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Fire Ecology and

Biodiversity


School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences | Faculty of Science

University of Melbourne

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New paper on edge effects in fire-prone landscapes

25/5/2018

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Different types of fire edges
In a new paper arising from Kate's PhD, we review the literature on fire, fauna, and edge effects to summarise current knowledge and identify knowledge gaps. We then develop a conceptual model to predict faunal responses to fire edges and present an agenda for future research. 

Faunal abundance at fire edges changes over time, but patterns depend on species' traits and resource availability. Responses are also influenced by edge architecture (e.g., size and shape), site and landscape context, and spatial scale. However, data are limited and the influence of fire edges on both local abundance and regional distributions of fauna is largely unknown. 

Our conceptual model combines several drivers of faunal fire responses (biophysical properties, regime attributes, species' traits) and will therefore lead to improved predictions.  To aid the incorporation of new data into our predictive framework, our model has been designed as a Bayesian Network, a statistical tool capable of analysing complex environmental relationships, dealing with data gaps, and generating testable hypotheses.

Please download the paper to find out more.


Parkins, K., York, A. & Di Stefano, J. (2018). Edge effects in fire-prone landscapes: Ecological importance and implications for fauna. Ecology and Evolution. 00:1-12.
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Another PhD completion!  Congratulations to Kate Parkins!

24/4/2018

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Kate presented her PhD completion seminar last week and is a (possum) whisker away from submitting her thesis.  Her research focussed on edges, which are ecologically important environmental features that have been well researched in agricultural and urban landscapes but remain poorly understood in natural systems.

Fire is an agent of edge creation and a globally important driver of biome distribution and community composition, yet little is known about how fire edges affect ecological processes in flammable ecosystems.  While edge effects and faunal-fire responses have been well studied independently, how animals respond to fire edges remains poorly understood. 

Kate's thesis explores this knowledge gap focusing on the influence of fire edges on fauna, and discusses some methodological advances for ecological field studies.  Her study sites were in Victoria's beautiful Central Highlands where she invested enormous energy installing remote cameras, trapping bush rats and agile antechinus, and fitting pesky-but-cute mountain brushtail possums with GPS collars.  ​The possums in particular played very hard to get, but Kate's persistence paid off and she's currently putting the finishing touches on her analyses.

Congratulations Kate on your epic achievement!
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Congratulations to Kate Parkins on her PhD confirmation

26/7/2015

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Kate's project aims to (a) understand the importance of fire edges in influencing ecological patterns and processes in flammable landscapes, and (b) quantify the temporal and spatial influence of fire edges on fauna.

Please contact Kate for more information on her research, and find her abstract below. 

MBP
Part of Kate's research will involve using GPS collars to track Mountain Brushtail Possums before, during and after a planned fire.
Edge effects in fire-prone landscapes - Ecological importance and implications for fauna

Fire is an important process in many ecosystems and can have a profound influence on animal communities by altering the distribution and abundance of resources over time. It is well established that fire regimes alter landscape pattern, which is predicted to influence behavioural processes such as habitat selection, home range formation, dispersal and distribution of many species. Many studies have examined the ecological importance of burnt and unburnt parts of a landscape, however very few have explicitly considered the interface or transition zone (edge) between these patches. Habitat edges are ecologically important because they have the potential to influence a wide range of patterns and processes (such as animal movement) in a landscape. Fire is a disturbance process that creates multiple edges in a landscape, through unplanned fire events (wildfire), planned fire activities (prescribed burning) or through fire-management processes (fuel breaks). Although edges have been widely studied in modified landscapes, the ecological importance of edges in natural systems remains poorly understood. In particular, how fire-related edges influence fauna distribution, abundance and movement in flammable landscapes remains largely unknown. The overarching aims of this project are to (a) understand the importance of fire edges in influencing ecological patterns and processes in flammable landscapes and (b) quantify the temporal and spatial influence of fire edges on fauna.
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Lyrebirds vs. Cameras

6/6/2015

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Superb lyrebirds (Menura novaehollandiae) are famous for mimicking the calls of other species, as well as chainsaws, car alarms and camera shutters. 

Kate has recently discovered they also have a proclivity for attacking the cameras she’s using to study how fire edges influence animal distribution, abundance and movement in the Central Highlands.

She’s put together a video depicting a feisty encounter between a camera and a particularly determined individual.


The video contains prolonged scenes of strong violence and coarse language.

Watch at your peril.

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University of Melbourne
4 Water Street
Creswick
Victoria 3363

Phone +61 (0)3 5321 4300 or email us

Photos contributed by Holly Sitters, Bronwyn Hradsky, students of the Fire Ecology and Biodiversity Group, and remote cameras.
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