Managing fire, flora and fauna in fire-prone ecosystems

Fire is a key driver of change in ecosystems throughout the world.

As the interface between human settlement and wild lands increases, and with climate change predicted to cause more frequent severe wildfires, there is an increasing need to manage the landscape for the consequences of fire.

Fire affects species and, consequently, ecosystems differently depending on their fire-response strategy and the environmental context.

For fire management to achieve good conservation outcomes, we must understand these differences.

To ensure this projects success, we will be using:

  • ecological modelling
  • historical records
  • previous field studies

The projects aims to advance our understanding of how fire, climate and the environment drive the distributions of plant and animal species in some of the world’s most fire-prone ecosystems.

A key outcome of this project will be an understanding how the relative importance of fire in driving species distributions differs between ecosystems and taxa (particularly birds and plants).

Project partners

  • Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment
  • La Trobe University
  • University of Melbourne
  • Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning