Ecosystem type and species’ traits help explain bird responses to spatial patterns of fire

Abstract

Background: Understanding how temporal and spatial attributes of fire regimes, environmental conditions, and species’ traits interact to shape ecological communities will help improve biodiversity conservation in fire-affected areas. We compared the influence of time since the last fire at a site, and the area and diversity of post-fire successional vegetation surrounding a site (i.e., the “spatial context” of fire), on bird species and functional groups in two ecosystems in south-eastern Australia. These ecosystems, semi-arid “mallee” woodlands and temperate “foothill” forests, differ in stand-regeneration patterns, climate, and topography. For 22 bird species in mallee woodlands, 33 specie..