Systematic review, meta‐analysis and other forms of evidence synthesis are critical to strengthen the evidence base concerning conservation issues and to answer ecological and evolutionary questions. Synthesis lags behind the pace of scientific publishing, however, due to time and resource costs which partial automation of evidence synthesis tasks could reduce. Additionally, current methods of retrieving evidence for synthesis are susceptible to bias towards studies with which researchers are familiar. In fields that lack standardized terminology encoded in an ontology, including ecology and evolution, research teams can unintentionally exclude articles from the review by omitting synonymous phrases in their search terms. To combat these problems, we developed a quick, objective, reproducible method for generating search strategies that uses text mining and keyword co‐occurrence networks to identify the most important terms for a review. The method reduces bias in search strategy development because it does not rely on a predetermined set of articles and can improve search recall by identifying synonymous terms that research teams might otherwise omit. When tested against the search strategies used in published environmental systematic reviews, our method performs as well as the published searches and retrieves gold‐standard hits that replicated versions of the original searches do not. Because the method is quasi‐automated, the amount of time required to develop a search strategy, conduct searches, and assemble results is reduced from approximately 17–34 hr to under 2 hr. To facilitate use of the method for environmental evidence synthesis, we implemented the method in the R package litsearchr, which also contains a suite of functions to improve efficiency of systematic reviews by automatically deduplicating and assembling results from separate databases.

Fire creates challenges and opportunities for wildlife through rapid destruction, modification and creation of habitat. Fire has spatially variable effects on landscapes; however, for species that benefit from the ephemeral resource patches created by fire, it is critical to understand characteristics of fires that promote postfire colonization and persistence and the spatial scales on which they operate. Using a model postfire specialist, the black-backed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus), we examined how colonization and persistence varied across two spatial scales as a function of four characteristics of fire regimes-fire severity, fire size, fire ignition date and number of years since fire. We modelled black-backed woodpecker colonization and persistence using data from 108 recently burned forests in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades ecoregions of California, USA, that we monitored for up to 10 years following fire. We employed a novel, spatially hierarchical, dynamic occupancy framework which differentiates colonization and persistence at two spatial scales: across fires and within fires. We found strong effects of fire characteristics on dynamic rates, with colonization and persistence declining across both spatial scales with increasing years since fire. Additionally, at sites within fires, colonization decreased with fire size and increased with fire severity and for fires with later ignition dates. Our results support the notion that different aspects of a species' environment are important for population processes at different spatial scales. As habitat quality is ephemeral for any given postfire area, our results illustrate the importance of time since fire in structuring occupancy at the fire level, with other characteristics of fires playing larger roles in determining abundance within individual fires. Our results contribute to the broader understanding of how variation in fire characteristics influences the colonization and persistence of species using ephemeral habitats, which is necessary for conserving and promoting postfire biodiversity in the context of rapidly shifting fire regimes.

Variation in fire characteristics, termed pyrodiversity, plays an important role in structuring post‐fire communities, but little is known about the importance of pyrodiversity for individual species. The availability of diverse post‐fire habitats may be key for fire‐associated species if they require different resources at different life‐history stages. We tested for age‐specific habitat relationships in the black‐backed woodpecker, a post‐fire specialist. We used radio‐telemetry to track fledgling and adult woodpeckers in burned forests and built resource selection functions to compare the effect of stand‐, tree‐ and snag‐level covariates between adults and fledglings. Fledgling black‐backed woodpeckers selected habitat with more live trees than adults and used more heterogeneous habitats burned at lower severity, illustrating strong age‐dependent effects on habitat selection. Within selected stands, fledglings were less likely to use snags and more likely to use live trees when compared to adults, but both age classes showed strong positive selection for larger‐diameter trees (live and dead). Over the 60 days after leaving their nests, fledglings showed an increasing propensity to use snags rather than live trees. Our results provide evidence that the predation–starvation hypothesis, which posits a trade‐off between foraging efficiency and the need to minimise predation risk, plays a role in structuring the age‐dependent habitat use of a burned forest specialist. Adult black‐backed woodpeckers selected resources associated with food availability, but these resources occurred in relatively open, exposed habitat. Fledglings selected habitat that provided increased cover, perhaps as a strategy to reduce predation risk. Synthesis and applications. Globally, fires are increasing in severity and extent, leading to increased focus on fire‐associated species that play keystone roles in facilitating biodiversity resilience. Our findings suggest that a diversity of patches burned at different severities may benefit post‐fire specialists like the black‐backed woodpecker at multiple life‐history stages. The increasing prevalence of large, homogeneously high‐severity ‘megafires’ may present an emerging threat even to post‐fire specialists, and we urge land managers to consider opportunities to promote pyrodiversity in the face of novel fire regimes.

Recently burned coniferous forests host wildlife communities that respond to variation in burn severity, post-fire habitat structure, and patch configuration. Habitat selection theory predicts that birds inhabiting these variable post-fire landscapes will select nesting locations that confer an adaptive advantage through increased fitness and reproductive success. Understanding the effect of post-fire habitat on avian nesting ecology can provide valuable information to guide restoration and management after wildfire. The Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) is strongly associated with recently burned forests in the western United States, where it is used as an indicator species for the effects of post-fire forest management. Between 2011 and 2018, we located and monitored 118 Black-backed Woodpecker nests in burned forests of northern California. We evaluated the influence of habitat and nest characteristics on nest site selection and daily nest survival. Our results demonstrate a pattern of neutral congruence between habitat selection and fitness. Black-backed Woodpeckers showed strong selection for each of the nest habitat variables that we measured: woodpeckers selected moderately sized trees in areas of high snag density burned at high severity, but also in areas relatively close to low-severity or unburned edges. However, only nest initiation date affected nest survival, with decreased survival in late-season nests. Our results suggest that management actions aimed at maintaining breeding habitat for Black-backed Woodpeckers should prioritize retention and creation of pyrodiverse landscapes that include dense stands of snags (>5 snags per 100 m2) within ~500 m of forest that burned at low severity or remained unburned.

1. Pyrodiversity, defined as variation in fire history and characteristics, has been shown to catalyse post-fire biodiversity in a variety of systems. However, the demographic and behavioural mechanisms driving the responses of individual species to pyrodiversity remain largely unexplored.2. We used a model post-fire specialist, the black-backed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus), to examine the relationship between fire characteristics and juvenile survival while controlling for confounding factors. 3. We radio-tracked fledgling black-backed woodpeckers in burned forests of California and Washington, USA, and derived information on habitat charac-S U PP O RTI N G I N FO R M ATI O N Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section. How to cite this article: Stillman AN, Lorenz TJ, Fischer PC, et al. Juvenile survival of a burned forest specialist in response to variation in fire characteristics.