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Fire Ecology and Biodiversity
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Welcome to 

Fire Ecology and

Biodiversity


School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences | Faculty of Science

University of Melbourne

About us

Emma gives us a glimpse into the world of flying insects

17/9/2020

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As a research group, we've given a disproportionate level of attention to furry animals over the past few years, but Emma Window is helping redress the balance with her study of the effects of fire on flying insects.  Given that she's been unable to visit the lab under coronavirus, she's got the lab to come to her!
​I’m currently working my way through 162 invertebrate samples from 27 sites in the Otway Ranges with the aim of understanding the effect fire has on flying insect population structure in Australia. Existing Australian studies on fire and insects have primarily focused on terrestrial and litter dwelling invertebrates, which may have a different response to fire than their flying counterparts. Studies that include flying insects have been conducted overseas in forests where the vegetation structure is very different to that of Australian forests.

​Right now I’m working through all of the beetle samples, the order in which we collected the highest number of individuals. My results will hopefully add to our knowledge of the current global pollinator decline, and aid future research on the recovery of insectivorous animals after fire. All the disruption from coronavirus has really slowed things down for me but I’ve finally gotten my hands on my insects again and can carry on while I work from home.
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Obstacles and successes in the Adelaide Mount Lofty Ranges

21/7/2020

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While a large team has worked in the Casterton region as part of the Fire & Fragmentation Project, Simeon has been going it alone on a closely-related project in the Adelaide Mount Lofty Ranges. 

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As the name suggests, the hills are precipitous and the human population is much larger than it is in the forgotten corners of southwest Victoria and southeast South Australia.  Simeon has contended with bushfires and equipment theft (not to mention coronavirus!), but has recently achieved the great feat of tagging hundreds of thousands of camera-trap photos single-handedly!


​As of last week, I have finished going through the vast numbers of images from my camera traps that I set between last October and March, and extracted all the data about what species were detected at each of my 129 sites (this is 3 less than I had previously, due to the Cudlee Creek fire and several missing cameras). 

Across both of my fieldwork seasons I have detected southern brown bandicoots (shown above) at 23 sites, mostly in Cleland, Belair, and Scott Creek/Mount Bold.  I’m currently starting to look at how the surrounding landscape, in terms of land use and past fire, might shape mammal community composition at each site. Early work suggests that more fragmented areas are more likely to be home to feral and disturbance-specialist species (e.g. black rats, kangaroos, brushtail possums), while more intact areas are where habitat specialists like native bush rats, bandicoots and antechinus are found.

I plan to look at how the fire mosaic affects mammal communities, and whether the influence of fire is dependent on habitat fragmentation or vice versa.  I hope to have my first chapter answering these questions completed in the next 3-4 months, before moving on to looking at individual species and habitat structure.

​Having successfully trialled the use of hair traps for collecting DNA from bandicoots (above left) my plans had a covid-shaped spanner thrown in the works. I’m still figuring out exactly what that portion of the project will look like, but I still plan to look at bandicoot habitat connectivity in some way.
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Saving the endangered heath mouse, one burn at a time

2/6/2020

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The following article by Lucy Smith was originally published in Australian Geographic and features Amy Smith's and Rachel Nalliah's PhD and Masters research (respectively). 

Without Amy and Rachel's incredible trap-wrangling efforts and invaluable help from Erin Thomas and other students and volunteers, the life and times of the Glenelg Region's endangered heath mice would be set to remain a mystery! 
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, meet the dayang (Pseudomys shortridgei) – heath dweller, flower feaster and day napper. At a petite 9.5-12cm, this long-whiskered lovely is a member of the Old World rat family, which will no doubt send shivers down the spine of musophobes! But fear not rat haters, this bobble-eyed, endangered heath mouse is at the cutting edge of scientific research into the link between fire and native species’ survival.

As we all know, bushfires in Australia not only threaten human life and property, but cause significant changes to ecosystems. Increasingly, prescribed fire regimes are used to reduce dry fuel load as well as lower the intensity and spread of fires. 

Along with affecting wildlife populations directly, bushfires can also affect animals indirectly by changing the surrounding vegetation. This influences where habitat is available and how animals will respond to fire-induced changes depending on their habitat requirements.

The heath mouse lives in patches of treeless heath surrounded by woodland. Occurring in two geographically remote areas in south-western Western Australia and around the southern border of South Australia and Victoria, it’s sensitive to the effects of fire regimes on the small amount of available habitat left.

Scientists at the Fire Ecology and Biodiversity Lab at the University of Melbourne are mapping the DNA of heath mouse populations to discover how fire regimes affect their movement. 

“We hope to find out whether fire helps or hinders movement among these islands of treeless heath by catching the animals and taking DNA samples,” says Dr Holly Sitters, coordinator of the Fire and Fragmentation Project. 

“The ability of animals to disperse and breed is critical to the survival of populations under changing environmental conditions. By relating genetic information to fire history and other aspects of landscape structure, we’ll be able to help fire managers decide where and when to apply fire to promote population persistence in the long term.”

​Like any animal, heath mice require a minimum habitat area to meet their needs for food, shelter and breeding. 

Current ecological approaches to fire management involve the use of fire mosaics, however this presents several problems when it comes to preserving biodiversity; the effect of fire on how they move through their habitat and the significance of fire on their ability to find other mice to have sex with, a vital part of population survival. 

Their ability to connect affects genetic diversity, which is the basis of population health.

 “Currently, fire simulation is normally applied in the context of hazard reduction rather than biodiversity conservation, but there’s huge potential to use fire simulation in wildlife management,” says Holly. 

There is a capacity to use fire to influence wildlife movement patterns for the benefit of genetic diversity and the species survival such as the heath mouse, as well as the surrounding ecosystems. Holly says a shift in the focus of ecological fire management to consider functional connectivity (the connectivity between brain regions that share functional properties) could result in better conservation outcomes for all species facing a changing climate. 

“Genes are at the foundation of ecological function, and genetic diversity in populations is linked to ecosystem resilience, the capacity to adjust to environmental disturbances such as fire or drought,” she says.

Holly and her colleagues are leading a small army of students and volunteers to collect data on a variety of small lizard and bat species, as well as southern brown bandicoots and even a marsupial mouse, the yellow-footed antechinus. 

They’re hoping to use the genetic data they collect to map functional connectivity and assist fire managers to refine methods for promotion of long-term species persistence. 

“The combined use of fire simulation and empirical data could help us decide where and when to use prescribed fire for the benefit of wildlife populations at the scale of both fire events and fire regimes.”

Lucy Smith holds a Master of Environmental Science, specialising in forest community ecology. Her interests span a range of ecological areas, including natural asset management in agriculture and the interaction between humans and wildlife.
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Welcome to Alex Santiago

6/4/2020

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We recently welcomed Milaan Heeskens but have had to wave him goodbye already because of COVID-19.  Having struggled to find a flight, the Dutch Embassy came to his rescue and he was able to return home at the end of last week.  Now we're welcoming Alex Santiago, who we hope will be able to stay for more than a few weeks!  The prospects are good because he lives in Melbourne - albeit the chances of any face-to-face meetings through his Honours candidature are looking slim!  The University has transitioned to a Virtual Campus so we're continuing our research from home.  Please extend as warm a welcome to Alex as you can from behind your computer screen!

"I am an honours student working with the Fire Ecology and Biodiversity team, investigating fire and fragmentation in south-west Victoria. Under the supervision of Dr Holly Sitters, my project is investigating the influence of landscape-scale pattern on the genetic diversity of the South-eastern Slider skink. In 2017 skink tail-tip samples were collected by masters student Taylor Reid and sequenced using a relatively new method called DArT sequencing. We are hopeful that the use of genetic markers to infer population health across landscapes will assist in earlier and more effective management of populations and maintain species' persistence." 
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Welcome to Milan Heeskens

16/3/2020

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We'd like to extend a warm welcome to Milan Heeskens who's recently joined us from the Netherlands.

“I’m a 3rd year Dutch student studying applied biology at HAS University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. I have to fulfil 40 weeks of internship work this school year. I already have done 20 weeks of intern work at a water authority in the Netherlands (WL, Roermond). My project there was to investigate the effects of snags (dead wood) on the aquatic ecology of creeks. I researched that by catching macrofauna and compared that data with older data. It is amazing what creatures you can find in creeks and rivers.

"Now I am doing an internship for 20 weeks here at the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences in Creswick. I’m researching whether fire has a direct impact on animals or if it impacts animals indirectly. Indirectly means that fires changes plant material (maybe food) or impacts the predators of the animal species and in that way still impacts the animal itself.”
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Tune in to community radio to hear about our research

24/2/2020

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We've been busy talking about some of our favourite topics (fire, fragmentation, small furry animals) on community radio over the past few weeks.

Rachel spoke about her Masters study of the endangered heath mouse on 3CR's Lost in Science and Holly participated in a bushfire special on 3RRR's Einstein A Go-Go, which also featured Trent Penman and Lauren Bennett.

Both radio shows are available as podcasts:


Lost in Science on 3CR
Einstein A Go-Go on 3RRR

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Congratulations to everyone who presented at the Victorian Biodiversity Conference

11/2/2020

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Congratulations to all our students who presented at the Victorian Biodiversity Conference last week, many of whom were presenting their work for the first time. Particular congratulations to Masters student Erin Thomas, who won the best poster award. Her poster on habitat partitioning in macropods not only included some great science, but also featured Erin’s own hand-painted pictures of her study species!
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How Australian wildlife live with bushfires - but the price can be high

21/1/2020

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This article was written by Professor Alan York and was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article.

Distressing scenes of kangaroos fleeing amid flames, of koalas with singed fur and burnt feet and of animals burnt to death have Australians and people around the world worrying over how devastating the current bushfires will be for our unique wildlife.

Australia has a long evolutionary history of fire, and its plants and animals have developed many strategies to cope with occasional fire events. Plants, for example, might resprout from structures below ground or be protected by thick bark, or be able to regenerate from seed stored in the soil or protected by woody capsules.

The massive scale of Australia’s bushfires pose a greater danger to wildlife populations. Picture: Fires at Bargo, 150km southwest of Sydney, 19 December 2019. Picture: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

But animals have to rely on their mobility. Many can fly, hop or run to unburnt areas, while others might take shelter in burrows or hollow logs, or climb trees to escape the flames.

So, how worried should we be about the wildlife impact of the fires?

One of the lessons learnt from the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria was that even extreme bushfire events vary in their severity across the landscape. Within the overall burnt area, there are patches that are less affected, like moist gullies and in rocky terrain, and these patches can often provide refuges for animals to shelter in.

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After the fire, as the bush recovers, animals can move out to find new areas to live or take advantage of the new food resources in the recovering landscape, like new vegetation that can be very palatable and has yet to develop defences. Burnt areas can also leave many seeds on the ground and predators will benefit from prey having less cover. Animals in other areas of the landscape not directly affected can also move in to take advantage of these new resources.

But the massive extent of these current fires means the impact on wildlife will likely be worse than what we’ve experienced in recent times.

It is highly likely that there will still be unburnt refuges within individual fires, although how many animals have survived is unknown. Of greatest concern is the lack of large unburnt areas to provide a source of animals to recolonise the regenerating landscape.

The fires have also been so extensive that many populations of particular species will have been severely reduced and will take many years to recover.

Bushfires can threaten already endangered species like the tiny Corroboree Frog. Pictured: Corroboree Frogs on a keeper’s gloved hand at Taronga Zoo, Sydney. Picture: Ian Waldie/Getty Images

We also know that when they lose vegetation to shelter in many small mammals, like bandicoots, the agile antechinus and the bush rat, will face a heightened risk from introduced predators like foxes. Recent research has demonstrated that these predators are often attracted to recently burnt areas.

So, will any species be in danger of extinction?

It is inevitable that there will be reductions in populations in some parts of the landscape and some local extinctions; this is not unusual during bushfires.

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Species at greatest risk of total extinction are those with small, isolated populations, like the visibly spectacular and critically endangered Southern Corroboree Frog. There are probably only 50 adult frogs left in the wild, with their home in the Snowy Mountains, which is threatened by several converging fires.

Fortunately, we have an insurance policy, with captive breeding programs at several institutions in NSW and Victoria.

The future survival of this and other rare iconic species may depend on future reintroductions once their fragile habitat has recovered.

Increasing habitat loss and fragmentation due to land clearing and urban expansion in eastern Australia has meant that animal populations are increasingly becoming isolated from each other. This places certain species at greater risk of extinction when widespread environmental events occur, like the current bushfires.

Habitat loss and climate change will make wildlife more vulnerable to fire threats. Here, a kangaroo shelters from bushfires in a residential area of Nowra, New South Wales on 31 December 2019. Picture: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images

If we are to reduce this risk we need to slow the rate of habitat destruction and ensure appropriate planning strategies are put in place.

And some ecologies are particularly fragile. In many fire-prone Australian landscapes there are unique relationships between plants and their pollinators. Certain groups of orchids, for example, rely on just one family of wasps to pollinate them – these orchids mimic female wasps to attract males. But wasp populations are vulnerable to fires.

It means larger and severe fires like the current ones are likely to disrupt this relationship, with long lasting impacts on both plant and animal communities.

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Pollination is an essential ecosystem service, with the relationship between fire and many pollinators, whether insects, mammals or birds, poorly understood.

The scale and magnitude of these fires is consistent with predictions derived from climate change modelling and we can expect to see more frequent, severe and extensive fires in the future. This will increase the risk of extinction among certain species.

The decline of local populations of particular species due to habitat isolation and loss, and the increased frequency of extreme environmental events like fires, does not bode well for the future.

It means the long-term survival of our iconic wildlife is likely to require greater levels of human intervention to protect and foster vulnerable populations.

While we hear frequent calls for greater fire fighting resources, we will also need more resources for monitoring and safeguarding the well-being of our unique animals.

Banner: A koala injured by fires on Kangaroo Island, Australia, is treated in an animal refuge. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

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Congratulations to our prize winners!

4/12/2019

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Congratulations to Annalie and Rachel who were awarded the Ecological Management and Restoration prizes for best presentation and best poster (respectively) at the Ecological Society of Australia's annual conference last Friday.

Annalie did an amazing job of distilling a complex analysis into a neat story about how edge contrast between patches of different time-since-fire benefited mammal species richness in the Otway Ranges.  Rachel's eye-catching poster described a love triangle between fire, resource availability and the endangered heath mouse, making for another juicy ecological story!  
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Congratulations to everyone presenting at the Ecological Society of Australia conference this week

27/11/2019

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Eight of our PhD and Masters students are presenting their work at the Ecological Society of Australia's annual conference in Launceston, Tasmania, this week. 

This year's conference theme is Ecology: science for practical solutions and it spans six action-packed days.  It's a wonderful forum for our students to talk about their work and get feedback from the wider ecological community.  


Some of the team even found energy to walk along Cataract Gorge, providing  a lovely opportunity to check out Launceston's beautiful scenery, spot some local birds, and take a few selfies! 
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Where to find us

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, and remote cameras.
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