A field test of mechanisms underpinning animal diversity in recently burned landscapes

1. Planned burning generates different types of pyrodiversity, however, experimental tests of how alternative spatial patterns of burning influence animal communities remain rare. Field tests are needed to understand the mechanisms through which spatial variation in planned fire affects fauna, and how fire can be applied to benefit biodiversity.
2. We tested five hypotheses of how fire-driven variation in habitat composition and configuration affects fauna at fine scales. Small mammal, reptile and invasive predator activity was monitored at 12 burnt and eight unburnt sites through the year following a large, planned burn in semi-arid ‘mallee’ woodlands of southern Australia. We explored measures of burnt or unburnt habitat (“habitat status”); amount of unburnt vegetation (“habitat amount”); interspersion of burnt and unburnt patches (“habitat complementation”); distance to external or internal unburnt vegetation (“habitat connectivity”); and unburnt patch size and local vegetation cover...