TY - JOUR
T1 - Animal population decline and recovery after severe fire
T2 - Relating ecological and life history traits with expert estimates of population impacts from the Australian 2019-20 megafires
AU - Ensbey, Michelle
AU - Legge, Sarah
AU - Jolly, Chris J.
AU - Garnett, Stephen T.
AU - Gallagher, Rachael V.
AU - Lintermans, Mark
AU - Nimmo, Dale G.
AU - Rumpff, Libby
AU - Scheele, Ben C.
AU - Whiterod, Nick S.
AU - Woinarski, John C.Z.
AU - Ahyong, Shane T.
AU - Blackmore, Caroline J.
AU - Bower, Deborah S.
AU - Burbidge, Allan H.
AU - Burns, Phoebe A.
AU - Butler, Gavin
AU - Catullo, Renee
AU - Chapple, David G.
AU - Dickman, Christopher R.
AU - Doyle, Katie E.
AU - Ferris, Jason
AU - Fisher, Diana O.
AU - Geyle, Hayley M.
AU - Gillespie, Graeme R.
AU - Greenlees, Matt J.
AU - Hohnen, Rosemary
AU - Hoskin, Conrad J.
AU - Kennard, Mark
AU - King, Alison J.
AU - Kuchinke, Diana
AU - Law, Brad
AU - Lawler, Ivan
AU - Lawler, Susan
AU - Loyn, Richard
AU - Lunney, Daniel
AU - Lyon, Jarod
AU - MacHunter, Josephine
AU - Mahony, Michael
AU - Mahony, Stephen
AU - McCormack, Rob
AU - Melville, Jane
AU - Menkhorst, Peter
AU - Michael, Damian
AU - Mitchell, Nicola
AU - Mulder, Eridani
AU - Newell, David
AU - Pearce, Luke
AU - Raadik, Tarmo A.
AU - Rowley, Jodi J.L.
AU - Sitters, Holly
AU - Southwell, Darren G.
AU - Spencer, Ricky
AU - West, Matt
AU - Zukowski, Sylvia
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. This work was funded by the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program through the Threatened Species Recovery Hub.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023
PY - 2023/7
Y1 - 2023/7
N2 - Catastrophic megafires can increase extinction risks; identifying species priorities for management and policy support is critical for preparing and responding to future fires. However, empirical data on population loss and recovery post-fire, especially megafire, are limited and taxonomically biased. These gaps could be bridged if species' morphological, behavioural, ecological and life history traits indicated their fire responses. Using expert elicitation that estimated population changes following the 2019–20 Australian megafires for 142 terrestrial and aquatic animal species (from every vertebrate class, one invertebrate group), we examined whether expert estimates of fire-related mortality, mortality in the year post-fire, and recovery trajectories over 10 years/three generations post-fire, were related to species traits. Expert estimates for fire-related mortality were lower for species that could potentially flee or shelter from fire, and that associated with fire-prone habitats. Post-fire mortality estimates were linked to diet, diet specialisation, home range size, and susceptibility to introduced herbivores that damage or compete for resources. Longer-term population recovery estimates were linked to diet/habitat specialisation, susceptibility to introduced species; species with slower life histories and shorter subadult dispersal distances also had lower recovery estimates. Across animal groups, experts estimated that recovery was poorest for species with pre-fire population decline and more threatened conservation status. Sustained management is likely needed to recover species with habitat and diet specialisations, slower life histories, pre-existing declines and threatened conservation statuses. This study shows that traits could help inform management priorities before and after future megafires, but further empirical data on animal fire response is essential.
AB - Catastrophic megafires can increase extinction risks; identifying species priorities for management and policy support is critical for preparing and responding to future fires. However, empirical data on population loss and recovery post-fire, especially megafire, are limited and taxonomically biased. These gaps could be bridged if species' morphological, behavioural, ecological and life history traits indicated their fire responses. Using expert elicitation that estimated population changes following the 2019–20 Australian megafires for 142 terrestrial and aquatic animal species (from every vertebrate class, one invertebrate group), we examined whether expert estimates of fire-related mortality, mortality in the year post-fire, and recovery trajectories over 10 years/three generations post-fire, were related to species traits. Expert estimates for fire-related mortality were lower for species that could potentially flee or shelter from fire, and that associated with fire-prone habitats. Post-fire mortality estimates were linked to diet, diet specialisation, home range size, and susceptibility to introduced herbivores that damage or compete for resources. Longer-term population recovery estimates were linked to diet/habitat specialisation, susceptibility to introduced species; species with slower life histories and shorter subadult dispersal distances also had lower recovery estimates. Across animal groups, experts estimated that recovery was poorest for species with pre-fire population decline and more threatened conservation status. Sustained management is likely needed to recover species with habitat and diet specialisations, slower life histories, pre-existing declines and threatened conservation statuses. This study shows that traits could help inform management priorities before and after future megafires, but further empirical data on animal fire response is essential.
KW - Expert elicitation
KW - Fire response
KW - Invertebrates
KW - Megafire
KW - Species traits
KW - Vertebrates
KW - Wildfire
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159153485&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110021
DO - 10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110021
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85159153485
SN - 0006-3207
VL - 283
JO - Biological Conservation
JF - Biological Conservation
M1 - 110021
ER -