Restoring historical fire regimes increases activity of endangered bats

Torrez, Elizabeth C. Braun de; Ober, Holly K.; McCleery, Robert A.

doi:10.1186/s42408-018-0006-8

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(79 reference statements)

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“…Furthermore, these sites provide roost areas with minimal risk of fire. The use of fire as a habitat management tool is believed to positively impact a wide range of bat species in the southeastern United States [25,27,29,30]. Outside of the southeastern United States, bat response often has focused on the wildfire rather than prescribed fire impacts on foraging activity, bat community structure and loss of habitat [38,84,85].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Depending on the bat species and habitat type therein, bat response to fire management practices generally is neutral to positive in the southeastern United States [23][24][25][26]. Repeatedly burned stands, with reduced overstory clutter and stocking, have increased foraging activity, relative to unburned stands particularly among less maneuverable, larger-bodied bats, or generalist foragers [27][28][29]. This increased forging activity occurs even though arthropod prey biomass, such as Lepidopterans, may decrease temporarily following burning [30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Winter roost selection of Lasiurine tree bats in a pyric landscape

et al. 2021

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Day-roost selection by Lasiurine tree bats during winter and their response to dormant season fires is unknown in the southeastern United States where dormant season burning is widely applied. Although fires historically were predominantly growing season, they now occur in the dormant season in this part of the Coastal Plain to support a myriad of stewardship activities, including habitat management for game species. To examine the response of bats to landscape condition and the application of prescribed fire, in the winter of 2019, we mist-netted and affixed radio-transmitters to 16 Lasiurine bats, primarily Seminole bats (Lasiurus seminolus) at Camp Blanding Joint Training Center in northern Florida. We then located day-roost sites to describe roost attributes. For five Seminole bats, one eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis), and one hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), we applied prescribed burns in the roost area to observe bat response in real-time. Generally, Seminole bats selected day-roosts in mesic forest stands with high mean fire return intervals. At the roost tree scale, Seminole day-roosts tended to be larger, taller and in higher canopy dominance classes than surrounding trees. Seminole bats roosted in longleaf (Pinus palustris), slash (Pinus elliotii) and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) more than expected based on availability, whereas sweetbay (Magnolia virginiana), water oak (Quercus nigra) and turkey oak (Quercus laevis), were roosted in less than expected based on availability. Of the seven roosts subjected to prescribed burns, only one male Seminole bat and one male eastern red bat evacuated during or immediately following burning. In both cases, these bats had day-roosted at heights lower than the majority of other day-roosts observed during our study. Our results suggest Seminole bats choose winter day-roosts that both maximize solar exposure and minimize risks associated with fire. Nonetheless, because selected day-roosts largely were fire-dependent or tolerant tree species, application of fire does need to periodically occur to promote recruitment and retention of suitable roost sites.

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Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Winter roost selection of Lasiurine tree bats in a pyric landscape

et al. 2021

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“…3 Examples of studies from various regions and fire types (wildfire and prescribed fire) that have directly examined the spatial (top) and temporal (bottom) components of the relationship between bats and fire for sites burned during the cool, dry season (January-March), activity is higher in sites burned at low frequencies than at moderate frequencies. As discussed below, the most effective burn schedules for managing bat foraging habitat in an area may be those that best mimic the historical fire regime, which in south Florida is the early wet season based on burn seasons prior to European colonization (Braun de Torrez et al 2018b). Starbuck et al (2015) also found a positive relationship between evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis) (Rafinesque) habitat use and frequency of prescribed fires but found neutral effects for all other species analyzed (Additional file 3).…”

Section: Bat Responses To Burned Versus Unburned Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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). However, E. floridanus respond most favorably to prescribed fires conducted during the historical season which is April to June (early wet season) (Braun de Torrez et al 2018b). In the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee, foraging activity of several species is greater in sites that are burned in the spring compared to the fall but amount of thinning is also a factor (Cox et al 2016).…”

Section: Effects Of Fire Parameters On Bats-burn Seasonmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…Prescribed fire programs, an important component of this national strategy, attempt to restore historical fire regimes while potentially reducing the risk of large, high-severity wildfires (Ryan et al 2013;Schultz et al 2019). Balancing the risk of fire to human health and safety with the necessary role that fire plays in many ecosystems (Braun de Torrez et al 2018;Wiesner et al 2019;Kramer et al 2021) requires improved data on contemporary fire history metrics. However, while national, fire-related datasets such as burned area (Hawbaker et al 2020a), wildfire risk to populations (Scott et al 2020), and divergence from historical fire regime (Blankenship et al 2021) datasets are all available, contemporary, national fire history metrics, or a series of measures that help characterise the contemporary fire regimes and time since last burn,…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contemporary (1984–2020) fire history metrics for the conterminous United States and ecoregional differences by land ownership

Vanderhoof

Hawbaker

Teske

et al. 2022

Int. J. Wildland Fire

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Background. Remotely sensed burned area products are critical to support fire modelling, policy, and management but often require further processing before use. Aim. We calculated fire history metrics from the Landsat Burned Area Product across the conterminous U.S. (CONUS) including (1) fire frequency, (2) time since last burn (TSLB), (3) year of last burn, (4) longest fire-free interval, (5) average fire interval length, and (6) contemporary fire return interval (cFRI). Methods. Metrics were summarised by ecoregion and land ownership, and related to historical and cheatgrass datasets to demonstrate further applications of the products. Key results. The proportion burned ranged from 0.7% in the Northeast Mixed Woods to 74.1% in the Kansas Flint Hills. The Flint Hills and Temperate Prairies showed the highest burn frequency, while the Flint Hills and the Sierra Nevada and Klamath Mountains showed the shortest TSLB. Compared to private, public land had greater burned area (19 of 31 ecoregions) and shorter cFRI (25 of 31 ecoregions). Conclusions. Contemporary fire history metrics can help characterise recent fire regimes across CONUS. Implications. In regions with frequent fire, comparison of contemporary with target fire regimes or invasive species datasets enables the efficient incorporation of burned area data into decision-making.

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Restoring historical fire regimes increases activity of endangered bats

Cited by 15 publications

References 54 publications

Winter roost selection of Lasiurine tree bats in a pyric landscape

Winter roost selection of Lasiurine tree bats in a pyric landscape

Bats and fire: a global review

Contemporary (1984–2020) fire history metrics for the conterminous United States and ecoregional differences by land ownership

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