Time since fire influences food resources for an endangered species, Carnaby’s cockatoo, in a fire-prone landscape

Valentine, Leonie E.; Fisher, Rebecca; Wilson, Barbara A.; Sonneman, Tracy; Stock, William D.; Fleming, Patricia A.; Hobbs, Richard J.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2014.04.006

Cited by 33 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Often these resources are found in non‐remnant, human‐modified habitats. Indeed, Carnaby's black cockatoo, Calyptorhynchus latirostris , relies on an introduced pine plantation within the city of Perth for food, despite the fact that this represents a comparatively small proportion of its range (Valentine et al ., ). Cities may be especially valuable to these kinds of species, as they can provide more stable resources throughout the year as a result of human planting selection and supplementary watering (Parris & Hazell, ; Williams et al ., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Cities are hotspots for threatened species

Ives

Lentini

Threlfall

et al. 2015

Global Ecology and Biogeography

Self Cite

541

300

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aim Although urbanization impacts many species, there is little information on the patterns of occurrences of threatened species in urban relative to non‐urban areas. By assessing the extent of the distribution of threatened species across all Australian cities, we aim to investigate the currently under‐utilized opportunity that cities present for national biodiversity conservation. Location Australian mainland, Tasmania and offshore islands. Methods Distributions of Australia's 1643 legally protected terrestrial species (hereafter ‘threatened species’) were compiled. We assessed the extent to which they overlapped with 99 cities (of more than 10,000 people), with all non‐urban areas, and with simulated ‘dummy’ cities which covered the same area and bioregion as the true cities but were non‐urban. We analysed differences between animals and plants, and examined variability within these groups using species accumulation modelling. Threatened species richness of true versus dummy cities was analysed using generalized linear mixed‐effects models. Results Australian cities support substantially more nationally threatened animal and plant species than all other non‐urban areas on a unit‐area basis. Thirty per cent of threatened species were found to occur in cities. Distribution patterns differed between plants and animals: individual threatened plant species were generally found in fewer cities than threatened animal species, yet plants were more likely to have a greater proportion of their distribution in urban areas than animals. Individual cities tended to contain unique suites of threatened species, especially threatened plants. The analysis of true versus dummy cities demonstrated that, even after accounting for factors such as net primary productivity and distance to the coast, cities still consistently supported a greater number of threatened species. Main conclusions This research highlights that Australian cities are important for the conservation of threatened species, and that the species assemblages of individual cities are relatively distinct. National conservation policy should recognize that cities play an integral role when planning for and managing threatened species.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Cities are hotspots for threatened species

Ives

Lentini

Threlfall

et al. 2015

Global Ecology and Biogeography

Self Cite

541

300

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It may be feasible, however, to augment hollow availability in cases where hollow-nesting taxa of high conservation significance occur and hollows are limiting. For example, Carnaby's Black Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) formerly bred in E. salmonophloia-E. salubris woodlands in the Forrestania area of the GWW (just to the south of our study area), but may no longer do so (Fox et al 2016), probably because multiple fires have severely reduced the breeding (and probably foraging; Valentine et al 2014) resources used by this species. It will likely take many centuries for hollows of sufficient size for cockatoo breeding to develop in post-fire eucalypt recruits (Mawson and Long 1994), so installation of artificial or translocated natural hollows could be a productive management intervention to support populations of this and other hollow-dependent fauna (Saunders et al 2014, Saunders andDawson 2017).…”

Section: Management Of Resources Provided By Long-unburned Woodlandsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…The GWW is globally significant as they comprise the world's largest extant temperate/Mediterranean‐climate woodland (Watson et al. 2008, Prober et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Fire‐mediated habitat change regulates woodland bird species and functional group occurrence

Gosper

Watson

Fox

et al. 2019

Ecological Applications

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In an era characterized by recurrent large wildfires in many parts of the globe, there is a critical need to understand how animal species respond to fires, the rates at which populations can recover, and the functional changes fires may cause. Using quantified changes in habitat parameters over a~400-yr post-fire chronosequence in an obligate-seeding Australian eucalypt woodland, we build and test predictions of how birds, as individual species and aggregated into functional groups according to their use of specific habitat resources, respond to time since fire. Individual bird species exhibited four generalized response types to time since fire: incline, decline, delayed, and bell. All significant relationships between bird functional group richness or abundance and time since fire were consistent with predictions based on known time-since-fire-associated changes in habitat features putatively important for these bird groups. Consequently, we argue that the bird community is responding to post-fire successional changes in habitat as per the habitat accommodation model, rather than to time since fire per se, and that our functional framework will be of value in predicting bird responses to future disturbances in this and other obligate-seeder forest and woodland ecosystems. Most bird species and functional groups that were affected by time since fire were associated with long-unburned woodlands. In the context of recent large, stand-replacement wildfires that have affected a substantial proportion of obligate-seeder eucalypt woodlands, and the multi-century timescales over which post-fire succession occurs, it would appear preferable from a bird conservation perspective if fires initiating loss of currently long-unburned woodlands were minimized. Once long-unburned woodlands are transformed by fire into recently burned woodlands, there is limited scope for alternative management interventions to accelerate the rate of habitat development after fire, or supplement the resources formerly provided to birds by long-unburned woodlands, with the limited exception of augmenting hollow availability for key hollow-nesting species.

show abstract

“…Williams et al (2017) conducted a population viability analysis of Carnaby's Cockatoo frequenting the Swan Coastal Plain. They drew extensively on data generated from the breeding and movement studies referred to above, and on data generated on availability of food resources on the Swan Coastal Plain (Johnston 2013;Stock et al 2013;Valentine et al 2014) to model future population size and extinction risk of Carnaby's Cockatoo under potential land-use scenarios in the rapidly expanding urban region. Population viability analysis was combined with estimates of food resources and a daily ration model to predict the likely future population size that could be supported in the region, and the extinction risk.…”

Section: Impacts Of Urban Development On Carnaby's Cockatoomentioning

confidence: 99%