Post‐fire development of faunal habitat depends on plant regeneration traits

Rainsford, Frederick W.; Kelly, Luke T.; Leonard, Steve; Bennett, Andrew F.

doi:10.1111/aec.12896

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…White areas have been cleared or heavily disturbed, including for human settlement and agriculture. Heathy woodland vegetation: (b) ~1 year after prescribed fire, showing a scorched canopy of Eucalyptus species resprouting epicormically, Austral Grass-tree resprouting apically; and (c) 51 years after fire with a welldeveloped mid-storey dominated by Monotoca glauca and Leptospermum species 1c) (Rainsford et al, 2020).…”

Section: Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire and functional traits: Using functional groups of birds and plants to guide management in a fire‐prone, heathy woodland ecosystem

Rainsford

Kelly

Leonard

et al. 2021

Diversity and Distributions

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Section: Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire and functional traits: Using functional groups of birds and plants to guide management in a fire‐prone, heathy woodland ecosystem

Rainsford

Kelly

Leonard

et al. 2021

Diversity and Distributions

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“…Typically, animal species respond to structural changes in vegetation caused by fire, rather than fire per se (Pons and Clavero 2010, Sitters et al 2014). This understorey bird guild can be interpreted as responding positively to the development of understorey vegetation structure, which follows a similar post‐fire trajectory of increasing height and structural complexity (Rainsford et al 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Variation in fire regeneration traits of plant species influence post‐fire ecosystem trajectories (Pausas and Keeley 2014). The prevalence in temperate dry forests of species with a capacity for post‐fire resprouting means that many species are still present at sites immediately after fire, leading to rapid recovery of aboveground plant diversity and vegetation structure (Rainsford et al 2020). In particular, Eucalyptus trees are capable of epicormic resprouting along trunks and branches following fire, which enhances the rate of recovery of vegetation structure (Keith 2012, Collins 2020), and provides important resources (e.g., foraging substrates, refuge, nest sites) for birds soon after fire.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

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

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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.

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“…Different aspects of the fire regime may interact with extreme drought and rainfall to influence the provision of resources and in turn species occurrence. Mallee shrublands predominantly experience high severity, infrequent and stand‐replacing fires, and TSF strongly influences the post‐fire development of important habitat attributes (Haslem et al., 2011; Rainsford et al., 2020). In other fire‐prone systems, fire regime characteristics such as fire severity (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire, drought and flooding rains: The effect of climatic extremes on bird species’ responses to time since fire

Connell

Hall

Nimmo

et al. 2021

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim Climatic extremes and fire affect ecosystems across the globe, yet our understanding of how species are influenced by the interaction of these broadscale ecological drivers is poorly understood. Using a ten‐year dataset, we tested how extreme drought and rainfall interacted with time since fire (TSF) to shape bird species’ distributions. Location Semi‐arid mallee woodlands of south‐eastern Australia. Methods We quantified the effects of climatic extremes on bird species’ occurrence, species richness and incidence at 180 sites across three climatic periods—an El Niño‐associated drought (the “Big Dry”), immediately after La Niña drought‐breaking rainfall (“Big Wet”) and three years following the La Niña event (“Post‐Big Wet”). We then compared species’ responses with TSF across the three climatic periods using a chronosequence of sites from 1 to 117 years post‐fire. Results La Niña rainfall had sustained impacts on species’ occurrence. Over half of species increased significantly during the Big Wet. Despite three intervening years of below‐average rainfall, three quarters of these species remained comparably high, Post‐Big Wet. By contrast, less than half of threatened and declining species benefited from high rainfall. Responses of species to TSF were found to differ contingent on climatic conditions: almost twice as many species responded to TSF during the Big Wet and almost three times as many Post‐Big Wet, compared with the Big Dry. Across climatic periods, a majority of species showed preference for mid to older post‐fire vegetation. Main conclusions Variation in responses to TSF is likely due to the effect of climatic variation on resources. We suggest that, at sites of different post‐fire age, interactions between TSF and climate may differentially influence both the availability and longevity of resources. Given climatic extremes are predicted to become increasingly severe with climate change, accounting for their influence on fauna–fire dynamics will require careful management of fire.

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Post‐fire development of faunal habitat depends on plant regeneration traits

Abstract: This is the author manuscript accepted for publication and has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as

Cited by 15 publications

References 49 publications

Fire and functional traits: Using functional groups of birds and plants to guide management in a fire‐prone, heathy woodland ecosystem

Fire and functional traits: Using functional groups of birds and plants to guide management in a fire‐prone, heathy woodland ecosystem

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

Fire, drought and flooding rains: The effect of climatic extremes on bird species’ responses to time since fire

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