Jon‐Paul Emery’s research while affiliated with University of Southern Queensland and other places

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Publications (1)


Unburnt areas in subtropical woodlands contain distinct reptile communities after extensive wildfire
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June 2024

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1 Citation

Austral Ecology

Jon‐Paul Emery

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Martine Maron

Extensive wildfires can have profound impacts on fauna communities by altering the vegetation structure and resource availability. However, unburnt areas within a fire mosaic may be important habitat for wildlife while the surrounding area recovers after fire. To understand the importance of unburnt vegetation for reptiles, we studied community assemblages at 15 burnt and 15 unburnt sites in a subtropical woodland 12 months after a 25 000 ha wildfire. We tested the relative importance of unburnt areas and structural attributes on reptile abundance, richness, and community composition across this landscape. Unburnt areas had higher species richness and diversity, but not overall abundance. Reptile community composition differed significantly between burnt and unburnt areas. Woody debris, which was retained in unburnt areas but depleted in burnt areas, was positively associated with increased reptile diversity and richness. Our results suggest that unburnt areas are vital for maintaining reptile diversity and richness within a woodland landscape after wildfire. These findings demonstrate the importance of ensuring fire management programs retain unburnt patches of vegetation in fire‐prone landscapes to sustain reptile communities.

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Citations (1)


... If 2 cm of peat were removed uniformly from the peatland surface, it would result in the loss of 26 m 3 of available habitat in a smaller peatland (e.g., B3, 1320 m 2 ) and 216 m 3 of available habitat in a larger peatland (e. g., B2, 10,839 m 2 ). While low severity wildfire can increase habitat complexity and may benefit massasaugas and other reptiles which rely on microhabitat diversity (Steen et al., 2015;Emery et al., 2024), the expected increase in fire severity under warming climate conditions (Cassell et al., 2019) may threaten habitat availability in a landscape where overwintering habitat is limited (Harvey and Weatherhead, 2006). ...

Reference:

Initial impacts of wildfire on overwintering conditions for a Species-at-Risk snake
Unburnt areas in subtropical woodlands contain distinct reptile communities after extensive wildfire

Austral Ecology