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Burning for biodiversity: faunal responses to fire in Australian - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Burning for biodiversity: faunal responses to fire in Australian - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Burning for biodiversity: faunal responses to fire in Australian tropical savannas Alan Andersen, John Woinarski and Kate Parr Tropical savanna faunas Tropical savanna faunas Fire in Australias tropical savannas Small mammal decline across
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Tropical savanna faunas
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Fire in Australia’s tropical savannas
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Small mammal decline across the north
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Small mammal decline in Kakadu
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Severe range contraction in the rabbit rat Conilurus penicillatus
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The Kapalga fire experiment
Kakadu National Park
Kilometres 10
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Kilometres 10
The Kapalga fire experiment
Unburnt Annual Early Annual Late
FEB '89 MAY '89 FEB '90 MAY '90 FEB '91 MAY '91 FEB '92 MAY '92 FEB '93 MAY '93 FEB '94 MAY '94 FEB '95 MAY '95
5 10 15 20
PRE-BURN POST- BURN
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Number of species Number affected by fire
11 1 16 5 25 4
The Kapalga fire experiment
Kilometres 10
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- The Kruger long-term fire experiment
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Mopane woodland (450 mm)
Ant diversity in relation to fire at Kruger NP (Parr 2004)
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Acacia savanna (550 mm)
Ant diversity in relation to fire at Kruger NP (Parr 2004)
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Acacia savanna (550 mm)
Ant diversity in relation to fire at Kruger NP (Parr 2004)
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“(Birds) are likely to be robust to all but the most extreme fire
- policies. A hands-off fire policy is unlikely to affect bird communities
negatively”
- M. S. L. Mills (2005), Koedoe
Fire and birds at Kruger
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Fire and biodiversity in tropical savannas
- Biota extremely resilient
- Very limited pyrodiversity
needed
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Small mammal decline across the north
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Kilometres 10
The Kapalga fire experiment
200 400 600 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95
Years Total captures
Early Late Progressive Unburnt
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Rabbit-rat story – experimental translocation
fire
Experimental translocation of rabbit rats
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Rabbit-rat extinction modeling
Fire regime Likelihood of extinction (within 10 years)
No fire 78% Late dry fire every 10 years 89% Late dry fire every 3 years 97% Late dry fire every year 100%
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Fire interactions with other threatening processes
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Fire management for small mammal conservation
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Fire management for small mammal conservation
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Burning for savanna biodiversity: research priorities
- 1. Identifying species with special pyrodiversity requirements
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“My species X does best under fire regime Y, and so the conclusion from my study is that fire regime Y should be implemented”
What species prefer and what species need
FROM:
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“My species X does best under fire regime Y, and so the conclusion from my study is that fire regime Y should be implemented”
What species prefer and what species need
FROM: TO: “What taxa that are under threat at the landscape scale by prevailing fire regimes, and need special management attention?”
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Burning for savanna biodiversity: research priorities
- 1. Identifying species with special pyrodiversity requirements
- 2. Within-fire patchiness
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Burning for savanna biodiversity: research priorities
- 1. Identifying species with special pyrodiversity requirements
- 2. Within-fire patchiness
- 3. Fire/cat interaction and small mammal declines in Australia
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Burning for savanna biodiversity: research priorities
- 1. Identifying species with special pyrodiversity requirements
- 2. Within-fire patchiness
- 3. Fire/cat interaction and small mammal declines in Australia
- 4. Carbon/biodiversity trade-offs