Combining optimization and simulation modelling to measure the cumulative impacts of prescribed fire and wildfire on vegetation species diversity

Abstract

Growth-stage optimization (GSO) offers a new approach to biodiversity conservation in fire-prone regions by estimating the optimal distribution of vegetation growth stages that maximize a species diversity index. This optimal growth-stage structure provides managers an operational goal explicitly linked to a positive conservation outcome but does not define the fire regime needed to achieve it. We paired GSO with LANDIS II, a landscape succession and disturbance simulation model, to (a) estimate the optimal growth-stage structure that maximized vegetation diversity in a south-east Australian heathy woodland, (b) define the fire regime needed to achieve it, and (c) determine the cumulative ef..