How do heterogeneity in vegetation types and post-fire age-classes contribute to plant diversity at the landscape scale?

Abstract

Heterogeneity in environmental factors (e.g. soils) and disturbances (e.g. fire) are important drivers of plant diversity but the relative strength of their effects may be scale dependent. Given that fire regimes are often manipulated to maintain plant diversity at the landscape scale, detecting and disentangling fire from environmental effects at this scale is important. In SE Australia prescribed burning and wildfires have created mosaics of post-fire age-classes in vegetation ranging from moist forests to sclerophyllous heathlands along a gradient of decreasing productivity (rainfall and soil fertility). This provided us with an opportunity to investigate the effects of both environmental..