Welcome to the Pyrocene: animal survival in the age of megafire

Nimmo, Dale G.; Carthey, Alexandra J. R.; Jolly, Chris J.; Blumstein, Daniel T.

doi:10.32942/osf.io/46zgd

Cited by 15 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Fire has shaped life on Earth for hundreds of millions of years, modifying ecosystems (Pausas & Keeley, 2021), affecting evolutionary processes (Nimmo et al., 2021; Pausas & Parr, 2018), and altering species distributions (Archibald et al., 2018; He et al., 2019). Although humans have long influenced fire regimes (Bowman et al., 2011; Ellis et al., 2021), recent human‐induced change is rapidly altering fire activity across the globe (Andela et al., 2017; Bowman et al., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What do you mean, ‘megafire’?

Linley

Jolly

Doherty

et al. 2022

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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Background: 'Megafire' is an emerging concept commonly used to describe fires that are extreme in terms of size, behaviour, and/or impacts, but the term's meaning remains ambiguous. Approach:We sought to resolve ambiguity surrounding the meaning of 'megafire' by conducting a structured review of the use and definition of the term in several languages in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. We collated definitions and descriptions of megafire and identified criteria frequently invoked to define megafire.We recorded the size and location of megafires and mapped them to reveal global variation in the size of fires described as megafires. Results:We identified 109 studies that define the term 'megafire' or identify a megafire, with the term first appearing in the peer-reviewed literature in 2005. Seventyone (~65%) of these studies attempted to describe or define the term. There was considerable variability in the criteria used to define megafire, although definitions of megafire based on fire size were most common. Megafire size thresholds varied geographically from > 100-100,000 ha, with fires > 10,000 ha the most common size threshold (41%, 18/44 studies). Definitions of megafire were most common from studies led by authors from North America (52%, 37/71). We recorded 137 instances from 84 studies where fires were reported as megafires, the vast majority (94%, 129/137) of which exceed 10,000 ha in size. Megafires occurred in a range of biomes, but were most frequently described in forested biomes (112/137, 82%), and usually described single ignition fires (59% 81/137). Conclusion:As Earth's climate and ecosystems change, it is important that scientists can communicate trends in the occurrence of larger and more extreme fires with clarity. To overcome ambiguity, we suggest a definition of megafire as fires > 10,000 ha arising from single or multiple related ignition events. We introduce two additional terms -gigafire (> 100,000 ha) and terafire (> 1,000,000 ha) -for fires of an even larger scale than megafires.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What do you mean, ‘megafire’?

Linley

Jolly

Doherty

et al. 2022

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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“…Globally, fire is spreading into ecosystems where it was not common previously, such as some rainforests and tundra vegetation (McCarty, Smith & Turetsky, 2020; Armenteras et al ., 2021; Godfree et al ., 2021), and prey species there are likely to be naïve to the interaction between predators and fire (Nimmo et al ., 2021). Although untested, post‐fire predation on naïve prey may inflict unsustainable levels of mortality, thus hampering population recovery post‐fire.…”

Section: Conservation and Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While fire clearly influences the behaviour and population dynamics of both predators and prey, the consequences for predator–prey interactions remain poorly understood and have not been synthesised. Knowledge of how fire affects hunting and foraging behaviour, predation rates, physiology, and population dynamics will help answer fundamental questions about how and why some species, but not others, persist in burnt landscapes (Pausas & Parr, 2018; Stawski & Doty, 2019; Nimmo et al ., 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…These fires produced record breaking pyrogenic carbon emissions (Ponomarev et al, 2021;van der Velde et al, 2021) and raised concerns for the populations of a multitude of species and ecosystems (Nimmo et al, 2021;Pickrell & Pennisi, 2020). Moreover, during the year 2020, the spread of COVID-19 contributed to the formation of compound events (Zaitchik et al, 2022), with the lockdown in some cases leading to the increase (Amador-Jiménez et al, 2020) or decrease in fire occurrence (Paudel, 2021;Poulter et al, 2021).…”

Section: 02 0 : a Ye Ar Of Meg Afire Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing threat of wildfires: the year 2020 in perspective: A Global Ecology and Biogeography special issue

Nolan

Anderson

Poulter

et al. 2022

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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Aim: Each year, wild and managed fires burn roughly 4 million km 2 [~400 million hectares (Mha)] of savanna, forest, grassland and agricultural ecosystems. Land use and climate change have altered fire regimes throughout the world, with a trend toward higher-severity fires found from Australia, the Americas, Europe and Asia, to the Arctic.In 2020, there were notable catastrophic fires in Australia (in the 2019/20 Austral fire season), the Western United States, South America and Siberia. These fires defined much of the global fire year and were compounded by the socio-economic disruption of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Location: Global.Time period: 2020.Major taxa studied: Flora and fauna. Methods:The Global Ecology and Biogeography special issue, 'Increasing threat of wildfires: the year 2020 in perspective', includes 18 papers that catalogue these fire events, their drivers and their impacts on flora and fauna.Results: Collectively, these papers highlight the importance of fire response traits, exposure and sensitivity to interacting threats in determining fire impacts. Main conclusions:The scale of the 2020 megafires has helped identify new research areas required to more comprehensively assess fire impacts on biodiversity and biogeochemistry and to inform ecosystem management.

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Welcome to the Pyrocene: animal survival in the age of megafire

Cited by 15 publications

References 52 publications

What do you mean, ‘megafire’?

What do you mean, ‘megafire’?

Fire as a driver and mediator of predator–prey interactions

Increasing threat of wildfires: the year 2020 in perspective: A Global Ecology and Biogeography special issue

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