Fire, landscape change and models of small mammal habitat suitability at multiple spatial scales

Abstract

Fire is an important process in many ecosystems, but inappropriate fire regimes can adversely affect biodiversity. We identified a naturally flammable heathy woodland ecosystem where the use of planned fire had increased the extent of older vegetation, and quantified the abundance of two small native mammals in this landscape (silky mouse Pseudomys apodemoides and heath rat P. shortridgei). We defined four time-since-fire (TSF) categories representing a 2- to 55-year post-fire sequence and, on the basis of a habitat accommodation model, predicted that both species would select younger age-classes over older ones. We also predicted that (i) much of the variance in vegetation structure would r..