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Fire Ecology and

Biodiversity


School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences | Faculty of Science

University of Melbourne

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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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600 delegates gather at the Biodiversity Across the Borders Conference

16/6/2019

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Congratulations to Sandra, Simeon and Rachel for their engaging oral and poster presentations, and to Matt for his role as MC in the fire ecology session.

The biennial Biodiversity Across the Borders Conference is hosted by Federation University, only a stone's throw from us in Mt Helen, south of Ballarat.  This year's conference theme was Climate Change and Future Landscapes, and provided an excellent opportunity to share emerging applied research among a broad audience comprising natural resource managers, the research community and conservation enthusiasts.
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How might fire influence vegetation diversity over the next 60 years?

16/1/2019

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In our new paper , which formed part of Matt Chick's PhD, we used a landscape succession and disturbance simulation model to estimate changes in vegetation diversity under alternative scenarios of planned fire and wildfire over a 60-year period. 

We surveyed vegetation diversity among different post-fire growth stages in heathy woodland, and used optimisation to determine the proportions of growth stages that would maximise species diversity.  Pairing optimisation with the simulation model allowed us to identify the cumulative effects of different fire-regime scenarios on vegetation diversity.

The best scenario for vegetation diversity was 5% prescribed burning per year (with and without wildfire) which resulted in diversity values close to the theoretical maximum.  Trends across the 60 years showed that wildfire depressed diversity and subsequent prescribed fire drove recovery within 15 years. The largest threat to vegetation diversity was the absence of fire.

Our method provides a flexible platform for developing long‐term fire management strategies that seek to balance human safety and biodiversity conservation. 


Find out more: Chick, M., York, A., Sitters, H., Di Stefano, J. & Nitschke, C. (in press). The cumulative impacts of prescribed burning and wildfire on vegetation diversity. Journal of Applied Ecology.
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Please join us in Casterton for our information day!

10/7/2018

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Fire & Fragmentation Project Information Day

Casterton Town Hall, 67 Henty Street
Tuesday 7 August, 10:30-15:30
Morning tea and lunch provided
Our Information Day will be an opportunity to:
  • hear about our current work and plans, and
  • discuss priorities for fire research, conservation and management in the region and further afield.

Find a provisional program below, and please RSVP by Monday 30 July.

We look forward to seeing you!
Click here to rsvp
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Congratulations to Kirsten Langmaid on completing her Masters research project!

29/6/2017

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Kirsten worked with Kate in the Central Highlands to investigate the responses of Mountain Bobucks (Trichosurus cunninghami) to fire.  She measured the home range sizes of animals fitted with GPS collars, and examined the response of home range size to fire severity and vegetation diversity.

She found that home ranges were smaller in areas burnt by high-severity fire in 2009 than in long-unburnt areas.  Smaller home ranges reflect high quality habitat, and it's likely that regenerating acacia in burnt areas provides bobucks with an abundant food supply.  Within areas burnt by high-severity fire, there was a positive relationship between home range size and vegetation-type diversity, indicating that riparian vegetation is particularly resource-rich.

These results will help researchers and land mangers better understand the implications of changing fire regimes for bobuck populations.

Well done Kirsten, and thanks to Julio, Kate and Kirsten for the photos!
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Possum Magic in the Central Highlands

23/1/2017

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Kate and a team of volunteers have recently returned from several weeks of field work out in the forests of the Central Highlands, where they have been attempting to catch Mountain Brushtail Possums (Bobucks) as part of Kate’s PhD research.

This study aims to understand how fire affects resource use and movement patterns of the possums at sites burnt during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. Kate is particularly keen to understand if this species alters its movement patterns and energy use between areas of differing burn severities.

For this project Kate has built her own GPS collars, which contain: a VHF for relocating the possums, a GPS to record horizontal movement patterns, an altimeter to measure changes in height, as well as a three-axis accelerometer to measure energy use. This device will enable us to look at resource selection and movement patterns in three-dimensions, across a range of different burn severities.

If you’d like to volunteer to come along on an upcoming field trip with Kate, please get in touch with her by email.
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Opportunity for a masters/honours project on fire and flying insects

29/11/2016

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We have an exciting opportunity for a masters or honours student to examine how fire influences the ecology of flying insects in the Otway Ranges.

Flying insects (e.g. butterflies, moths, beetles, flies) are an important part of forest ecosystems. They contribute to ecosystem function through services such as pollination, provide a large food resource for vertebrate fauna, and are interesting in their own right.

This project is part of a larger study examining fire impacts on fauna, with all fieldwork and project costs covered.  

​If you are interested please contact
Alan York.
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Out with Smokey Bear and in with Nature's Phoenix

30/7/2015

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In Australia, fire is viewed as both an ecological disaster and a source of natural disturbance, but in many other regions public attitudes are overwhelmingly fire-phobic.

Public opinion in the United States has been shaped by Smokey Bear, a fictitious character created in 1944 to raise awareness of correct campfire etiquette.  Smokey’s mantra is “remember, ONLY YOU can prevent forest fires”, which has fostered a lively culture of fire suppression.  Command-and-control attitudes towards fire have become pervasive, to the detriment of ecological communities.
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We’ve contributed to a new book which provides the first global synthesis of the ecological benefits of high- and mixed-severity fire.  The book includes case studies from around the world, and we describe the Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests of southeast Australia, where large fires are infrequent and intense.  Unlike many eucalypt species, Mountain Ash is considered fire-sensitive because it’s killed by severe fire.  However, its regeneration is dependent on high-intensity fire, which desiccates seed capsules and releases up to 14 million seeds per hectare.

The book advocates a paradigm shift that replaces Smokey Bear with nature’s phoenix.  According to Greek mythology, the phoenix is a long-lived bird which is repeatedly consumed by flames and reborn.   

Buy the book on Amazon, and find out more via an interview with editors Dominick DellaSala and Chad Hanson.

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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, and remote cameras.
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