Fire regimes and biodiversity conservation in the Murray Mallee region

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:15:32 +0000

Fire is a major process that shapes the composition and structure of Mallee ecosystems. Ecological burning is commonly used as a management tool in the Murray Mallee to create a diversity of post-fire age-classes, promote patchiness during wildfire and to prevent large, intense fires that homogenise the landscape. Fire management is increasingly focused on maintaining heterogenous fire mosaics of differing fire history under the assumption that ‘pyrodiversity begets biodiversity’. This project aims to identify the properties of fire mosaics that enhance the persistence and status of native mammals in eucalypt-dominated mallee ecosystems.

IDs and People

Program:

Innovation

Program Theme:

PhD Students

Research Type:

PhD Student

LWA Project Code:

002312

Host Organisation:

Deakin University

Researchers:

Luke Kelly

Subjects

Subjects:

Biodiversity

Conservation

Keywords:

Fire

Murray Mallee

Project Information

Summary:

Fire is a major process that shapes the composition and structure of ecosystems across Australia. It is also an important tool available to manage faunal communities to achieve conservation goals. Fire management is increasingly focused on managing landscapes to maintain ‘fire mosaics’ comprising spatially heterogeneous patches of differing fire history and post-fire age. However, there is little empirical data available to guide the creation of mosaics that enhance conservation efforts. How many age classes are required? What percentage of each age class is essential? This research aims to identify the properties of fire mosaics that enhance the persistence and status of small mammals in eucalypt-dominated vegetation in the Murray Mallee region. It employs a novel landscape-scale study design to investigate the influence of fire mosaic properties on the ecosystem. In particular, this project is interested in how the diversity of post-fire age classes, the extent of long-unburnt mallee and the temporal fire history of landscapes influence small mammal distribution. This research is part of a large collaborative project: the Mallee Fire and Biodiversity Project. It aims to identify the properties of fire mosaics that enhance the persistence of a broad range of taxonomic groups in mallee environments including: mammals, birds, reptiles, invertebrates and plants.

Current Activities

Status:

Active

Fire, fragmentation and small mammals; synergistic impacts on ecosystem dynamics

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:07:44 +0000

There is currently an important and unique opportunity to examine this question in some detail in southwestern Australia by using a mixture of natural and targeted experiementation. A series of sites is available within which native mammal populations have been reintroduced or have increased recently due to predator control. There are also sites that have been subjected to either no fire or known fire treatments in the recent past, and also areas that are likely to be burned in the near future. We propose to use this range of opportunities to develop an understanding of how fire and native mammal grazing interact to affect composition and structure and hence impact on the future success of biodiversity conservation in fragmented systems.

IDs and People

Program:

Innovation

Program Theme:

PhD Students

Research Type:

PhD Student

LWA Project Code:

2249

Host Organisation:

Murdoch University

Researchers:

Kellie Maher

Subjects

Subjects:

Biodiversity

Conservation

Keywords:

Fire

Ecosystem

fragmentation

small mammals

Project Information

Summary:

Fire, fragmentation and small mammals; synergistic impacts on ecosystem dynamics

Current Activities

Status:

Pending

All in Fire

Fire regimes and biodiversity conservation in the Murray Mallee region

Fire, fragmentation and small mammals; synergistic impacts on ecosystem dynamics