Effect of fire on insectivorous bat activity in northern Australia: does fire intensity matter on a local scale?

Broken-Brow, Julie; Hitch, Alan T.; Armstrong, Kyle N.; Leung, Luke K.‐P.

doi:10.1071/zo20030

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Most bat species respond in either a positive or neutral way to prescribed fire (Additional file 1). However, some edge-and edge/open-space foraging bats in two studies in northern Australia (Inkster-Draper et al 2013;Broken-Brow et al 2020) show negative responses to prescribed fire although in one study, this only occurred after high-intensity fires (Additional file 1). Reduction in vegetation clutter or the creation of small gaps due to prescribed fire most likely contributes to the increase in bat use in response to prescribed fire compared to control sites (e.g., Smith and Gehrt 2010;Cox et al 2016;Griffitts 2016;Silvis et al 2016;Burns et al 2019;Blanco and Garrie 2020;Smith et al 2020).…”

Section: Bat Responses To Burned Versus Unburned Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the western USA, prescribed fires are often conducted during spring or early summer. Spring and fall are also typical times for prescribed fires in southern Australia (McCaw 2013), while prescribed burns are mostly conducted in the early or late dry season in northern Australia (Broken-Brow et al 2020). Prescribed fire seasons often do not coincide with the historical fire season due to operational considerations as well as concerns about the direct and indirect effects on wildlife (Knapp et al 2009).…”

Section: Effects Of Fire Parameters On Bats-burn Seasonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Seasonal differences in bat responses to fire are likely due to timing of fire in relation to bat and prey life cycles as well as intensity of fires in various seasons. For example, in northern Australia, early dry season fires are usually low severity, whereas late dry season fires are usually high severity (Russell- Smith and Edwards 2006;Broken-Brow et al 2020).…”

Section: Effects Of Fire Parameters On Bats-burn Seasonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In tropical northern Australia, two prescribed burn intensities are commonly used by land managers: lowintensity burns, which are generally applied in the early dry season, and high-intensity burns, which are generally applied in the early wet season for weed control (Broken-Brow et al 2020). In a BACI experiment, Broken-Brow et al (2020) found that 2-4 weeks post-fire, edge/open-space foragers respond negatively to highintensity prescribed fires but respond positively to lowintensity fires (Additional file 3).…”

Section: Effects Of Fire Parameters On Bats-burn Severity or Intensitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bats and fire: a global review

Loeb

Blakey

2021

fire ecol

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Background Bats are important components of forested ecosystems and are found in forests worldwide. Consequently, they often interact with fire. Previous reviews of the effects of fire on bats have focused on prescribed fire effects, in part due to the limited number of studies on bat responses to wildfire. However, over the past several years, studies on bat responses to wildfire and prescribed fire have increased considerably. We reviewed this rapidly expanding body of literature to determine whether bats respond differently to prescribed fire and wildfire, and the important factors driving those differences. We also examined regional similarities and differences in bat response to prescribed fire and wildfire and identified areas in need of further research. Results Our review included 52 studies (29 prescribed fire, 23 wildfire) from North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Africa, although studies from Europe, South America, and Africa were limited. In general, we found that bats show positive or neutral responses to prescribed fire, whereas a greater proportion of negative responses were reported for wildfire. However, some of the negative responses to wildfire are short-lived or local, suggesting that bats may be resilient to the effects of fire. Factors such as fire severity, fire frequency, time since last burn, burn extent, season of burn, and pyrodiversity were all found to be important drivers of bats’ responses to both prescribed fire and wildfire. Conclusions The importance of the spatial and temporal aspects of fire suggests that these factors need to be considered when designing future studies and interpreting results. Pyrodiversity may be a particularly important concept to further our understanding of bats’ responses to fire. We found several gaps in our knowledge including lack of information on direct effects of fire (e.g., mortality), regional and taxonomic biases, effects of wildfire on roosting habitat, and the effects of climate change. Although current studies suggest that fire may be an important management tool for improving bat habitat, the threat of more frequent, extensive, and severe wildfires may put additional stress on some bat populations, particularly those being impacted by disease, habitat loss and fragmentation, and climate change.

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Section: Bat Responses To Burned Versus Unburned Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Effects Of Fire Parameters On Bats-burn Seasonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Effects Of Fire Parameters On Bats-burn Seasonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Effects Of Fire Parameters On Bats-burn Severity or Intensitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bats and fire: a global review

Loeb

Blakey

2021

fire ecol

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“…General habitat and environment and their influence on bats in northern Australia are examined by McKenzie et al (2019) and Broken-Brow et al (2019). The first paper indicates that in north-western Australia, bats tend to either be associated with mangrove forests or with more landward-based locations.…”

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confidence: 99%

Bat research in Australasia – in memory of Les Hall

2019

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Bats in the megafire: assessing species’ site use in a postfire landscape in the Sierra Nevada

Mirts

McLaughlin

Weller

et al. 2021

Journal of Mammalogy

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Large high-severity fires are increasing in frequency in many parts of the world, including the coniferous forests of the Sierra Nevada mountains. These “megafires” alter vegetation and environmental conditions in forests, yet their impacts on native wildlife remain poorly understood. Bats play an important role in forest ecosystems, but their responses to megafires likewise are understudied. We investigated bat responses to the King Fire, a megafire that burned nearly 40,000 ha within the Eldorado National Forest in 2014, half of it at high severity. From June to September 2017, we used remote acoustic recorders to survey bats at 26 sites with varying fire severity (unburned, mixed, and high severity). We analyzed data with Royle–Nichols occupancy models to investigate how bat space use was influenced by megafires, and whether this response was driven by prey availability, fire severity, or fire-altered habitat conditions. We calculated prey species richness, biomass, and abundance, from moths sampled with blacklight surveys. Vegetation covariates included tree density, canopy cover, and shrub density, measured along vegetation transects. To capture general effects of fire, we also included fire severity and the percentage of dead trees as potential covariates on space use. Prey variables were highest in unburned forests, were the most common predictors of, and generally had positive effects on bat space use. Responses to tree density and canopy cover varied by species; the most common vegetation covariate, shrub density, had weak positive effects on bat space use. In spite of the varying prey and vegetation conditions across fire severity categories, most bats showed weak to no response in space use to fire severity and tree mortality. We attribute this to the highly mobile nature of bats, which reduces the impact of potentially negative local conditions.

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Effect of fire on insectivorous bat activity in northern Australia: does fire intensity matter on a local scale?

Cited by 9 publications

References 54 publications

Bats and fire: a global review

Bats and fire: a global review

Bat research in Australasia – in memory of Les Hall

Bats in the megafire: assessing species’ site use in a postfire landscape in the Sierra Nevada

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