Abstract
Wildfire is an important ecological process that influences species’ occurrence and biodiversity generally. Its effect on bats is understudied, creating challenges for habitat management and species conservation as threats to the taxa worsen globally and within fire-prone ecosystems. We conducted acoustic surveys of wildfire areas during 2014–2017 in conifer forests of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. We tested effects of burn severity and its variation, or pyrodiversity, on occupancy and diversity for the 17-species bat community while accounting for imperfect detection. Occupancy rates increased with severity for at least 6 species and with pyrodiversity for at least 3. Two other species responded negatively to pyrodiversity. Individual species models predicted maximum occupancy rates across burn severity levels but only one species occurred most often in undisturbed areas. Species richness increased from approximately 8 species in unburned forests to 11 in pyrodiverse areas with moderate- to high-severity. Greater accessibility of foraging habitats, as well as increased habitat heterogeneity may explain positive responses to wildfire. Many bat species appear well adapted to wildfire, while a century of fire suppression and forest densification likely reduced habitat quality for the community generally. Relative to other taxa, bats may be somewhat resilient to increases in fire severity and size; trends which are expected to continue with accelerating climate change.
Highlights
Wildfire is an important ecological process that influences species’ occurrence and biodiversity generally
The region is characterized by yellow pine and mixed-conifer forests interspersed with chaparral, meadows, and riparian areas[26]
Modeled occupancy and detection rates varied greatly among the 17 bat species that occur in the Sierra Nevada of California
Summary
Wildfire is an important ecological process that influences species’ occurrence and biodiversity generally. Frequent wildfire in the dry forests of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains burned primarily at lowand moderate-severities[4,9,10], creating a mix of vegetation types and successional stages[11] This pyrodiversity, may have helped maintain biodiversity in the region historically[5]. Species with short duration calls and small body size relative to wing area are tolerant of cluttered environments, whereas longer duration, low-frequency calls, and relatively large bodied species are more associated with open environments[6,25] Such variation in habitat associations leads to the expectation that wildfire severity would have idiosyncratic effects on occurrence among species, and that more pyrodiverse landscapes would promote higher community diversity
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