Animal mortality during fire

Jolly, Chris J.; Dickman, Chris R.; Doherty, Tim S.; Eeden, Lily M. van; Geary, William L.; Legge, Sarah; Woinarski, John C. Z.; Nimmo, Dale G.

doi:10.1111/gcb.16044

Cited by 84 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…Our review of conservation assessments and primary literature showed that for most threatened Australian mammals, inappropriate fire regimes include high intensity and severity fires, large fire sizes and amount burned, and high-frequency fires. Intense and severe fires generate high levels of heat and smoke and increase the chances of animal mortality (Jolly et al, 2022). For example, declines of koala ( Phascolarctos cinereus ) populations have been documented following severe wildfires in forests of south-eastern Australia (Matthews et al, 2016; Phillips et al, 2021), and are probably linked to direct mortality caused by fires and reduced survival shortly after fires.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond inappropriate fire regimes: a synthesis of fire-driven declines of threatened mammals in Australia

Santos

Hradsky

Keith

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Fire can promote biodiversity but changing patterns of fire threaten species worldwide. While scientific literature often describes inappropriate fire regimes as a significant threat to biodiversity, less attention has been paid to the characteristics that make a fire regime inappropriate. We go beyond this generic description and synthesize how inappropriate fire regimes contribute to declines of animal populations, using threatened mammals as a case study. We developed a demographic framework for classifying mechanisms by which fire regimes cause population decline, and applied the framework in a systematic review to identify fire characteristics and interacting threats associated with population declines in Australian threatened land mammals (n=99). Inappropriate fire regimes threaten 88% of Australian threatened land mammals. Our review indicates that intense, large, and frequent fires are the primary cause of fire-related population declines, particularly through their influence on survival rates. However, several species are threatened by a lack of fire and there is considerable uncertainty in the evidence base for fire-related declines. Climate change and predation are documented or predicted to interact with fire to exacerbate mammalian declines. This demographic framework will help target conservation actions globally and would be enhanced by empirical studies of animal survival, dispersal, and reproduction.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond inappropriate fire regimes: a synthesis of fire-driven declines of threatened mammals in Australia

Santos

Hradsky

Keith

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…were more abundant in burnt compared to unburnt areas, possibly because there were fewer predators in burnt areas (Pausas et al ., 2018). Taken together, these results point to a key role of predation in shaping prey population dynamics in burnt landscapes, especially because direct mortality rates from fire are often low (Jolly et al ., 2022).…”

Section: How and Why Does Prey Vulnerability Change Post‐fire?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another fruitful approach would be to conduct meta‐analyses or other quantitative syntheses focused on a specific taxonomic group, region or phenomenon (e.g. Geary et al ., 2020; Jolly et al ., 2022). Synthesis of future studies would also be aided by standardising how fires, the predator and prey guilds, and environmental context are described, so that heterogeneity between study contexts and designs can be accounted for (Geary et al ., 2020).…”

Section: Outstanding Questions and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fires can result in extensive animal mortality (e.g. Erwin & Stasiak, 1979; Tomas et al, 2021), but in many cases mortality rates are low and many animals survive the direct impacts of fire (Jolly et al ., 2022). However, simply surviving the fire does not spell the end of the danger period; animals can be at heightened risk after fire due to reduced shelter and resource availability, and increased exposure to predators, with consequences for survival, reproduction and population dynamics (Sutherland & Dickman, 1999; Nieman et al ., 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fire as a driver and mediator of predator–prey interactions

et al. 2022

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Both fire and predators have strong influences on the population dynamics and behaviour of animals, and the effects of predators may either be strengthened or weakened by fire. However, knowledge of how fire drives or mediates predatorprey interactions is fragmented and has not been synthesised. Here, we review and synthesise knowledge of how fire influences predator and prey behaviour and interactions. We develop a conceptual model based on predator-prey theory and empirical examples to address four key questions: (i) how and why do predators respond to fire; (ii) how and why does prey vulnerability change post-fire; (iii) what mechanisms do prey use to reduce predation risk post-fire; and (iv) what are the outcomes of predator-fire interactions for prey populations? We then discuss these findings in the context of wildlife conservation and ecosystem management before outlining priorities for future research. Fire-induced changes in vegetation structure, resource availability, and animal behaviour influence predator-prey encounter rates, the amount of time prey are vulnerable during an encounter, and the conditional probability of prey death given an encounter. How a predator responds to fire depends on fire characteristics (e.g. season, severity), their hunting behaviour (ambush or pursuit predator), movement behaviour, territoriality, and intra-guild dynamics. Prey species that rely on habitat structure for avoiding predation often experience increased predation rates and lower survival in recently burnt areas. By contrast, some prey species benefit from the opening up of habitat after fire because it makes it easier to detect predators and to modify their behaviour appropriately. Reduced prey body condition after fire can increase predation risk either through impaired ability to escape predators, or increased need to forage in risky areas due to being energetically stressed. To reduce risk of predation in the post-fire environment, prey may change their habitat use, increase sheltering behaviour, change their movement behaviour, or use camouflage through cryptic colouring and background matching. Field

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“…We chose these three commonly studied climate extremes, as their frequency is increasing at unprecedented rates and, accordingly, their effects on ecosystems are rapidly growing ( IPCC et al., 2018a ). We do acknowledge that many other climate-related extreme events are also increasing worldwide, such as more severe snow and windstorms, and fire events, and their effects on terrestrial ecosystems can be highly dramatic ( Díaz-Yáñez et al., 2019 ; Jolly et al., 2022 ). However, in this review we restrict ourselves to three major events, as many other extreme events can be related to temperature and water extremes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%