Historical survey of research related to fire management and fauna conservation in the world and in Brazil

Abstract

Fire is a key ecological factor affecting biodiversity structure and composition. Fires' effects on biodiversity can be beneficial or harmful depending on how, where, when, and why they occur. The impacts of fire on fauna vary according to species ecology and the fire regime. To understand the research effort relating fire, fauna, and mammals, we surveyed papers published in World and in Brazil. Only 5% of the publications between 1970 and 2019 with fire subject dealt with fauna and 0.5% with mammal. For Brazil, we obtained 7% of papers for fauna and 3% for mammal. The Brazilian Biome with more papers was Cerrado, followed by Atlantic Forest, Amazon, Pampas, Caatinga and Pantanal. The United States of America and Australia stand out as protagonists in their continents with the largest papers number. The volume of research is related to investment in Research and Development and to occurrence of fires. The slope of temporal trend shows the terms related to wildfire have more papers than prescribed burn and there is less interest in fauna and mammal research. It is necessary to form research groups with these themes as research lines and intensify research relating fire ecology and mammals. There is yet no unified understanding of how fire may influence animal diversity and how it influences the vegetative structure and subsequently the resources which wildlife rely on. We consider this information is essential to establish efficient conservation policies.

Drivers of functional diversity in small-bodied mammals across a deforestation frontier in the Southern Brazilian Amazon

“…Furthermore, functional diversity was also marginally affected by the intensity of previous re events in the forest fragment, implying that the effect of re has a particular effect on species harbouring certain traits. Overall, natural res are known to induce changes in the small mammal assemblages (Briani et al 2004), with wild res generally having negative effects upon species diversity (Mendes-Oliveira et al 2012 but see Berlinck et al 2021). In a global review, body size and habitat preference were most important in explaining variation in small mammal species' responses to re (Gri ths and Brook 2014).…”

Neotropical mammal responses to megafires in the Brazilian Pantanal

“…The fires killed an estimated 17 million vertebrates in just a few months (Tomas et al., 2021). However, impacts have largely been described in individuals killed and vegetation impacts (Berlinck et al., 2021), leaving little knowledge of post‐fire impacts on habitat use and species distribution.…”

Forest type modulates mammalian responses to megafires

“…Large unburnt areas are paramount to preserve vertebrate diversity in ecosystems subject to wildfires 21 , especially in less rugged lowlands 20 . Nonetheless, the impacts of wildfires on Brazilian biodiversity are still poorly known 22 , especially on the fauna, preventing our better understanding of large-scale cumulative effects on ecosystem functioning and provision of ecosystem services 13 .…”