Species distribution models for conservation planning in fire‐prone landscapes

Abstract

Species distribution models are an essential tool for biodiversity conservation, with important applications such as spatial prioritisation of conservation actions and elucidating relationships between environmental predictors and species responses. These models are most useful to conservation managers when they include factors that can be readily manipulated, such as fire. In this study, we collated a comprehensive dataset of mammal records from a fire-prone region in south-east Australia where mammals have suffered declines in recent decades. We used species distribution modelling to (1) determine the relative influence of climate, fire, vegetation and topography on ground-dwelling mammal ..