Bird population responses to wildfire and planned burns in foothill forests of Victoria, Australia

Loyn, Richard; McNabb, Edward G

doi:10.1007/s10336-015-1228-z

Cited by 14 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It has previously been reported at higher frequencies following several large fires in southeastern Australia (Loyn , Lindenmayer et al. , Loyn and McNabb ). In foothill eucalypt forests, time since fire influences ground strata and canopy vegetation (Haslem et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

“…An increase in the explanatory power of models when including fire regime variables was also reported by Tucker et al (2012): Fire variables, in addition to climate and soil variables, improved the fit of SDMs for Proteaceae species in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa. Other work has shown that SDMs can capture the responses of birds and small mammals to fire regimes (Kelly et al 2011, Regos et al 2015, and recent work in our study area has demonstrated that fire influences the occurrence of birds (Robinson et al 2014, Sitters et al 2014a, Loyn and McNabb 2015 and, to a lesser extent, mammals , Swan et al 2015 and plants (Cohn et al 2015). However, predictive discrimination between a species' presence and absence remains difficult (see also Crimmins et al 2014).…”

Section: Environmental Gradients and Fire Regimes Interact And Drive mentioning

confidence: 81%

“…The flame robin was one of few vertebrate species that peaked in probability of occurrence in earlysuccessional vegetation. It has previously been reported at higher frequencies following several large fires in southeastern Australia (Loyn 1997, Lindenmayer et al 2014, Loyn and McNabb 2015. In foothill eucalypt forests, time since fire influences ground strata and canopy vegetation (Haslem et al 2016) and thereby habitat resources for vertebrates.…”

Section: Multiple Characteristics Of Fire Regimes Influence the Distrmentioning

confidence: 92%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Fire regimes and environmental gradients shape vertebrate and plant distributions in temperate eucalypt forests

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Fire is a global driver of ecosystem structure, function, and change. Problems common to fire scientists and managers worldwide include a limited knowledge of how multiple taxonomic groups within a given ecosystem respond to recurrent fires, and how interactions between fire regimes and environmental gradients influence biodiversity. We tested six hypotheses relating to fire regimes and environmental gradients in forest ecosystems using data on birds (493 sites), mammals (175 sites), and vascular plants (615 sites) systematically collected in dry eucalypt forests in southeastern Australia. We addressed each of these hypotheses by fitting species distribution models which differed in the environmental variables used, the spatial extent of the data, or the type of response data. We found (1) as predicted, fire interacted with environmental gradients and shaped species distributions, but there was substantial variation between species; (2) multiple characteristics of fire regimes influenced the distribution of forest species; (3) common to vertebrates and plants was a strong influence of temperature and rainfall gradients, but contrary to predictions, inter-fire interval was the most influential component of the fire regime on both taxonomic groups; (4) mixed support for the hypothesis that fire would be a stronger influence on species occurrence at a smaller spatial extent; only for vertebrates did scale have an effect in the direction expected; (5) as predicted, vertebrates closely associated with direct measures of habitat structure were those most strongly influenced by fire regimes; and (6) the modeled fire responses for birds were sensitive to the use of either presence-absence or abundance data. These results underscore the important insights that can be gained by modeling how fire regimes, not just fire events, influence biota in forests. Our work highlights the need for management of fire regimes to be complemented by an understanding of the underlying environmental gradients and key elements of habitat structure that influence resource availability for plants and animals. We have demonstrated that there are general patterns in biotic responses to fire regimes and environmental gradients, but landscape management must continue to carefully consider species, scale, and the quality of biodiversity data to achieve biodiversity conservation in fire-prone forests.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

Section: Environmental Gradients and Fire Regimes Interact And Drive mentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Multiple Characteristics Of Fire Regimes Influence the Distrmentioning

confidence: 92%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Fire regimes and environmental gradients shape vertebrate and plant distributions in temperate eucalypt forests

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These studies included a mix of sites last burned by either prescribed fire or wildfire, which can have different effects on vegetation (i.e., habitat) structure (Haslem et al 2016, Bassett et al 2017). Other studies have focused on the frequency and season of prescribed fire in dry forests and indicate bird species are relatively resilient to the short‐term effects of patchy fires (Loyn and McNabb 2015). There remains a knowledge gap concerning the longer‐term effects on bird communities arising from prescribed fire in these forests, beyond the first few years post‐fire.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How does prescribed fire shape bird and plant communities in a temperate dry forest ecosystem?

Rainsford

Kelly²,

Leonard³

et al. 2021

Ecological Applications

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To mitigate the impact of severe wildfire on human society and the environment, prescribed fire is widely used in forest ecosystems to reduce fuel loads and limit fire spread. To avoid detrimental effects on conservation values, it is imperative to understand how prescribed fire affects taxa having a range of different adaptations to disturbance. Such studies will have greatest benefit if they extend beyond short-term impacts of burning. We used a field study to examine the effects of prescribed fire on birds and plants across a 36-yr post-fire chronosequence in a temperate dry forest ecosystem in southeastern Australia, and by making comparison with long-unburned reference sites (79 yr since wildfire). We modeled changes in the relative abundance of 22 bird species and the cover of 39 plant species, and examined how individual species, functional groups, species richness and community composition differed between sites with different fire history. For most individual bird and plant species modeled, relative abundance or cover at sites subject to prescribed fire did not change significantly with time since fire or differ from that of long-unburned vegetation. When bird species were pooled into functional groups, time since prescribed fire had strong effects on birds that forage in the lower-midstorey, facultative-resprouting shrubs and obligate-seeding shrubs. Species richness for both taxa did not differ between sites subject to prescribed fire and those in long-unburned vegetation. Bird communities varied significantly between the youngest (0-3 yr) and oldest (79 yr) post-fire age classes, driven by species associated with understorey vegetation. Plant community composition showed little evidence of a post-fire successional trajectory. The prevalence of bird species with broad habitat and dietary niches and plant regeneration through resprouting, make bird and plant communities in these forests relatively resilient to small and patchy prescribed fires they have experienced to date. Application of prescribed fire will be most compatible with maintaining biodiversity by taking a landscape approach that (1) plans for a geographic spread of stands with a range of between-prescribed-fire intervals to ensure provision of suitable habitat for all taxa, and (2) avoids burning in moist gullies to maintain their value as fire refuges.

show abstract

Prescribed burning impacts avian diversity and disadvantages woodland-specialist birds unless long-unburnt habitat is retained

Prowse

Collard²,

Blackwood³

et al. 2017

Biological Conservation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bird population responses to wildfire and planned burns in foothill forests of Victoria, Australia

Cited by 14 publications

References 28 publications

Fire regimes and environmental gradients shape vertebrate and plant distributions in temperate eucalypt forests

Fire regimes and environmental gradients shape vertebrate and plant distributions in temperate eucalypt forests

How does prescribed fire shape bird and plant communities in a temperate dry forest ecosystem?

Prescribed burning impacts avian diversity and disadvantages woodland-specialist birds unless long-unburnt habitat is retained

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About