Abstract
Fire is a dominant process shaping the Australian landscape and in many regions the frequency and severity of wildfires are predicted to increase under climate change. The primary impact of fire on fauna is typically indirect through habitat change. In particular, in mesic forests different animal species are favoured at different times since fire as habitat complexity increases with vegetation recovery. However, this will not necessarily be the case in habitats with low complexity such as many of those occurring in arid and semi-arid regions. Here, we investigate the relationship between fire history and ant diversity and composition in semi-arid mallee of south-eastern Australia. We surveyed ants at 11 sites in the Little Desert National Park and nearby private land that last burnt 0.5, 6 or 40 years ago. We found no relationship between time since fire and either ant diversity or composition, and this can be explained by a lack of relationship between time since fire and vegetation cover. Our findings contrast with those for mallee bird species, which show clear successional patterns following fire, but are likely to be typical of ground-foraging fauna that lack specialized habitat requirements.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 679-686 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Austral Ecology |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | Mar 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We acknowledge the Wotjobaluk Peoples, the traditional custodians of the land on which fieldwork was conducted. We are grateful to the Urimbirra Co-Operative Society for their support and for providing access to field sites. We also thank Jaclyn Harris, Joanna Sumner, Kylea Clarke and Mike Jenner for assistance during fieldwork, and Joseph Schubert for help with the identification process. Open access publishing facilitated by Monash University, as part of the Wiley - Monash University agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.
Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the Ian Potter Foundation to JM and the Robert Blackwood Partnership to MS.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Austral Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Ecological Society of Australia.
