Journal article
Fire Mosaics and Reptile Conservation in a Fire-Prone Region
DG Nimmo, LT Kelly, LM Spence-Bailey, SJ Watson, RS Taylor, MF Clarke, AF Bennett
Conservation Biology | Published : 2013
Abstract
Fire influences the distribution of fauna in terrestrial biomes throughout the world. Use of fire to achieve a mosaic of vegetation in different stages of succession after burning (i.e., patch-mosaic burning) is a dominant conservation practice in many regions. Despite this, knowledge of how the spatial attributes of vegetation mosaics created by fire affect fauna is extremely scarce, and it is unclear what kind of mosaic land managers should aim to achieve. We selected 28 landscapes (each 12.6 km2) that varied in the spatial extent and diversity of vegetation succession after fire in a 104,000 km2 area in the semiarid region of southeastern Australia. We surveyed for reptiles at 280 sites n..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We thank the following agencies for funding: Parks Victoria, Department of Sustainability and Environment (Victoria); Mallee Catchment Management Authority, New South Wales (NSW) National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Environment and Climate Change (NSW); Lower Murray Darling Catchment Management Authority, Department for Environment and Natural Resources (South Australia); Land and Water Australia, Natural Heritage Trust, Birds Australia (Gluepot Reserve); Australian Wildlife Conservancy (Scotia Sanctuary); and the Murray Mallee Partnership. We also thank A. Haslem, S. Avitabile, L. Brown, K. Callister, and S. Kenny and many volunteers who helped collect data. The data were collected with approval from animal ethics committees at La Trobe University (approval number AEC06/07[L]V2) and Deakin University (approval number A41/2006), and permits from the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria (permit 10003791), the Department of Environment and Heritage, South Australia (permit 13/2006), and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NSW (license number S12030).