Australian researchers say Australia's threatened species are suffering widespread habitat loss due to frequent fires and a decline in unburned areas, and the new study shows that Australia's endangered species are facing widespread habitat loss in fire-prone landscapes. They say it highlights the dire situation of endangered species.
The study examined fire patterns across southern Australia from 1980 to 2021 across 415 protected areas (21.5m hectares) that are home to 129 endangered bird, mammal, reptile and frog species.
They found that fire frequency increased by 32% and the area of unburned vegetation decreased from 61% to 36%.
Unburnt vegetation, especially long-term unburned vegetation and old plants, is recognized as important habitat for animal species in fire-prone landscapes.
These areas often contain tree cavities, fallen trees, and other complex structures for animals to hide, breed, move around, and feed.
Associate Professor Diana Fisher from the University of Queensland, who was not involved in the study, told the Australian Science Media Center: “Many animals in Australia and around the world live in fire-sensitive old growth and mountainous areas. “They need habitat.”
The results show that the most severe impacts of these widespread changes will be felt in regions with high elevations, high environmental productivity, and significant reductions in precipitation.
Fisher added that animals living in these areas “will decline more rapidly due to increased droughts and subsequent fires due to climate change.”
“Upland species are already under threat from other mechanisms of climate change, as many species are physically unable to tolerate heat and the range of suitable cool, moist habitats is expanding. , its distribution rapidly decreases and eventually disappears.
This study renews the debate about best practices for fire management, but does not provide concrete solutions. This is a matter for future research.
But Associate Professor Brett Murphy from Charles Darwin University said: “These alarming findings present a management challenge for Australia's fire managers.”
“One of the most important tools used by fire managers (including reserves) is intentional burning under mild fire weather conditions (also known as prescribed burning or hazard reduction burning),” he says. says.
Although large-scale prescribed burning helps reduce the intensity of wildfires, the area burned tends to increase each year, resulting in , the amount of areas that have not been burned for a long time decreases.
“We will need new fire management approaches that go beyond large-scale prescribed burning and specifically target conservation of habitat that has not been burned for long periods of time,” he added.
Conservation experts such as Deakin University's Professor Euan Ritchie seem to agree that the findings highlight the need to consider changes to prescribed burning and fire management policies.
One common practice in particular should be questioned, he says. “‘Cleanup’ burns – Managers often target and burn unburned areas after wildfires or prescribed burns as a means to reduce the risk of future fires. – Increasingly scrutinized and reduced need to do it.”
Forest ecology expert Associate Professor Grant Wardell-Johnson from Curtin University echoed these sentiments, adding that the conservation philosophy was “scientifically outdated” and “in urgent need of correction”. Ta.
He suggested focusing on developing overstory shelters (the top layer of leaves in the forest) in eucalyptus forests to protect against fires.
Developing upper-story shelters “reduces the severity and likelihood of forest fires,” Wardell-Johnson said, and in areas that understand this theory, they are more likely to receive fires than if their forests had burned in the past three years. , added that vegetation that remained unburned for a longer period of time experienced fewer severe forest fires. .
Dr Sanjeev Kumar Srivastava from the University of the Sunshine Coast added that patchy mosaic burning could also be a more viable alternative. Managers would then be able to maintain patches of burned and unfired areas, rather than trying to control large unfired areas, which can lead to high intensities. and a large-scale fire.
Overall, the findings highlight the balance fire managers must maintain to ensure the safety of residents and a healthy environment, which is becoming increasingly difficult due to climate change.
Professor Jason Sharples, a bushfire scientist in Canberra, New South Wales, said the findings were consistent with similar studies in other fire-prone regions of the world and the impact climate change is having on bushfire regimes. He said that it highlights the
“Anthropogenic climate change has long been expected to shift wildfire regimes toward more frequent and extreme fire events in many regions of the globe, including southern Australia, and this study This is further evidence that these changes are already underway.”
