Do temporal changes in vegetation structure additional to time since fire predict changes in bird occurrence?
- Lindenmayer, David, Candy, Steven, MacGregor, Christopher, Banks, Sam, Barton, Philip
- Authors: Lindenmayer, David , Candy, Steven , MacGregor, Christopher , Banks, Sam , Barton, Philip
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecological Applications Vol. 26, no. 7 (2016), p. 2267-2279
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Fire is a major ecological process in ecosystems globally. Its impacts on fauna can be both direct (e.g., mortality) and indirect (e.g., altered habitat), resulting in population recovery being driven by several possible mechanisms. Separating direct from indirect impacts of fire on faunal population recovery can be valuable in guiding management of biodiversity in fire-prone environments. However, resolving the influence of direct and indirect processes remains a key challenge because many processes affecting fauna can change concomitantly with time since fire. We explore the mechanisms influencing bird response to fire by posing the question, can temporal changes in vegetation structure predict changes in bird occurrence on sites, and can these be separated from other temporal changes using the surrogate of time since fire? We conducted a 12-yr study of bird and vegetation responses to fire at 124 sites across six vegetation classes in Booderee National Park, Australia. Approximately half of these sites, established in 2002, were burned by a large (>3000 ha) wildfire in 2003. To disentangle collinear effects of temporal changes in vegetation and direct demographic effects on population recovery that are subsumed by time since fire, we incorporated both longitudinal and cross-sectional vegetation effects in addition to time since fire within logistic structural equation models. We identified temporal changes in vegetation structure and richness of plant and bird species that characterized burned and unburned sites in all vegetation classes. For nine bird species, a significant component of the year trend was driven by temporal trends in one of three vegetation variables (number of understory or midstory plant species, or midstory cover). By contrast, we could not separate temporal effects between time since fire and vegetation attributes for bird species richness, reporting rate, and the occurrence of 11 other bird species. Our findings help identify species for which indirect effects of vegetation dominate recovery and thus may benefit from vegetation management where conservation actions are required and, conversely, those species for which direct effects of time since fire drive recovery, where simply leaving a system to recover following the last disturbance will be sufficient. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.
- Authors: Lindenmayer, David , Candy, Steven , MacGregor, Christopher , Banks, Sam , Barton, Philip
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecological Applications Vol. 26, no. 7 (2016), p. 2267-2279
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Fire is a major ecological process in ecosystems globally. Its impacts on fauna can be both direct (e.g., mortality) and indirect (e.g., altered habitat), resulting in population recovery being driven by several possible mechanisms. Separating direct from indirect impacts of fire on faunal population recovery can be valuable in guiding management of biodiversity in fire-prone environments. However, resolving the influence of direct and indirect processes remains a key challenge because many processes affecting fauna can change concomitantly with time since fire. We explore the mechanisms influencing bird response to fire by posing the question, can temporal changes in vegetation structure predict changes in bird occurrence on sites, and can these be separated from other temporal changes using the surrogate of time since fire? We conducted a 12-yr study of bird and vegetation responses to fire at 124 sites across six vegetation classes in Booderee National Park, Australia. Approximately half of these sites, established in 2002, were burned by a large (>3000 ha) wildfire in 2003. To disentangle collinear effects of temporal changes in vegetation and direct demographic effects on population recovery that are subsumed by time since fire, we incorporated both longitudinal and cross-sectional vegetation effects in addition to time since fire within logistic structural equation models. We identified temporal changes in vegetation structure and richness of plant and bird species that characterized burned and unburned sites in all vegetation classes. For nine bird species, a significant component of the year trend was driven by temporal trends in one of three vegetation variables (number of understory or midstory plant species, or midstory cover). By contrast, we could not separate temporal effects between time since fire and vegetation attributes for bird species richness, reporting rate, and the occurrence of 11 other bird species. Our findings help identify species for which indirect effects of vegetation dominate recovery and thus may benefit from vegetation management where conservation actions are required and, conversely, those species for which direct effects of time since fire drive recovery, where simply leaving a system to recover following the last disturbance will be sufficient. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.
Temporal trends in mammal responses to fire reveals the complex effects of fire regime attributes
- Lindenmayer, David, Blanchard, Wade, MacGregor, Christopher, Barton, Philip, Banks, Sam
- Authors: Lindenmayer, David , Blanchard, Wade , MacGregor, Christopher , Barton, Philip , Banks, Sam
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecological Applications Vol. 26, no. 2 (2016), p. 557-573
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Fire is a major ecological process in many ecosystems worldwide. We sought to identify which attributes of fire regimes affect temporal change in the presence and abundance of Australian native mammals. Our detailed study was underpinned by time series data on 11 mammal species at 97 long-term sites in southeastern Australia between 2003 and 2013. We explored how temporal aspects of fire regimes influenced the presence and conditional abundance of species. The key fire regime components examined were: (1) severity of a major fire in 2003, (2) interval between the last major fire (2003) and the fire prior to that, and (3) number of past fires. Our long-term data set enabled quantification of the interactions between survey year and each fire regime variable: an ecological relationship missing from temporally restricted studies. We found no evidence of any appreciable departures from the assumption of independence of the sites. Multiple aspects of fire regimes influenced temporal variation in the presence and abundance of mammals. The best models indicated that six of the 11 species responded to two or more fire regime variables, with two species influenced by all three fire regime attributes. Almost all species responded to time since fire, either as an interaction with survey year or as a main effect. Fire severity or its interaction with survey year was important for most terrestrial rodents. The number of fires at a site was significant for terrestrial rodents and several other species. Our findings contain evidence of the effects on native mammals of heterogeneity in fire regimes. Temporal response patterns of mammal species were influenced by multiple fire regime attributes, often in conjunction with survey year. This underscores the critical importance of long-term studies of biota that are coupled with data sets characterized by carefully documented fire history, severity, and frequency. Long-term studies are essential to predict animal responses to fires and guide management of when and where (prescribed) fire or, conversely, long-unburned vegetation is needed. The complexity of observed responses highlights the need for large reserves in which patterns of heterogeneity in fire regimes can be sustained in space and over time. © 2015 by the Ecological Society of America. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton” is provided in this record**
- Authors: Lindenmayer, David , Blanchard, Wade , MacGregor, Christopher , Barton, Philip , Banks, Sam
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecological Applications Vol. 26, no. 2 (2016), p. 557-573
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Fire is a major ecological process in many ecosystems worldwide. We sought to identify which attributes of fire regimes affect temporal change in the presence and abundance of Australian native mammals. Our detailed study was underpinned by time series data on 11 mammal species at 97 long-term sites in southeastern Australia between 2003 and 2013. We explored how temporal aspects of fire regimes influenced the presence and conditional abundance of species. The key fire regime components examined were: (1) severity of a major fire in 2003, (2) interval between the last major fire (2003) and the fire prior to that, and (3) number of past fires. Our long-term data set enabled quantification of the interactions between survey year and each fire regime variable: an ecological relationship missing from temporally restricted studies. We found no evidence of any appreciable departures from the assumption of independence of the sites. Multiple aspects of fire regimes influenced temporal variation in the presence and abundance of mammals. The best models indicated that six of the 11 species responded to two or more fire regime variables, with two species influenced by all three fire regime attributes. Almost all species responded to time since fire, either as an interaction with survey year or as a main effect. Fire severity or its interaction with survey year was important for most terrestrial rodents. The number of fires at a site was significant for terrestrial rodents and several other species. Our findings contain evidence of the effects on native mammals of heterogeneity in fire regimes. Temporal response patterns of mammal species were influenced by multiple fire regime attributes, often in conjunction with survey year. This underscores the critical importance of long-term studies of biota that are coupled with data sets characterized by carefully documented fire history, severity, and frequency. Long-term studies are essential to predict animal responses to fires and guide management of when and where (prescribed) fire or, conversely, long-unburned vegetation is needed. The complexity of observed responses highlights the need for large reserves in which patterns of heterogeneity in fire regimes can be sustained in space and over time. © 2015 by the Ecological Society of America. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton” is provided in this record**
Effects of a large wildfire on vegetation structure in a variable fire mosaic
- Foster, C., Barton, Philip, Robinson, N., MacGregor, C., Lindenmayer, David
- Authors: Foster, C. , Barton, Philip , Robinson, N. , MacGregor, C. , Lindenmayer, David
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecological Applications Vol. 27, no. 8 (2017), p. 2369-2381
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Management guidelines for many fire-prone ecosystems highlight the importance of maintaining a variable mosaic of fire histories for biodiversity conservation. Managers are encouraged to aim for fire mosaics that are temporally and spatially dynamic, include all successional states of vegetation, and also include variation in the underlying "invisible mosaic" of past fire frequencies, severities, and fire return intervals. However, establishing and maintaining variable mosaics in contemporary landscapes is subject to many challenges, one of which is deciding how the fire mosaic should be managed following the occurrence of large, unplanned wildfires. A key consideration for this decision is the extent to which the effects of previous fire history on vegetation and habitats persist after major wildfires, but this topic has rarely been investigated empirically. In this study, we tested to what extent a large wildfire interacted with previous fire history to affect the structure of forest, woodland, and heath vegetation in Booderee National Park in southeastern Australia. In 2003, a summer wildfire burned 49.5% of the park, increasing the extent of recently burned vegetation (<10 yr post-fire) to more than 72% of the park area. We tracked the recovery of vegetation structure for nine years following the wildfire and found that the strength and persistence of fire effects differed substantially between vegetation types. Vegetation structure was modified by wildfire in forest, woodland, and heath vegetation, but among-site variability in vegetation structure was reduced only by severe fire in woodland vegetation. There also were persistent legacy effects of the previous fire regime on some attributes of vegetation structure including forest ground and understorey cover, and woodland midstorey and overstorey cover. For example, woodland midstorey cover was greater on sites with higher fire frequency, irrespective of the severity of the 2003 wildfire. Our results show that even after a large, severe wildfire, underlying fire histories can contribute substantially to variation in vegetation structure. This highlights the importance of ensuring that efforts to reinstate variation in vegetation fire age after large wildfires do not inadvertently reduce variation in vegetation structure generated by the underlying invisible mosaic. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.
- Authors: Foster, C. , Barton, Philip , Robinson, N. , MacGregor, C. , Lindenmayer, David
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecological Applications Vol. 27, no. 8 (2017), p. 2369-2381
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Management guidelines for many fire-prone ecosystems highlight the importance of maintaining a variable mosaic of fire histories for biodiversity conservation. Managers are encouraged to aim for fire mosaics that are temporally and spatially dynamic, include all successional states of vegetation, and also include variation in the underlying "invisible mosaic" of past fire frequencies, severities, and fire return intervals. However, establishing and maintaining variable mosaics in contemporary landscapes is subject to many challenges, one of which is deciding how the fire mosaic should be managed following the occurrence of large, unplanned wildfires. A key consideration for this decision is the extent to which the effects of previous fire history on vegetation and habitats persist after major wildfires, but this topic has rarely been investigated empirically. In this study, we tested to what extent a large wildfire interacted with previous fire history to affect the structure of forest, woodland, and heath vegetation in Booderee National Park in southeastern Australia. In 2003, a summer wildfire burned 49.5% of the park, increasing the extent of recently burned vegetation (<10 yr post-fire) to more than 72% of the park area. We tracked the recovery of vegetation structure for nine years following the wildfire and found that the strength and persistence of fire effects differed substantially between vegetation types. Vegetation structure was modified by wildfire in forest, woodland, and heath vegetation, but among-site variability in vegetation structure was reduced only by severe fire in woodland vegetation. There also were persistent legacy effects of the previous fire regime on some attributes of vegetation structure including forest ground and understorey cover, and woodland midstorey and overstorey cover. For example, woodland midstorey cover was greater on sites with higher fire frequency, irrespective of the severity of the 2003 wildfire. Our results show that even after a large, severe wildfire, underlying fire histories can contribute substantially to variation in vegetation structure. This highlights the importance of ensuring that efforts to reinstate variation in vegetation fire age after large wildfires do not inadvertently reduce variation in vegetation structure generated by the underlying invisible mosaic. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.
- «
- ‹
- 1
- ›
- »