of the fires remain unknown, as does the ability of frogs to persist with the changing fire regimes predicted as a consequence of global climate change. We illustrate the value of citizen science in collecting large-scale and rapid observations in response to increasing anthropogenically-driven ecological events.
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Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and evolutionary science, and new data and methods have proliferated rapidly. Yet accessing and integrating disparate data sources remains a considerable challenge, slowing progress toward a global synthesis to integrate trait data across organisms. Trait science needs a vision for achieving global integration across all organisms. Here, we outline how the adoption of key Open Science principles—open data, open source and open methods—is transforming trait science, increasing transparency, democratizing access and accelerating global synthesis. To enhance widespread adoption of these principles, we introduce the Open Traits Network (OTN), a global, decentralized community welcoming all researchers and institutions pursuing the collaborative goal of standardizing and integrating trait data across organisms. We demonstrate how adherence to Open Science principles is key to the OTN community and outline five activities that can accelerate the synthesis of trait data across the Tree of Life, thereby facilitating rapid advances to address scientific inquiries and environmental issues. Lessons learned along the path to a global synthesis of trait data will provide a framework for addressing similarly complex data science and informatics challenges. A decentralized community is introduced that aims to standardize and integrate species trait data across organismal groups, based on principles of Open Science.
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Inappropriate fire regimes and predation by introduced species each pose a major threat to Australia’s native mammals. They also potentially interact, an issue that is likely to be contributing to the ongoing collapse of native mammal communities across Australia. In the present review, I first describe the mechanisms through which fire could create predation pinch points, exacerbating the impacts of predators, including red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, and feral cats, Felis catus, on their native mammalian prey. These mechanisms include a localised increase in predator activity (a numerically mediated pathway) and higher predator hunting success after fire (a functionally moderated pathway), which could both increase native mammal mortality and limit population recovery in fire-affected landscapes. Evidence for such interactions is growing, although largely based on unreplicated experiments. Improving native mammal resilience to fire in predator-invaded landscapes requires addressing two key questions: how can the impacts of introduced predators on native mammals in fire-affected areas be reduced; and, does a reduction in predation by introduced species result in higher native mammal survival and population recovery after fire? I then examine potential management options for reducing predator impacts post-fire. The most feasible are landscape-scale predator control and the manipulation of fire regimes to create patchy fire scars. However, robust field experiments with adequate statistical power are required to assess the effectiveness of these approaches and preclude null (e.g. compensatory mortality) or adverse (e.g. mesopredator or competitor release) outcomes. Ongoing predator management and prescribed burning programs provide an opportunity to learn through replicated natural experiments as well as experimental manipulations. Standardised reporting protocols and cross-jurisdiction monitoring programs would help achieve necessary spatial and environmental replication, while multi-trophic, spatially explicit simulation models could help synthesise findings from disparate study designs, predict management outcomes and generate new hypotheses. Such approaches will be key to improving management of the complex mechanisms that drive threatened native mammal populations in Australia’s predator-invaded, fire-prone landscapes.
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Background Prescribed burning is used to reduce fire hazard in highly flammable vegetation types, including Banksia L.f. woodland that occurs on the Swan Coastal Plain (SCP), Western Australia, Australia. The 2016 census recorded well over 1.9 million people living on the SCP, which also encompasses Perth, the fourth largest city in Australia. Banksia woodland is prone to frequent ignitions that can cause extensive bushfires that consume canopy-stored banksia seeds, a critical food resource for an endangered bird, the Carnaby’s cockatoo ( Calyptorynchus latirostris, Carnaby 1948). The time needed for banksias to reach maturity and maximum seed production is several years longer than the typical interval between prescribed burns. We compared prescribed burns to bushfires and unburned sites at three locations in banksia woodland to determine whether low-intensity prescribed burns affect the number of adult banksias and their seed production. Study sites were matched to the same vegetation complex, fire regime, and time-since-fire to isolate fire intensity as a variable. Results Headfire rates of spread and differenced normalized burn ratios indicated that prescribed burning was generally of a much lower intensity than bushfire. The percentage survival of adult banksias and their production of cones and follicles (seeds) did not decrease during the first three years following a prescribed burn. However, survival and seed production were significantly diminished followed high-intensity bushfire. Thus, carrying capacity for Carnaby’s cockatoo was unchanged by prescribed burning but decreased markedly following bushfire in banksia woodland. Conclusions These results suggest that prescribed burning is markedly different from bushfire when considering appropriate fire intervals to conserve canopy habitats in fire-resilient vegetation communities. Therefore, low-intensity prescribed burning represents a viable management tool to reduce the frequency and extent of bushfire impacts on banksia woodland and Carnaby’s cockatoo.
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It is well established in the world’s fire-prone regions that wildfires can considerably change the hydrological dynamics of freshwater catchments. Limited research, however, has focused on the potential impacts of wildfire ash toxicity on aquatic biota. Here, we assess the chemical composition and toxicity of ash generated from wildfires in six contrasting vegetation types distributed globally (UK grassland, Spanish pine forest, Spanish heathland, USA chaparral, Australian eucalypt forest and Canadian spruce forest). Acute (48 h) immobilisation tests were conducted on the extensively studied aquatic macroinvertebrate Daphnia magna, a sensitive indicator of aquatic contaminants. We found significant differences between the chemical composition and toxicity of these ash types. The UK and Spanish ash had no detectable toxicity to Daphnia magna, whereas the Australian eucalypt, USA chaparral and Canadian spruce ash all caused significant toxicity (immobilisation). The principal characteristics of the latter ash types were their high pH, and NO3⁻, Cl⁻ and conductivity levels. Elevated water-soluble and total concentrations of metals (e.g. Mn, Fe, Zn, Pb, Cu and As) and total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were not linked to toxicity.
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Biodiversity is shrinking rapidly, and despite our efforts only a small part of it has been assessed for extinction risk. Identifying the traits that make species vulnerable might help us to predict the status for those less known. We gathered information on the relationships between traits and extinction risk from 173 publications, across all taxa, spatial scales and biogeographical regions, in what we think it is the most comprehensive compilation to date. We aimed to identify (1) taxonomical and spatial biases, and (2) statistically robust and generalizable predictors of extinction risk through the use of meta-analyses. Vertebrates and the Palaearctic are the most studied taxon and region because of higher accumulation of data in these groups. Among the many traits that have been suggested to be predictors, only three had enough data for meta-analyses. Two of them are potentially useful in assessing risk for the lesser-known species: regardless of the taxon, species with small range and narrow habitat breadth are more vulnerable to extinction. Contrastingly, body size (the most studied trait) did not present a consistently positive or negative response. We hypothesize that the relationship between body size and extinction risk is shaped by different aspects, namely the phenomena represented by body size depending on the taxonomic group. To increase our understanding of the drivers of extinction, further studies should focus on understudied groups such as invertebrates and fungi and regions such as the tropics and expand the number of traits in comparative analyses that should avoid current biases.
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Many terrestrial ecosystems are fire prone, such that their composition and structure are largely due to their fire regime. Regions subject to regular fire have exceptionally high levels of species richness and endemism, and fire has been proposed as a major driver of their diversity, within the context of climate, resource availability and environmental heterogeneity. However, current fire‐management practices rarely take into account the ecological and evolutionary roles of fire in maintaining biodiversity. Here, we focus on the mechanisms that enable fire to act as a major ecological and evolutionary force that promotes and maintains biodiversity over numerous spatiotemporal scales. From an ecological perspective, the vegetation, topography and local weather conditions during a fire generate a landscape with spatial and temporal variation in fire‐related patches (pyrodiversity), and these produce the biotic and environmental heterogeneity that drives biodiversity across local and regional scales. There have been few empirical tests of the proposition that ‘pyrodiversity begets biodiversity’ but we show that biodiversity should peak at moderately high levels of pyrodiversity. Overall species richness is greatest immediately after fire and declines monotonically over time, with postfire successional pathways dictated by animal habitat preferences and varying lifespans among resident plants. Theory and data support the ‘intermediate disturbance hypothesis’ when mean patch species diversity is correlated with mean fire intervals. Postfire persistence, recruitment and immigration allow species with different life histories to coexist. From an evolutionary perspective, fire drives population turnover and diversification by promoting a wide range of adaptive responses to particular fire regimes. Among 39 comparisons, the number of species in 26 fire‐prone lineages is much higher than that in their non‐fire‐prone sister lineages. Fire and its byproducts may have direct mutagenic effects, producing novel genotypes that can lead to trait innovation and even speciation. A paradigm shift aimed at restoring biodiversity‐maintaining fire regimes across broad landscapes is required among the fire research and management communities. This will require ecologists and other professionals to spread the burgeoning fire‐science knowledge beyond scientific publications to the broader public, politicians and media.
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Fire and herbivory both remove aboveground biomass. Environmental factors determine the type and intensity of these consumers globally, but the traits of plants can also alter their propensity to burn and the degree to which they are eaten. To understand plant life‐history strategies associated with fire and herbivory we need to describe both response and effect functional traits, and how they sort within communities, along resource gradients, and across evolutionary timescales. Fire and herbivore functional traits are generally considered separately, but there are advances made in understanding fire that relate to herbivory, and vice versa. Moreover, fire and herbivory interact: the presence of one consumer affects the type and intensity of the other. Here, we present a unifying conceptual framework to understand plant strategies that enable tolerance and persistence to fire and herbivory. Using grasses as an example, we discuss how flammability and fire tolerance, palatability, and grazing tolerance traits might organize themselves in ecosystems exposed to these consumers, and how these traits might have evolved with reference to other strong selective processes, like aridity. Our framework can be used to predict both the diversity of life‐history strategies and plant species diversity under different consumer regimes.
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Movement is a trait of fundamental importance in ecosystems subject to frequent disturbances, such as fire‐prone ecosystems. Despite this, the role of movement in facilitating responses to fire has received little attention. Herein, we consider how animal movement interacts with fire history to shape species distributions. We consider how fire affects movement between habitat patches of differing fire histories that occur across a range of spatial and temporal scales, from daily foraging bouts to infrequent dispersal events, and annual migrations. We review animal movements in response to the immediate and abrupt impacts of fire, and the longer‐term successional changes that fires set in train. We discuss how the novel threats of altered fire regimes, landscape fragmentation, and invasive species result in suboptimal movements that drive populations downwards. We then outline the types of data needed to study animal movements in relation to fire and novel threats, to hasten the integration of movement ecology and fire ecology. We conclude by outlining a research agenda for the integration of movement ecology and fire ecology by identifying key research questions that emerge from our synthesis of animal movements in fire‐prone ecosystems.
Book
Policy- and decision-makers in government and industry constantly face important decisions without full knowledge of all the facts. They rely routinely on expert advice to fill critical scientific knowledge gaps. There are unprecedented opportunities for experts to influence decisions. Yet even the most experienced can be over-confident and error-prone, and the hidden risk is that scientists and other experts can over-reach, often with good intentions, placing more weight on the evidence they provide than is warranted. This book describes how to identify potentially risky advice, explains why group judgements outperform individual estimates, and provides an accessible and up-to-date guide to the science of expert judgement. Finally, and importantly, it outlines a simple, practical framework that will help policy- and decision-makers to ensure that the advice that they receive is relatively reliable and accurate, thus substantially improving the quality of information on which critical decisions are made.
Article
Bushfire severity mapping and analysis for Queensland’s Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Area properties following wildfires in 2019/20 was found to under-predict the ecological impact within closed-canopy rainforests, biasing against the prioritisation of rainforest-dependent threatened fauna for assessment and the allocation of recovery resources. By incorporating the fire tolerance of vegetation communities mapped within the bushfire extent, bushfire severity can be extended to predict the potential ecological impact of each severity class on ecosystems, and priority species. Prioritising threatened species based on potential ecological impact rather than fire severity alone allows post-fire survey and monitoring to be better targeted to those species likely most severely impacted. It also allows resources and recovery actions to be directed towards those areas of greatest concern, which may not have suffered the worst bushfire severity.
Article
Background Fire creates habitats for many animals but changes in fire activity threaten species worldwide. While conservation assessments routinely identify fire as a threat to lizards and snakes, the processes underlying fire‐driven population declines have received less attention. Assessing the effects of fire on demographic processes – survival, reproduction and movement – provides a means to identify mechanisms of population declines and forecast population changes. Here, we synthesize how inappropriate fire regimes contribute to declines of animal populations, using threatened Australian squamates as a case study. Methods We applied a demographic framework in a systematic review to identify fire characteristics and interacting threats associated with population declines in imperilled Australian squamates ( n = 88). We reviewed primary literature and conservation assessments on these species and classified fire‐related threats according to seven key mechanisms of population decline, five fire‐regime characteristics, and eight interacting threats. Results Inappropriate fire regimes threaten 43% of Australian squamates of conservation concern, including geckos, skinks and snakes. Our analysis indicates that high fire intensity and severity, high fire frequency, and large fires are the main causes of fire‐related population declines, particularly via their impacts on survival. Low fire frequency also contributes to declines of some species through reduced survival or reproductive success. Weed invasion and predation are observed or predicted to interact with fire to amplify reptile declines. Our results also reveal a dearth of robust empirical studies on squamates of conservation concern. Main conclusions The demographic framework applied here will help forecast population changes in a new era of fire. By focusing on processes that are relevant to squamate populations globally, we anticipate that the framework will help diagnose causes of population declines in ecosystems that experience fire, and quantify the consequences of alternative management actions, including urgent conservation interventions after megafires.
Article
Aim Existing abiotic and biotic threats to plant species (e.g., disease, drought, invasive species) affect their capacity to recover post‐fire. We use a new, globally applicable framework to assess the vulnerability of 26,062 Australian plant species to a suite of active threats after the 2019–2020 fires. Location Australia. Time period 2019–2020. Major species studied Plants. Methods Spatial data for existing threats and information on species‐level susceptibility were combined with estimates of the extent of range burnt in southern Australia (> 22°S) to assign species against 10 criteria into vulnerability categories ( high , medium , low , none , data deficient ). We explore in detail results for three threats (drought, disease, feral animals), highlighting where impacts from multiple threats ranked high vulnerability may compound to reduce post‐fire recovery. Results Analysis of the full suite of 10 vulnerability criteria, which encompass a broad range of threats, revealed large numbers of species vulnerable to poor post‐fire recovery from one or more different hazards ( high vulnerability: 1,243 species; medium vulnerability: 2,450 species). Collectively, 457 plant species that burnt extensively (> 50%) across their range are highly vulnerable to poor recovery due to exposure to pre‐fire drought conditions (235 species), disease (186 species), or feral animals (97 species). Of these 457 species, 61 are vulnerable to more than one of these three threats, highlighting how a suite of interacting hazards can impact plant recovery after fire. Main conclusions While fire can renew plant populations by stimulating recruitment and resetting competitive interactions, the presence of existing threats in post‐fire landscapes jeopardizes recovery. The simultaneous impact of multiple threats that impact recovery can create a suite of hazards that contribute to declines and, potentially, extinction. Our method for rapid post‐fire vulnerability assessment can be applied to large numbers of plant species or other biota in fire affected regions globally.
Article
Aim Mega‐fires are predicted to increase with climate change. Australia experienced the largest ever documented forest fires in 2019–2020, but the response of most taxa remains poorly known. We used acoustic arrays to estimate impact of the mega‐fires on the density of an iconic marsupial. Location North‐east New South Wales, Australia. Time period Pre‐fire density estimated in 2018–2019 and post‐fire density in 2019–2020. Major taxa studied Koala, Phascolarctos cinereus . Methods We estimated male density before and after fires using large acoustic arrays and spatial count models. Acoustic arrays sampled three timber production forests with a gradient in fire severity and three unburnt controls in national parks. Results Koalas were temporarily extirpated where high fire severity dominated the landscape, but some localized recovery was evident after 1 year. Where moderate severity fire dominated, density was reduced by about 50% within 1 year, but koalas were widespread throughout the burnt area. In our third area dominated by low severity fire, no impact was detected as pre‐ and post‐fire uncertainty intervals overlapped. Control sites surveyed at similar times showed little change in density between years. There was no relationship between pyrodiversity and koala density. Within arrays broadly dominated by moderate or high severity fire, density 1 year after fire was lower in burnt patches of both low and high severity fire. Regionally, 9.8% of landscape samples (2 km × 2 km) in koala habitat were dominated by high fire severity, while a further 6.1% were dominated by moderate fire severity, suggesting c . 13% decline in koala density. Main conclusions A substantial impact of high severity fire was confirmed. Severe impacts were localized across the landscape, recovery had begun within a year and resilience was evident where low severity fire dominated. However, more frequent fires in the future will compound koala losses.
Article
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species is central in biodiversity conservation, but insufficient resources hamper its long-term growth, updating, and consistency. Models or automated calculations can alleviate those challenges by providing standardised estimates required for assessments, or prioritising species for (re-)assessments. However, while numerous scientific papers have proposed such methods, few have been integrated into assessment practice, highlighting a critical research–implementation gap. We believe this gap can be bridged by fostering communication and collaboration between academic researchers and Red List practitioners, and by developing and maintaining user-friendly platforms to automate application of the methods. We propose that developing methods better encompassing Red List criteria, systems, and drivers is the next priority to support the Red List.
Article
Climate and land-use changes are expected to increase the future occurrence of wildfires, with potentially devastating consequences for freshwater species and ecosystems. Wildfires that burn in close proximity to freshwater systems can significantly alter the physicochemical properties of water. Following wildfires and heavy rain, freshwater species must contend with complex combinations of wildfire ash components (nutrients, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and metals), altered light and thermal regimes, and periods of low oxygen that together can lead to mass mortality events. However, the responses of aquatic fauna to wildfire disturbances are poorly understood. Here we provide a systematic review of available evidence on how aquatic animals respond to and recover from wildfire disturbance. Two databases (Web of Science and Scopus) were used to identify key literature. A total of 83 studies from across 11 countries were identified to have assessed the risk of wildfires on aquatic animals. We provide a summary of the main ecosystem-level changes associated with wildfires and the main responses of aquatic fauna to such disturbances. We pay special focus to physiological tools and biomarkers used to assess how wildfires impact aquatic animals. We conclude by providing an overview of how physiological biomarkers can further our understanding of wildfire-related impacts on aquatic fauna, and how different physiological tools can be incorporated into management and conservation plans and serve as early warning signs of wildfire disturbances.
Article
Fire occurs naturally in many ecosystems and is predicted to increase in frequency and severity with climate change. The 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season was extreme, unprecedented in scale and severity, burning almost 19 million ha. This included half of the Gondwanan rainforests in eastern Australia, an ecosystem with no documented record of fire. We investigated the recovery of rainforest bird communities one-year post fire, using 80 bird and vegetation surveys within and adjacent to Gondwanan rainforests. We compared bird communities in burnt and unburnt non-fire prone rainforests and burnt and unburnt fire prone dry sclerophyll forests. Bird diversity was lower in burnt rainforests than unburnt rainforests, but the inverse was true for dry sclerophyll forests. 12 functional groups responded to differences in forest type and fire history, including frugivores, folivores, and insectivores which may be more vulnerable in burnt rainforest. We identified a further 10 functional groups where variation related to vegetation structure, reflecting forest types and fire histories. Finally, we estimated that four species were more common in unburnt rainforest than burnt rainforest, while three species were more common in burnt rainforests than unburnt rainforests. In dry sclerophyll forests, one species was more common in burnt and one more common in unburnt. The responses of bird communities to the extreme 2019-2020 fires highlighted the vulnerability of rainforests to fire compared with more fire-prone ecosystems. To protect species and functional diversity of rainforests from the growing risk of fire with climate change, local fire mitigation management may be needed.
Article
The 2019–2020 Australian megafires were unprecedented in their intensity and extent. These wildfires may have caused high mortality of adult broad-headed snakes Hoplocephalus bungaroides which shelter inside tree hollows during summer. We evaluated the impacts of two high-intensity wildfires (2002 Touga Fire and 2020 Morton Fire) on a broad-headed snake population in Morton National Park, south-eastern Australia. We analysed a 29-year mark–recapture data set to estimate survival rates of adults in years with and without wildfires, and with and without human disturbance to rock outcrops. To examine the short-term effects of fire on occupancy, we analysed presence–absence data collected from 25 sites during 2019 and 2020. Estimates of occupancy were higher for 2020 (0.93 ± 0.09) than for 2019 (0.66 ± 0.14), while detection rates were constant (0.40 ± 0.06). Over the period 1992–2020, the best supported Cormack–Jolly–Seber model was one in which adult survival rates were high and stable (0.81 ± 0.04), but were 23% lower in years when humans disturbed rocks (0.63 ± 0.08). A model in which adult mortality was 20% higher in years with human disturbance and 14% higher in years with wildfires was also supported. Estimates of abundance revealed that the population declined by 34% after the Touga Fire, and 26% after the Morton Fire. Over the 29-year study, the population has declined by 60%. Our results highlight how mortality events from wildfires need to be evaluated in the context of other threatening processes. For this population, the removal of snakes and associated habitat disturbance poses a more serious threat to population viability than infrequent wildfires.
Article
Species traits have much to offer conservation science. However, the selection and application of trait data in conservation requires rigor to avoid perverse or unexpected outcomes. To guide trait use, we review how traits are applied along the conservation continuum: the progression of conservation actions from assessing risk, to designing and prioritizing actions, to implementation and evaluation. We then provide a framework for their use as proxies for more nuanced empirical data on species and ecosystems. Framework steps include (1) identifying information needs relative to conservation goals, (2) choosing relevant traits using theory and expanding via expert elicitation, and (3) defining and addressing the limits of trait information. Worked examples for contemporary plant and amphibian conservation show how traits should be selected and applied based on theory and/or evidence (rather than data availability or untested assumptions). Finally, we forecast the use of trait data in several conservation applications globally.
Article
The evolutionary role of fire in animals has been poorly explored. Reptiles use sensory cues, such as smell (chemoreception), to detect threats and flee. In Mediterranean ecosystems, fire is a threat faced by reptiles. We hypothesized that the Mediterranean lizard Psammodromus algirus recognizes the threat of fire by detecting the smoke, which triggers a behavioral response that enhances survival in fire-prone ecosystems. We predicted that lizards from fire-prone ecosystems will be more sensitive to fire stimulus than those from ecosystems that rarely burn. We conducted a terrarium experiment in which lizards from habitats with contrasted fire regimes (fire-prone vs. non-fire-prone) were exposed to smoke versus control (false smoke) treatment. We found that, in populations from fire-prone habitats, more lizards reacted to smoke, and their behavioral response was more intense than in lizard populations from non-fire-prone habitats. Our results suggest that an enhanced response to smoke may be adaptive in lizards from fire-prone ecosystems as it increases the chance for survival. We provide evidence that fire is likely an evolutionary driver shaping behavioral traits in lizard populations exposed to frequent wildfires. Understanding ecological and evolutionary processes shaping animal populations is relevant for species conservation in a changing fire regime world.
Article
A mortality event of nine threatened smoky mice (Pseudomys fumeus) occurred in January 2020 at a captive breeding facility in southeastern Australia that was affected at the time by hazardous levels of bushfire smoke, despite being more than 20 km from the nearest fire. Pathologic and clinical observations indicated smoke inhalation was the cause of death. All animals had significant pulmonary lesions, notably pulmonary edema and congestion, and moderate amounts of dark brown to black pigmented intracellular and extracellular particles from <0.5–2.5 µm in diameter were observed in the central or hilar region of the lungs of four of six animals examined histologically. Deaths occurred between three and 30 d after exposure to smoke and, for seven animals in outdoor acclimatization enclosures, were associated with very high ambient temperature (>40 C). Similar mortalities did not occur in co-located parrots, suggesting differing species sensitivity to smoke inhalation. Our findings highlight the potential for smoke to be an underdiagnosed cause of mortality in free-ranging wildlife during bushfires and for bushfires to affect wildlife populations outside of burnt areas, including in unburnt refugia. Conservation interventions for wildlife after bushfires should consider and, where possible, mitigate the risk of animals dying due to increased respiratory demand following smoke inhalation injury.
Article
Coherent, multi-species conservation strategies rely on up-to-date assessments of extinction risk, and prioritising and implementing well-founded management and research actions. Using IUCN criteria and methods, we reassessed the conservation status of all 243 Australian frog species. We also identified key threats and associated potential management actions. We subsequently scored the relative value, feasibility and current levels of implementation of all management and research actions for threatened and Data Deficient species. These scores were then used to rank the relative priority of management and research actions, identifying the highest priority actions for reducing extinction risk for Australia's frogs. Our revised assessment identified 45 threatened frog species in Australia, a 10% reduction from the 2004 assessment. However, the number of species assessed as Extinct increased by two, and four species were added to the Critically Endangered list. Improvements in conservation status for some species resulted from better knowledge and natural population stabilisation or recovery following disease impacts, rather than as a consequence of management. Improved knowledge has also resulted in a reduction of Data Deficient species from ten to eight. We found substantial reductions in species extinction risk may be achievable by implementing a relatively discrete set of well-targeted management and research actions. Given its simple and dynamic nature, our method can be regularly updated with new information, and can also be applied at different geographic scales. Our prioritisation will enable improved allocation of limited resources to maximise conservation outcomes for Australian frogs.
Book
Lizards and snakes (squamate reptiles) are the most diverse vertebrate group in Australia, with approximately 1000 described species, representing about 10% of the global squamate diversity. Squamates are a vital part of the Australian ecosystem, but their conservation has been hindered by a lack of knowledge of their diversity, distribution, biology and key threats. The Action Plan for Australian Lizards and Snakes 2017 provides the first comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of Australian squamates in 25 years. Conservation assessments are provided for 986 species of Australian lizards and snakes (including sea snakes). Over the past 25 years there has been a substantial increase in the number of species and families recognised within Australia. There has also been an increase in the range and magnitude of threatening processes with the potential to impact squamates. This has resulted in an increase in the proportion of the Australian squamate fauna that is considered Threatened. Notably over this period, the first known extinction (post-European settlement) of an Australian reptile species occurred – an indication of the increasingly urgent need for better knowledge and management of this fauna. Six key recommendations are presented to improve the conservation management and plight of Australian squamates. This Action Plan represents an essential resource for research scientists, conservation biologists, conservation managers, environmental consultants, policy makers from Commonwealth and State/Territory governments, and the herpetological community.
Article
1. Testing the extent to which traits act alone or in combination with other traits to influence responses to fire informs the trade‐off between increased generalisation using single traits and increased predictive power using interactions. This study investigated the following question: do four traits (body size, trophic group, dispersal ability, and stratum of the ecosystem), alone or in combination, best explain changes in beetle occurrence with time since fire? 2. The data from 4 years and 15 independent fires in southern Australia were analysed using generalised linear mixed models. The study also assessed whether detectability depends on time since fire using multi‐year detection models, because detectability has the potential to confound occurrence patterns. 3. The best model included the three‐way combination of size, flight, and trophic level interacting with time since fire and with year. The relationship between detectability and time since fire was similar to the occurrence relationship in six of the 10 trait–combination groups, with flightless species generally showing reduced detection probability as time since fire increased. Detectability did not confound occurrence responses for four trait groups, with three increasing with time since fire and one decreasing. 4. Generalisation using main effects of traits risks oversimplifying animal responses to fire, because combinations of traits influence the direction and magnitude of the response. Also, taking detectability into account is critical to correctly interpretating occupancy data. Three‐way trait combinations that differ by just one trait, particularly dispersal ability, can result in either negligible effects of disturbance on detectability or strong effects that influence observed occurrence.
Book
The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012 is the first review to assess the conservation status of all Australian mammals. It complements The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 (Garnett et al. 2011, CSIRO Publishing), and although the number of Australian mammal taxa is marginally fewer than for birds, the proportion of endemic, extinct and threatened mammal taxa is far greater. These authoritative reviews represent an important foundation for understanding the current status, fate and future of the nature of Australia. This book considers all species and subspecies of Australian mammals, including those of external territories and territorial seas. For all the mammal taxa (about 300 species and subspecies) considered Extinct, Threatened, Near Threatened or Data Deficient, the size and trend of their population is presented along with information on geographic range and trend, and relevant biological and ecological data. The book also presents the current conservation status of each taxon under Australian legislation, what additional information is needed for managers, and the required management actions. Recovery plans, where they exist, are evaluated. The voluntary participation of more than 200 mammal experts has ensured that the conservation status and information are as accurate as possible, and allowed considerable unpublished data to be included. All accounts include maps based on the latest data from Australian state and territory agencies, from published scientific literature and other sources. The Action Plan concludes that 29 Australian mammal species have become extinct and 63 species are threatened and require urgent conservation action. However, it also shows that, where guided by sound knowledge, management capability and resourcing, and longer-term commitment, there have been some notable conservation success stories, and the conservation status of some species has greatly improved over the past few decades. The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012 makes a major contribution to the conservation of a wonderful legacy that is a significant part of Australia’s heritage. For such a legacy to endure, our society must be more aware of and empathetic with our distinctively Australian environment, and particularly its marvellous mammal fauna; relevant information must be readily accessible; environmental policy and law must be based on sound evidence; those with responsibility for environmental management must be aware of what priority actions they should take; the urgency for action (and consequences of inaction) must be clear; and the opportunity for hope and success must be recognised. It is in this spirit that this account is offered. Winner of a 2015 Whitley Awards Certificate of Commendation for Zoological Resource.
Book
Referred to as the 'Spiny Crayfishes' due to impressive arrays of spines on their hard armoured shells, Euastacus crayfish are the largest of the 10 genera of Australian freshwater crayfish. This book discusses 50 species found in Australia, from the iconic giant Murray lobster that is fished by recreational fishers, to the exceedingly rare and tiny species Euastacus maidae. These uniquely Australian species range from Cooktown in far north Queensland to Wilsons Promontory in Victoria. Many are found in or around our major population areas. The book discusses basic crayfish anatomy, moulting and growth, morphology, breeding, threats and diseases. It includes colour photographs for each species, as well as a glossary and further reading list. A Guide to Australia’s Spiny Freshwater Crayfish will be of interest to researchers, conservationists, land managers, libraries and crayfish enthusiasts.