Avian responses to the diversity and configuration of fire age classes and vegetation types across a rainfall gradient

Sitters, Holly; Christie, Fiona J.; Stefano, Julian Di; Swan, Matthew; Penman, Trent D.; Collins, Peter C.; York, Alan

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2014.01.009

Cited by 50 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…A fire regime considers the frequency, intensity, extent, seasonality, heterogeneity and size of fires in a given landscape (Gill 1975;Whelan 1995). Changes to natural fire regimes (or the variability therein) can result in significant ecological impacts on some populations, species and communities (Fox 1982;Russell-Smith et al 2003;Andersen et al 2005;Clarke 2008;Driscoll and Henderson 2008;Nimmo et al 2012;Nimmo et al 2014;Sitters et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is there an inherent conflict in managing fire for people and conservation?

Bentley

Penman

2017

Int. J. Wildland Fire

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Abstract. Wildfires are a natural disturbance in many ecosystems, creating challenges for land management agencies who need to simultaneously reduce risk to people and maintain ecological values. Here we use the PHOENIX RapidFire fire behaviour simulator to compare fuel treatment strategies that meet the twin objectives of reducing wildfire risk to human settlements and a fire sensitive endangered species, the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) in south-eastern Australia. The local koala population is in decline and a conservation management plan is being prepared to exclude wildfire for a 10-year period to assist with population recovery. Twelve scenarios developed by the land management agencies were compared using four indicators: wildfire size; burn probability; impact from exposure to fire; and treatment cost. Compared with the current risk setting, three treatment scenarios were found to reduce wildfire size and burn probability concurrently to both people and koalas. These strategies worked by increasing the landscape area treated, which came with increased financial cost. However, the impact from exposure to fire for both property and koala habitat remains high. Additional complementary strategies beyond landscape fuel reductions are needed to reduce impact from exposure in the event of a wildfire.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is there an inherent conflict in managing fire for people and conservation?

Bentley

Penman

2017

Int. J. Wildland Fire

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“…Thus, at the landscape-scale, the increase in habitat heterogeneity caused by the fires could increase overall bird community diversity (Roberts et al, 2012;Barton et al, 2014;Sitters et al, 2014). We expect bird community composition will be dynamic in the Lost Pines ecoregion over the next few decades as the burned habitat continues to change through natural successional processes and post-fire management actions (Barber et al, 2001;Perry and Thill, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term changes in summer and winter resident bird communities following a high severity wildfire in a southern USA mixed pine/hardwood forest

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Ferrato

White

et al. 2015

Forest Ecology and Management

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“…The wet forests are located in areas in the southwest at higher elevations of approximately 650 m above sea level with 1259 mm of annual rainfall [23]. A total of 116 sites were surveyed with post fire ages from 1 to 78 years (for detailed site description see Table 1 and Sitters, et al [24]). …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Assessment of Surface Fuel Loads Does Not Align with Destructively Sampled Surface Fuels

McColl‐Gausden

Penman

2017

Forests

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Fuel load and structure are fundamental drivers of fire behaviour. Accurate data is required for managers and researchers to better understand our ability to alter fire risk. While there are many ways to quantify fuel, visual assessment methods are generally considered the most efficient. Visual hazard assessments are commonly used by managers, government agencies and consultants to provide a fuel hazard score or rating but not a quantity of fuel. Many systems attempt to convert the hazard score or rating to a fuel load for use in fire behaviour models. Here we investigate whether the conversion table in the widely used Overall Fuel Hazard Guide (OFHG) matches destructively sampled fuel loads from 116 sites across five forest types. We specifically examine whether there are quantifiable differences that can be attributed to forest type. We found there is overlap between the two methods for low, moderate and high hazard categories, however for the very high and extreme hazard categories, visual assessment overestimated fuel load in four of the five forest types. Using a commonly applied fire behaviour model, we found that the overestimation of fuel load in very high and extreme hazard categories leads to an overestimation of fire behavior in these hazard categories.

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Avian responses to the diversity and configuration of fire age classes and vegetation types across a rainfall gradient

Cited by 50 publications

References 49 publications

Is there an inherent conflict in managing fire for people and conservation?

Is there an inherent conflict in managing fire for people and conservation?

Short-term changes in summer and winter resident bird communities following a high severity wildfire in a southern USA mixed pine/hardwood forest

Visual Assessment of Surface Fuel Loads Does Not Align with Destructively Sampled Surface Fuels

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