Which fire management strategies benefit biodiversity? A landscape-perspective case study using birds in mallee ecosystems of south-eastern Australia

Biological Conservation

Volumn 159, Issue , 2013, Pages 248-256

  Taylor, Rick S ^a   Watson, Simon J ^b,c   Bennett, Andrew F ^b   Clarke, Michael F ^a  

^a LA TROBE UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^b DEAKIN UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^c CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Bird conservation; Fire management; Fire mosaic; Prescribed burn; Semi arid; Whole of landscape design

Indexed keywords

AGE CLASS; AVIFAUNA; BIODIVERSITY; COMMUNITY RESPONSE; CONSERVATION PLANNING; ENDANGERED SPECIES; EVERGREEN TREE; FIRE MANAGEMENT; HABITAT MANAGEMENT; LANDSCAPE PROTECTION; NATURE CONSERVATION; PASSERINE; PRESCRIBED BURNING; SEMIARID REGION; SPECIES CONSERVATION; VEGETATION TYPE; WILDFIRE;

AUSTRALIA;

AVES; MANORINA MELANOTIS;

EID: 84872697541     PISSN: 00063207     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2012.12.005     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. Alldredge M.W., Pollock K.H., Simons T.R., Shriner S.A. Multiple-species analysis of point count data: a more parsimonious modelling framework. J. Appl. Ecol. 2007, 44:281-290.
2. Andersen A.N., Cook G.D., Corbett L.K., Douglas M.M., Eager R.W., Russell-Smith J., Setterfield S.A., Williams R.J., Woinarski J.C.Z. Fire frequency and biodiversity conservation in Australian tropical savanna: implications from the Kapalga fire experiment. Austral. Ecol. 2005, 30:155-167.
3. Avitabile, S.C., Callister, K.E., Kelly, L.T., Haslem, A., Fraser, L., Nimmo, D.G., Watson, S.J., Kenny, S.A., Taylor, R.S., Spence-Bailey, L.M., Bennett, A.F., Clarke, M.F., in preparation. Systematic fire mapping is critical for fire ecology, planning and management: a case study from the semi-arid Murray Mallee, south-eastern Australia.
4. Bennett A.F., Radford J.Q., Haslem A. Properties of land mosaics: implications for nature conservation in agricultural environments. Biol. Conserv. 2006, 133:250-264.
5. Benshemesh J. Management of the malleefowl with regard to fire. The Mallee Lands: A Conservation Perspective 1990, 206-211. CSIRO, Melbourne. J.C. Noble, P.J. Joss, G.K. Jones (Eds.).
6. Boer M.M., Sadler R.J., Wittkuhn R.S., McCaw L., Grierson P.F. Long-term impacts of prescribed burning on regional extent and incidence of wildfires-evidence from 50 years of active fire management in SW Australian forests. For. Ecol. Manage. 2009, 259:132-142.
7. Bradstock R.A., Cohn J.S. Fire regimes and biodiversity in semi-arid mallee ecosystems. Flammable Australia: The Fire Regimes and Biodiversity of a Continent 2002, 238-258. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. R.A. Bradstock, J.E. Williams, M.A. Gill (Eds.).
8. Bradstock R.A., Bedward M., Gill A.M., Cohn J.S. Which mosaic? A landscape ecological approach for evaluating interactions between fire regimes, habitat and animals. Wildl. Res. 2005, 32:409-423.
9. Brockett B.H., Biggs H.C., van Wilgen B.W. A patch mosaic burning system for conservation in southern African savannas. Int. J. Wildland Fire 2001, 10:169-183.
10. Brotons L., Herrando S., Martin J.L. Bird assemblages in forest fragments within Mediterranean mosaics created by wildfires. Landscape Ecol. 2004, 19:663-675.
11. Brown S., Clarke M.F., Clarke R.H. Fire is a key element in the landscape-scale habitat requirements and global population status of a threatened bird: the Mallee Emu-wren (Stipiturus mallee). Biol. Conserv. 2009, 142:432-445.
12. Brudvig L.A., Mabry C.M., Miller J.R., Walker T.A. Evaluation of central North American prairie management based on species diversity, life form and individual species metrics. Conserv. Biol. 2007, 21:864-874.
13. Buckland S.T., Anderson D.R., Burnham K.P., Laake J.L., Borchers D.L., Thomas L. Advanced distance sampling: estimating abundance of biological populations 2004, Oxford University Press, New York.
14. Burnham K.P., Anderson D.R. Model Selection and Multimodal Inference: A Practical Information-Theoretical Approach 2002, Springer-Verlag, New York. second ed.
15. Burrows N.D. Linking fire ecology and fire management in south-west Australian forest landscapes. For. Ecol. Manage. 2008, 255:2394-2406.
16. Cheal, D., 2010. Growth Stages and Tolerable Fire Intervals for Victoria's Native Vegetation Data Sets. Fire and Adaptive Management Report No. 84. Department of Sustainability and Environment, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
17. Clarke M.F. Catering for the needs of fauna in fire management: science or just wishful thinking?. Wildl. Res. 2008, 35:385-394.
18. Clarke R.H., Gordon I.R., Clarke M.F. Intraspecific phenotypic variability in the black-eared miner (Manorina melanotis): human-facilitated introgression and the consequences for an endangered taxon. Biol. Conserv. 2001, 99:145-155.
19. Clarke R.H., Boulton R.L., Clarke M.F. Estimating population size of the Black-eared Miner, with an assessment of landscape-scale habitat requirements. Pacif. Conserv. Biol. 2005, 11:174-188.
20. Department of Environment and Heritage Bookmark Mallee fire Management Plan 2008, Department for Environment and Heritage, Adelaide.
21. Dostine P.L., Johnson G.C., Franklin D.C., Zhang Y., Hempel C. Seasonal use of savanna landscapes by the Gouldian finch, Erythrura gouldiae, in the Yinberrie Hills area, Northern Territory. Wildl. Res. 2001, 28:445-458.
22. Driscoll D.A., Lindenmayer D.B., Bennett A.F., Bode M., Bradstock R.A., Cary G.J., Clarke M.F., Dexter N., Fensham R., Friend G., Gill A.M., James S., Kay G., Keith D.A., MacGregor C., Russell-Smith J., Salt D., Watson J.E.M., Williams R.J., York A. Fire management for biodiversity conservation: key research questions and our capacity to answer them. Biol. Conserv. 2010, 143:1928-1939.
23. Elith J., Leathwick J.R., Hastie T. A working guide to boosted regression trees. J. Anim. Ecol. 2008, 77:802-813.
24. Elphick C.S. How you count counts: the importance of methods of research in applied ecology. J. Appl. Ecol. 2008, 45:1313-1320.
25. Fernandez P.M., Botelho H.S. A review of prescribed burning effectiveness in fire hazard reduction. Int. J. Wildl. Fire 2003, 12:117-128.
26. Fox B.J. Fire and mammalian secondary succession in an Australian coastal heath. Ecology 1982, 63:1332-1341.
27. Fuhlendorf S.D., Harrell W.C., Engle D.M., Hamilton R.G., Davis C.A., Leslie D.M. Should heterogeneity be the basis for conservation? Grassland bird response to fire and grazing. Ecol. Appl. 2006, 16:1706-1716.
28. Haslem A., Callister K.E., Avitabile S.C., Griffioen P.A., Kelly L.T., Nimmo D.G., Spence-Bailey L.M., Taylor R.S., Watson S.J., Brown L., Bennett A.F., Clarke M.F. A framework for mapping vegetation over broad spatial extents: a technique to aid land management across jurisdictional boundaries. Landsc. Urban Plann. 2010, 97:296-305.
29. Haslem A., Kelly L.T., Nimmo D.G., Watson S.J., Kenny S., Taylor R.S., Avitabile S.C., Callister K.E., Spence-Bailey L.M., Clarke M.F., Bennett A.F. Habitat or fuel? Implications of long-term, post-fire dynamics in the development of key resources for fauna and fire. J. Appl. Ecol. 2011, 48:247-256.
30. Herrando S., Brotons L., Del Amo R., Llacuna S. Bird community succession after fire in a dry Mediterranean shrubland. Ardea 2002, 90:303-310.
31. Higgins, P.J. (Ed.), 1999. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, vol. 4. Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
32. Higgins, P.J., Peter, J.M. (Eds.), 2002. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, vol. 6. Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
33. Higgins, P.J., Peter, J.M., Steele, W.K. (Eds.), 2001. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, vol. 5. Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
34. Law B.S., Dickman C.R. The use of habitat mosaics by terrestrial vertebrate fauna: implications for conservation and management. Biodivers. Conserv. 1998, 7:323-333.
35. Magurran A.E. Measuring Biological Diversity 2004, Blackwell Science Ltd., Oxford.
36. McGarigal, K., Cushman, S.A., Neel, M.C., Ene, E., 2002. FRAGSTATS: Spatial Pattern Analysis Program for Categorical Maps. Version 3.3. University of Massachusetts, Amherst. http://www.umass.edu/landeco/research/fragstats/fragstats.html.
37. Meredith C.W. The research input to fire management in natural areas with particular reference to wildlife research in the semi-arid lands of Victoria and New South Wales. Fire Ecology in Semi-arid Lands 1982, 1-10. CSIRO, Deniliquin, New South Wales. A. Heislers, P. Lynch, B. Walters (Eds.).
38. Nappi A., Drapeau P. Reproductive success of the black-backed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) in burned boreal forests: are burns source habitats?. Biol. Conserv. 2009, 142:1381-1391.
39. Noble J.C., Vines R.G. Fire studies in mallee (Eucalyptus spp.) communities of western New South Wales: grass fuel dynamics and associated weather patterns. Rangeland J. 1993, 15:270-297.
40. Parr C.L., Andersen A.N. Patch mosaic burning for biodiversity conservation: a critique of the pyrodiversity paradigm. Conserv. Biol. 2006, 20:1610-1619.
41. Parr C.L., Woinarski J.C.Z., Pienaar D.J. Cornerstones of biodiversity conservation? Comparing the management effectiveness of Kruger and Kakadu National Parks, two key savanna reserves. Biodivers. Conserv. 2009, 18:3643-3662.
42. Pearce J., Ferrier S. Evaluating the predictive performance of habitat models developed using logistic regression. Ecol. Model. 2000, 133:225-245.
43. R Development Core Team A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing 2010, Royal Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.
44. Radford J.Q., Bennett A.F. Thresholds in landscape parameters: occurrence of the white-browed treecreeper Climacteris affinis in Victoria, Australia. Biol. Conserv. 2004, 117:375-391.
45. Saab V.A., Powell H.D.W. Fire and avian ecology in North America: process influencing pattern. Stud. Avian Biol. 2005, 30:1-13.
46. Sandell P.S., Tolhurst K.G., Dalton J., Scott B., Smith M. Fire management prescriptions for the Victorian mallee parks. Proc. R. Soc. Victoria 2006, 118:395-412.
47. Taylor R.S., Watson S.J., Nimmo D.G., Kelly L.T., Bennett A.F., Clarke M.F. Landscape-scale effects of fire on bird assemblages: does pyrodiversity beget biodiversity?. Divers. Distrib. 2012, 18:519-529.
48. Teague, B., Mcleod, R., Pascoe, S., 2010. 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission Final Report 2, pp. 278-320.
49. Thomas J.W., Franklin J.F., Gordon J., Johnson K.N. The Northwest Forest plan: origins, components, implementation experience, and suggestions for change. Conserv. Biol. 2006, 20:277-287.
50. Thomas, L., Laake, J.L., Strindberg, S., Marques, F.F.C., Buckland, S.T., Borchers, D.L., Anderson, D.R., Burnham, K.P., Hedley, S.L., Pollard, J.H., Bishop, J.R.B. Marques, T.A., 2006b. Distance 5.0 Release 2. Research Unit for Wildlife Population Assessment, University of St. Andrews, UK. http://www.ruwpa.st-and.ac.uk/distance/.
51. Watson S.J., Taylor R.S., Nimmo D.G., Kelly L.T., Haslem A., Clarke M.F., Bennett A.F. Effects of time-since-fire on birds: how informative are generalized fire-response curves for conservation management?. Ecol. Appl. 2012, 22:685-696.
52. Watson S.J., Taylor R.S., Nimmo D.G., Kelly L.T., Clarke M.F., Bennett A.F. The influence of unburnt patches and distance from refuges on post-fire bird communities. Animal Conservation 2012, 15:499-507.
53. Wiens J.A. Spatial scaling in ecology. Funct. Ecol. 1989, 3:385-397.
54. Wiens J.A., Stenseth N.C., Van Horne B., Ims R.A. Ecological mechanisms and landscape ecology. Oikos 1993, 66:369-380.
55. Woinarski J.C.Z. The vertebrate fauna of broombush Melaleuca uncinata vegetation in north western Victoria, with reference to effects of broombush harvesting. Aust. Wildl. Res. 1989, 16:217-238.
56. Woinarski J.C.Z., Recher H.F. Impact and response: a review of the effects of fire on the Australian avifauna. Pacif. Conserv. Biol. 1997, 3:183-205.
57. Zuur A.F., Ieno E.N., Smith G.M. Analysing Ecological Data 2007, Springer Science+Business Media, New York, USA.