Abstract
BackgroundA fire management strategy of deliberate patch-mosaic burning (PMB) is postulated to promote biodiversity by providing a range of habitat patches with different fire histories, habitat qualities, and vegetation ages at a given scale. We investigated the response of avian fauna to fire, particularly species richness and community composition, in a landscape composed of a diversity of vegetation ages including long-unburned refuges (age 26 years), compared with a landscape of uniform vegetation ages recovering from an extensive and intense fire.ResultsThere was no effect of heterogeneity in vegetation age on species richness at whole forest management block (about 6000 ha), or local (2 ha) scales. There were different responses of particular species to vegetation age. Nine species showed responses to vegetation age at local (2 ha) scales, which is presumably a surrogate for availability of key resources and which changes over time. Australian Pipit (Anthus australis Vieillot, 1818) were absent from swamp vegetation <3.5 years old, while Spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus Shaw & Nodder, 1792) were only found in forest vegetation <3.5 years old. Year-to-year changes in local assemblages were detected after removing the effect of time since fire. There was no difference in effect of the two fire regimes on assemblage composition or feeding-guild structure.ConclusionsMosaics of different vegetation ages had no net benefit for biodiversity, as measured by species richness and assemblage composition, at the forest block management unit scale. Different responses to vegetation age among bird species did not lead to increased bird richness at the scale of forest management block. A potential advantage of mosaics in conservation of avian biodiversity is through preservation of patches of older vegetation ages in the landscape, compared to the periodic extensive loss of older vegetation ages in wildfires. However, the absence of large-scale effects of vegetation age on bird species richness, the tendency for birds to specialize to fuel ages >5.5 years in the landscape studied, and indications of flexible responses of some species at landscape scales allows some flexibility in fuel management strategies and the scale at which they are applied with respect to avifauna.
Highlights
A fire management strategy of deliberate patch-mosaic burning (PMB) is postulated to promote biodiversity by providing a range of habitat patches with different fire histories, habitat qualities, and vegetation ages at a given scale
We considered the effects of the different fire regimes on local species richness at 2-hectare sample points, as well as species richness at the scale of forest blocks across ~6000 ha
We considered the implications of responses of individual bird species, feeding and nesting guilds, species richness, and assemblage composition to vegetation age and heterogeneity in vegetation age with respect to fire planning and management
Summary
A fire management strategy of deliberate patch-mosaic burning (PMB) is postulated to promote biodiversity by providing a range of habitat patches with different fire histories, habitat qualities, and vegetation ages at a given scale. A fire management strategy of deliberate patch-mosaic burning (PMB) was postulated to promote biodiversity by providing a range of habitat patches with different fire histories, habitat qualities, and seral stages at a given scale (Parr and Andersen 2006; Burrows 2008). The consequences to biological diversity of the scale and frequency of catastrophic events are outlined by the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis (Connell 1978). According to this hypothesis, highest diversity is maintained at intermediate scales of disturbance. Unburned patches provide refuges during and after fire, retain propagule sources, and provide stepping stones for recolonization of burned areas after fire (Robinson et al 2013; Sitters et al 2015)
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